Friday, June 12, 2015

The Making of an Education Nightmare

Schools should be places where students are nurtured, treated with respect, given space to grow. Now all too often, they are being forced into boxes. their natural instincts to play and dream and let their minds and bodies wander stifled, their individual talents and aptitudes disregarded, their disabilities ignored. And to enforce that regime, their teachers have to be so terrorized that they ignore their best instincts and professional ethics. And how do you do that?. By periodic human sacrifices- colleagues humiliated and forced out of their jobs to remind those that remain that rebellion and independence are futile. If you think I am exagerrating, you have not, as I have, gotten personal messages of scores of great teachers who have been among those sacrificed. There is a toxic atmosphere in all too many schools and it comes from the US Congress, the Department of Education, Governors offices and State Legislators and has corrupted a generation of school officials who have implemented this regime of intimidation. Is it in your state, your community, your schools?, I hope not, but fear for the worst.