Saving the Family Business

Why am I marching? I'm trying to save the family business. My husband is a retired teacher; his mother was a teacher. My father was a teacher. His mother and father were both teachers. My mother's grandfather was a teacher. My son and his wife are teachers. Two of my four granddaughters have shown interest in becoming teachers. I march because I fear greatly for this profession that has marked my family indelibly.

My father was my principal in junior high...he once substituted in my English class. I'm still traumatized. My dad's mother was his English teacher - I can only imagine! His father was his principal in high school. On the wall of my classroom is my father's high school diploma, signed by my grandfather. They're both there with me every day as I teach.

I march because the family business is under attack. Smug bureaucrats who've never stood in front of a hostile class of non-readers, or a fidgety group of kindergartners just before lunch are now calling the shots in education, at the national level, and in my own state of Oklahoma.

When did the Billionaire Boys' Club get their education degrees? Where did they intern in the classroom? Why is their voice valued over mine?

more . . . http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_in_a_strange_land/2011/07/saving_the_family_business.html