Another teacher is lost to No Child Left Behind

I composed the following commentary and sent it off to the Star Tribune which usually takes my writing, but Doug Tice, the editor, kindly told me it's old news. That's when I realized my sister's retirement is not news outside our family and her school. But I hate to bury a good piece of writing and a reasoned rant.

My sister is upset that I referred to her retirement as the second to the last stop on the train ride. She prefers to think of retirement as an opportunity for a new, free lifestyle. A lifestyle free of No Child Left Behind. She is a teacher and is retiring as early as possible because she can't stomach it anymore.

She is a wonderful teacher who has loved her job. Despite working through the summers because she is in a school district that has year-round school terms, despite the fact that her son's starting salary in software engineering exceeded her salary after thirty years of teaching, every year when the new fall term began, my sister looked forward to another year of teaching. She know how important a teacher is in the life of any child, but especially in the lives of the children at her school.

She teaches in a school with low scores, and she know why. Many of her second grade students come from families full of drugs, alcohol and inappropriate sexual behavior. many of her students leave home in the morning without breakfast or having their hair combed. Adults in the lives of these children sometimes exit with no goodbyes. My sister knows she is the reliable adult in their lives. She also knows how to teach these kids.

She has been giving No Child Left Behind her best efforts, but she has had years of following curriculum dictated solely by the need to pass tests. If students didn't do well on the tests curriculum were changed so students would do better on the next test. While change is a good thing, my sister explained to me, change across the board when parts of the curriculum are working is not good. Teaching only to pop up the scores of low and middle performing students is not good teaching because then gifted kids don't get anything because they're already helping the school's scores. As it it's the job of gifted kids to help a school's scores.

Furthermore, when teachers have t focus on test scores, they cannot help students develop their love of learning, nor can teachers consider what is developmentally appropriate for their students. My sister also asks why parent aren't being held responsible. Why isn't it a given that children will be put into bed at night at a decent time, will come to school unless they are sick, will get into trouble at home if they don't do their homework or if they misbehave at school?

So, this last school year when she had to set aside everything she had learned in thirty years of teaching to embrace a new system for teaching reading which she knows doesn't work, she decided to take her apple home for good.

My sister's retirement is a terrible loss to next year's second graders and their parents. It's a loss to all of us when teachers are the only party held responsible for the poor performance of other people's kids.

Is it unreasonable to expect parents to share responsibility for their kids' education? Is it too soft-hearted to provide breakfast at school for kids whose parents don't provide it at home? Is it too much like socialism to expect schools to be funded by taxes? My sister is getting off the train this June. Her students have a long ride ahead of them. As parents and a community, we need to do what we can to clear the train tracks so our kids can get to their destinations.