A Teacher From Upstate NY Explains Why She is Leaving the Profession She Loves

Judi M. Carter Martin
 I'm retiring early. I started teaching later in life and LOVED LOVED LOVED it! Until now. We are taking a huge cut in pay by my retiring, and I still want to work, but I'm not a statistician, my kids aren't little data pieces, and New York is trying to tell me how to each and even what words to say when I teach. I'm done, sadly. This is my 23rd year of teaching, 9 in Iowa, and 14 in upstate New York. I saw some former beloved students yesterday, my husband was watching my interactions with them, and he asked me afterward if I really wanted to retire - that I was just such a natural with these kids. I said that's true, but these were kids from BEFORE - from the time when I was allowed to teach and be creative and the kids enjoyed the classroom. And he said he knows

The Notorious Phd "Activists Curriculum!" Take That Common CORE!!!

One of these days, I am going to write an "Activists Curriculum" which will show how students can learn more organizing protests than they can sitting at a desk in school trying to memorize material.

Writing Skills Component

A. Drafting Leaflets
B. Writing Petitions
C. Developing Press Releases
D. Producing Position Papers for Legislative Hearings

Public Speaking Component

A. Speaking at Rallies
B. Testifying at Hearings
C. Answering Questions At Press Conferences
D. Giving Lectures to School And Community Groups
E. Holding Small Group Seminars That Develop Positions on Issues

Research Component

A. Reviewing Legislation that Reflects on the Issues you are Organizing Around
B. Looking up Arguments on Various Sides of the Issues You Address
C. Reading books and Articles Which Help You Understand the Issues in More Depth

Social Media Component

A. Create A Facebook Page for your Movement
B. Develop Your Own Blog
C. Use Twitter to Communicate With People in Your Movement


Physical Education Component

A. Marching Through the Streets In Support of the Issues You Are Fighting For
B. Climbing Up the Steps of State Houses and City Halls to Speak to Officials
C. (Optional) Running Away from Police When they Try to Break Up Your Protest!

I guarantee you learn more from this Curriculum than studying for any test!!!

Don't Underestimate the Creativity of Young People- A Hip Hop Story

Today in the United States, a soul crushing regime of testing and zero tolerance discipline policies is descending on the nation's public schools. Students from pre-K up are being tested and evaluated with great regularity to make them "college and career ready," at the expense of things they love like art and music and school trips,  and their natural impulses to play and dream and rebel are being met with extreme punitive measures ranging from docking kindergartners from  shaking their butt at a fellow student to arresting a high school student for wearing a hat in the hall.  The people developing these policies claim they are doing this to turn America's youth into a globally competitive labor force, but whether or not that is their goal ( some think this is just a profit grab for test and technology companies!) the result is that America's young people are increasingly facing schools that are turning into grim and joyless places where disciplining students and breaking their spirits seem to be more important than inspiring them with a love of learning.

Parents and teachers are legitimately fearful that a whole generation of the nation's youth will be crushed by these measures. And they are right to be both indignant and alarmed.   But the students who are the targets of these policies may be less malleable than the power that be think!  The students test boycotts and marches currently taking place in Chicago and Philadelphia are a sign of emerging student resistance, but if history is any guide that resistance is likely to get much much broader and take forms that no one could predict.

I want to tell a little story that illustrates why it is never wise to underestimate young people's creativity. It might have a few lessons for us today.

The scene is the Bronx in the early and mid 70's. Young people there are living in communities that have been abandoned by government and private capital. Landlords are abandoning their building and torching them for the insurance money   Fire houses are closing while neighborhoods are burning. The parks budget has been cut in half, and the great after school programs that were once the pride of NYC public schools have been shut down. 

 But one of the worst things that happening was the shutting down of the great music programs in NYC middle schools and high schools. For two generations, young people who made the band or orchestra in junior high could take home musical instruments to practice, and got instruction from teachers who were themselves great musicians. Now those instruments were locked in school basements, and the music teachers fired or reassigned to other jobs. Young people in the Bronx whose parents or older siblings had become great jazz, or salsa, or rhythm and blues musicians  were now denied the same training. There were fears that the music might shut down entirely

 But the young people of the Bronx surprised the world. Denied the opportunity to learn to play instruments, they created a new form of music using two turn tables and a mixer that would revolutionize the world! Starting in community centers of housing projects DJ's, many of them from West Indian origins, figured out how to take the most percussive instrumental sections of records and have them blend seamlessly into one another for 10-15 straight minutes, creating hyper-danceable tracks that droves Bronx young people wild. Then, taking advantage of  over taxed police forces, they took their parties into parks and schoolyards getting electricity from the bottom of lamp posts. Soon, there were competing parties all over the Bronx and DJ's launched another innovation- getting poetically gifted young people to rhyme over the beats!   Before you knew it the sheer brilliance of these young people had spawned new dance styles representing a mixture of martial arts, and the moves of great Latin dancers and James Brown!  The word soon spread to Harlem and Brooklyn and the punk scene in Lower Manhattan and that global phenomenon known as Hip Hop was born.

