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Lingering Thoughts on a Popular Theme: we’re not helpless!

Lingering Thoughts on a Popular Theme: we’re not helpless!

As one does, I ran across a very popular picture quote on Facebook the other day. It had been shared quite a bit and it was getting a lot of positive comments. So of course my eye was drawn to it. It was a Diane Ravitch quote that someone had pasted onto a graphic. In her book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education (2010), Diane asks the following:

“Can teachers successfully educate children to think for themselves if teachers are not treated as professionals who think for themselves?”

What a great question! Vital. Important. You see, if no one lets us be professionals… if we’re not given permission to … If they continue to demean and demoralize us … if we were only allowed to … we ought to be treated better … PowerFist

whew! I can see why educators would share that widely!

But as you might guess, I had some follow up thoughts:

Yes! I agree! How can we do our jobs unless we’re given the freedom to do so. And so if we’re tired of “not being treated as professionals who can think for ourselves,” then let’s do something about it! If we’re tired, then we as teachers are obligated to pick up the mantle of the responsible, proactive professional and become education leaders. We’ve got to offer suggestions and ideas. We’ve got to experiment. We’ve got to take risks.

Because if we want to continue to play “victim to the system” then we’ll always get what we’re given.

What are you tired of? And so then what is your first step to do something about it?

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Written by GingerLewman

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