Teachers: Why are you so pissed?

Here's why I am.

My reply to a poster in a "group" ( only the initiated see group postings; I want EVERYONE to see mine.)

Poster had asked why parents were unsympathetic to teachers. I said mine weren't and.........


Truth be told: they're not *enough* on our case. I'm in special ed so the dynamic may be different here than with most educators.

But I wish they'd insist on being MORE involved.

They want their kid to make progress and *I* want their kid to make progress. That's a powerful confluence of interests. We are... or should be.... natural allies.

What's the problem then?

The problem is as follows:

Mandates, rubrics, alternate assessment bureaucracy, redundant assessments of all varieties, crazy-ass mandated online curricula, crazy-ass scripted curricula, money paid under the table to ensure adoption of the foregoing, district administrators, school-based administrators, corporate $$$chool "reform", professional memo-writers, principals who fail to see that required services are delivered to handicapped students, contracts with elevator repair corporations who never quite manage to fix the elevator so that they keep getting called back to the tune of "mucho dinero", anti-unionism, half-baked teacher evaluation $cheme$, Arne Duncan, the idiotic insistence on micromanaging every aspect of classroom instruction ( including where one stands and where and when one moves) Bill Gates and predatory philanthropy, administrators who come to school late every day and leave early, economically comfy DEM politicians who enable all of the above but who can afford to send their kids to private schools where *none* of the foregoing goes on.

I could continue. You get the picture I hope. Boy.... that felt good.

Add to Journal Self-delete Edit

I do believe I'll add it to my journal. " 'Why'... I said to myself.... not' ". ( 10 point bonus for ID-ing that quote!)