The Slow and Steady Poisoning of the Twenty-First Century Teacher

I read the title below in yesterday's NY Post:  Boys put rat poison in teacher’s water: cops.  Happily, the teacher is OK. 

 

One wonders how the VAMers will judge the value-added measure of the 62-year old fourth-grade teacher who suffered poisoning at the hands of a nine and twelve-year old.  I suppose in the warped world of some statistician, or more likely a politician like Duncan because that seems  to be the last hold out for the veracity of VAM, the teacher is at fault.  Since teachers are responsible in large part for their students' test grades, teachers are also responsible in large part for their own poisoning at the hands of their students.  I am sick of it.

When I stop to think about it, I feel like ed. deformers have been slipping poison into the waters of all teachers.  They use teachers as scapegoats.  Instead of trying to solve the problems of poverty in society that undercut education, they blame teachers for the underlying poverty.  That's a poison of sorts.

Folks like David Coleman say one shouldn't "give a shit" about what people think or feel.  We must boldly press on with a Common Core even if it is developmentally inappropriate or failing to meet the more immediate social, emotional and economic needs of children.  Who "gives a shit" what lifetime teachers or experts in the field think?  More poison for the soul and for our budding little people.  

The ed. deformers tell me twenty years of experience and a Masters in history count for nothing.  Teachers need not be treated as professionals any longer when they can be replaced by the likes of Stanley Kaplan "test preppers."  VAM is not a measuring stick as much as a punishing rod.  More Poison.  Saddest of all, some people profit by selling such poison to the public.