Blogging is Not My Hobby

In this current age of educational deform, I believe teachers voices need to be heard.  It is all the more important, given that people with little to no experience in the classroom, shape current policies, brand teachers as lazy miscreants and seek to strip away tenure.  They call themselves "reformers," but some might better be called robbers.  

Some seek to steal public education, put it in their pockets, privatize it and profit.  I do not trust any reformer who says he will help students by making teachers the equivalent of unprotected, underpaid Walmart employees.  I do not trust any reformer who says he will help students by consistently failing seventy percent or so of them.  I do not trust any reformer who continues to peddle junk science as a panacea.  Although some would tell me all "reformers" are robber barons, still, I cannot believe that.

Some tell me it is dangerous to make your voice heard.  My answer:  "My blogging is my best defense."  And,  defending public schools might just be one of the more beautiful things I have done in my life.  I owe too much to public education sit silently and watch it be bludgeoned.  

Blogging then becomes a necessity.  It goes to the heart of how I was raised and educated, who I am and the things I hold dear.  Although I know every teacher faces radically different situations, I hope my posts speak honestly, in many ways, to the experience of teaching in NYC and teaching in general.  For me, blogging is not hobby.  It becomes a responsibility.