What Do You Think? Teacher Makes Resignation Letter Public
Truthfully, I have mixed thoughts about this article and
would love to hear your view. Please
leave comments below.
Local teacher is making waves after posting her resignation letter online.
Pauline Hawkins is leaving Liberty High School in Colorado Springs after more than a decade. She tells 11 News she believes the education system in Colorado is on a downward spiral and she’s ready to get out, citing low pay and standardized testing as two major reasons for her departure.
But it’s her resignation letter that has grabbed the attention of people across the country.
An excerpt:
I have sweet, incredible, intelligent children sitting in my classroom who are giving up on their lives already. They feel that they only have failure in their futures because they’ve been told they aren’t good enough by a standardized test; they’ve been told that they can’t be successful because they aren’t jumping through the right hoops on their educational paths. I have spent so much time trying to reverse those thoughts, trying to help them see that education is not punitive; education is the only way they can improve their lives. But the truth is, the current educational system is punishing them for their inadequacies, rather than helping them discover their unique talents; our educational system is failing our children because it is not meeting their needs.
I can no longer be a part of a system that continues to do the exact opposite of what I am supposed to do as a teacher–I am supposed to help them think for themselves, help them find solutions to problems, help them become productive members of society. Instead, the emphasis on Common Core Standards and high-stakes testing is creating a teach-to-the-test mentality for our teachers and stress and anxiety for our students. Students have increasingly become hesitant to think for themselves because they have been programmed to believe that there is one right answer that they may or may not have been given yet. That is what school has become: A place where teachers must give students “right” answers, so students can prove (on tests riddled with problems, by the way) that teachers have taught students what the standards have deemed are a proper education.
My thoughts…as a former teacher...
Standardized testing stinks!
That’s why so many do not lead fulfilling, successful lives because
they have been told all their lives (by naysayers) that they have to
take what is handed to them. Everyone (students and adults)
learn in different ways. Just because they do not do well on tests
does not mean they cannot have a successful, freedom filled future.
I’m sure you have heard that “Education is the Key to Success”
and I’m a firm believer in that too. However, in recent years I have
come to the conclusion that it does not have to be formal education.
Self education is just as important. Often, after high school or
college,people think their education should stop when actually it
should be just beginning. Successful people are good students and
will coninue to learn by reading, listening to audios by successful
people, and focusing on their future.
Standardized testing should not determine one’s
future.
What do you think? Would love to see your comments below.
Her second reason for resigning was low pay for teachers.
I’m not going to comment here on my views about that….I would
probably be banned from the Internet if I did. haha. But, feel free
to leave your comments on teacher’s salary…
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