 Created by young people who the rest of the world had abandoned and written off.

 Today, things may seem grim in our schools today. but be prepared to be surprised again.  Young people will not be silenced and their natural creativity will NOT be erased

The Culture of Suspicion in America's Schools.

Because children do not dream of becoming obedient workers for America's largest corporations, a culture of suspicion now dominates American education. From Pre-K on, educators are being asked to identifying signs of apathy, indifference, rebelliousness, or fantasy life in children and punish, drill or drug these traits out of them so they can absorb and regurgitate the information required to make them " college and career ready." This instrumentalist view of education, institutionalized in the Common CORE standards, marginalizes imagination and play and only legitimizes art, music and exercise if they can be converted into verifiable results. "Rigor" is the guiding word and under its umbrella childhood is being stolen from students as young as 4 or 5. 

Think of what is going on. In our schools, children are being asked to justify their existence in term of their value to the government and the nation's largest corporations. They no longer belong to their parents, but worse of all, they no longer belong to themselves! They are being denied the space to chart their own paths--to explore, to dream, to stumble, to fall, to love and to create. I hate to use a cliche, but this to me, looks like fascism

There. I said it. Take a good look at what is going on in our schools and tell me I am wrong.

What I Did on a Typical Day a PS 91 in Brooklyn in the 1950's- All Thing Which No Longer Exist

Just to give you an idea of how schools have changed, and not for the better, I want to give you an idea of the non-classroom things I did  in a typical day at PS 91 in Brooklyn when I was in 5th Grade (1957)

First thing I did, at 8 AM, I went to the corner of Maple Street and Kingston Avenue where, as a Lieutenant in the Safety Patrol, I helped younger children cross the street heading to school

8:30 AM. I run to school where I have 15 minutes left to play bunch ball in the schoolyard before I head off to class

11:30  I run to Maple Street where I help younger students cross the street, and then grab a quick lunch

1:30 PM. As a member of the school audio visual squad, I help show a film in a 2nd grade class

3 PM I run to Maple Street to help students cross the street going home

7 PM. I return to PS 91, head to the gym, and play two hours of basketball and nok hockey.

In between these activities, I went to class, and did homework. Schoolwork was sometimes boring, but because I had so much physical activity, and so much outside of class responsibility, I paid attention enough to learn most of what they were teaching me.  And no body needed to drug me, even though I was a tough rebellious kid who would probably today be classified O.D.D. ( Oppositional Defiance Disorder). The school figured out a way to use my restless energy as an asset to the community, rather than something that would undermine it

Today, the dominant trend in education policy is to increase class time, reduce play and exercise time, and limit student responsibility to absorbing information.  And when students can't adopt to this routine, they drug them or marginalize them

I think the model I was exposed to worked better. It certainly did for me. 

Have Bullying and Intimidation Become the American Way

During the last month, I have gotten a very disturbing window into the way vulnerable people are treated who dare to question policies of powerful organizations, even when they do so in a polite and respectful manner

First, I found myself fielding complaint after complaint about threats, intimidation and punitive treatment of children who had decided to Opt Out of State tests given during the last two weeks of April in New York State. Students as young at 8 were made to stare silently ahead while their fellow students took the test, while older students were threatened with exclusion from honors classes, school teams, proms and school trips as a consequence of Opting Out. One 9 year old on the verge of undergoing brain surgery even visited by a teacher demanding he take a test while in his hospital bed. Parents also received threats. One parent was told she would be barred from school grounds for protesting treatment of her Opting Out son and a lawyer in one Long Island school district lawyer threatened to sue Opting Out parents for revenues lost by the state as a result of children refusing to take tests. I found myself scrambling to find civil liberties lawyers for these children and families, and was able to make some headway, but the cruelty displayed by some school officials left me deeply shaken

Then, yesterday, I received a call from a wonderful second grade teacher I work with in the Bronx who had been thrown down, hand cuffed and thrown in a cell at a local precinct because he had dared to ask a policemen gathered at busy Bronx intersection why they were there in such numbers. In addition to this manhandling, he was insulted and mocked for daring to ask police what they were doing and then insisting that he actually had rights such as being read charges before being arrested and making a phone call! Once again, I found myself scrambling to get him the numbers of civil liberties lawyers who might represent him, who ironically, turned out be the same lawyers whose numbers I gave to Opting Out families

