Returning

It has been some time since I have proactively published my thoughts on various issues in education. A colleague at my former school was unhappy with my blogging and informed the administration. I was worried for my job so I discontinued writing: a sad capitulation that shouldn't have happened. Many of my blogs have been deleted and I neglected to store them elsewhere for safekeeping.

The fate of my former school is as such: a D on the first progress report was received, a total of eight teachers either quit or moved on to other schools, and the principal of whom I have written about extensively left for a fluffy position in the "network". Their job is now to coach principals on how to be more effective.

Since July I have left that troubling and strange school for a position at a vocational high school. Not a small Bloomberg school, where I teach now is a remnant of our "traditional" school system. With such demographics as 74% Black or African American and 77% male, and 23% special education, it is a tough place to work but it embodies the spirit of public school education. The students here really need their teachers and the CTE programs the school provides. From what I have seen, the teachers, many who have been there 15+ years and many of them former students, love the kids. For the first time in my six years of teaching, I feel at home and apart of something meaningful to society.

But of course Bloomberg, in his illegitimate third reign, threatens to destroy up to 50% of teaching careers at my school simply because we want to ensure due process in teacher evaluations (http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/02/16/deal-done-mayor-still-plans-to-close-struggling-schools-anyway/). I mourn for the hours, the sleepless nights, anxiety and stress felt, and those rare brilliant moments of success that teachers experience. To do this job you must be one hell of a person. Though there is a portion of teachers who are "ineffective", and I agree that after adequate and extensive support and guidance fails they should be removed, but with a growing population of the young and teachers fleeing the job I wonder how many people can actually teach for a lifetime.

With this new onslaught of nonsense, I am returning to my blog.