What's going on here? Why are people who respectfully disagree with the actions of public officials subject to threats and abusive treatment? Is this how a democratic society should function, or have we so accommodated to economic autocracy and the concentration of wealth among the few that we erase the substance of democratic citizenship and ride roughshod of what is left of our Constitutional rights

Police Abuse in the Bronx- A Teacher's Story

" Yesterday, I was forcibly taken into custody today by the police. I am angry. I'm also a peaceful second grade teacher that does nto have a record and this is my story:

I was riding my bike to go to a meeting on Grand Concourse. I got to a busy intersection. As I was walking my bicycle across the street toward Poe Park, I noticed a large (20+) group of police officers. I was curious about the large police presence, so I asked one of the officers, “What is happening? Is everything ok?” One officer in the crowd stated, “I can help.” A different officer said, “Get off the sidewalk.” I muttered, “Ok” and began to walk away when one of the officers shouted, “Didn’t you hear me?” Before I could respond, he threw me to the ground, while about 3 other officers were surrounding me. I asked, “What did I do?” The officer that threw me down said, “Shut up, Stupid!” At that point, he put handcuffs on me very tightly. I said, “You’re hurting me!” He said, “Shut up” and picked me up and threw me against the police car, while holding my face against the side of the car. I said, “You cannot bring me anywhere without charging me and reading my rights.” I made my body limp, while one officer held me up. Another police officer then started searching me by looking in my pockets. I said, “You have no right to search me. Stop searching me.” He laughed and threw me in the back of the car. I still had my bicycle helmet on. It was choking me. I said, “I can’t breathe.” An officer sat me up and unbuckled the helmet strap. I asked again, “What am I charged with?” The officer that took me into custody, along with his partner, told me to shut up. I asked if I had any rights and they said, “Shut up.” I asked, “Can I make a phone call?” They said, “Shut up.” I said, “I would like to make a phone call.” The police officers both said, “You can make a call at the station.” 

We got into the station and I asked, “What am I charged with? Why am I here?” One of the officers pressed my face against the counter. At this point, several other officers in the 52nd Precinct began laughing. One said, “Look at this wise guy.” My pockets were emptied and my backpack was searched. I said, “I am a school teacher and I am peaceful. I would like to go home. I have done nothing wrong and I demand to be let go.” One of the officers said, “You are a prisoner.” I said, “I would like to make a phone call.” Two officers then escorted me back to the cell block. I was still wearing handcuffs. They opened the door and threw me in. One of the officers said, “Get in there with the rest of the worthless nothings.” I told them that the handcuffs were cutting off my circulation. They didn’t say anything. I stayed in the cell, sitting on the floor with my circulation getting cut off for about an hour. An officer named Gomez (Badge number 17655?) asked, “How many times did the police ask you to move?” I said, “Once.” He said, “You’re really sticking to your guns.” I said, “I’d like to make a phone call.” He said, “Shut up.” 

The two officers that brought me to the station came back. They said, “You’re ready to get out.” They escorted me to the front. I said, “I want to make a phone call.” The officers said, “Quit acting so stupid. You’re going back to the cell if you keep acting so stupid.” I turned to the presiding desk officer (white shirt) and asked, “Can I make a phone call?” He said, “After you get your summons, you can make a phone call.” I said, “Let re-ask. Can I make a phone call before I get the summons?” He smiled and said to the officers with me, “He wants to make a phone call. Let him make a phone call.” The officers then grabbed me and said, “Let’s go make a phone call,” tightened the handcuffs, and threw me back in the cell. I said, “I’d like to make a phone call. Can you take these handcuffs off?” The officers walked away. 

About a half-hour later, the officers came back. Gomez said, “Do you still want to make a phone call?” I said, “Yes.” Then, he said, “There you go acting stupid again.” He turned to the others in the cell and said, “Talk some sense into this guy.” The other people in the cell suggested that I take the summons so I could go home. I said that I wanted the handcuffs off. The officers said “Shut up. Do you want to go home?” I said, “Yes.” I got back to the front desk. The presiding officer said, “You can make your phone call once you leave here. Call your lawyer then. You need to show up to court on July 26th for disorderly conduct.” I asked, “What was I arrested for?” He said, “You were not arrested. You were taken into custody to be given a summons.” I asked, “Why was I taken into custody?” The officer said, “To get a summons.” 

The two officers that took me to the station walked me out. They said, “Check to make sure that you have everything.” I did. They asked, “You good?” I said nothing. I sat on the sidewalk. One of the officers said, “I’m hungry. I want pizza.” 

I am in shock, but I know that I need to take action to rectify this injustice. I would appreciate any help that you might be able to offer

May 15, 2013