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Antonia Malchik's avatar

Gut-wrenching read, and yet an articulation of problems we have known existed for a long time. There are so many layers and levels of why we keep failing to address them, and I am perennially confused as to why parents are so ready to blame teachers for a whole crop of problems yet so unwilling to get involved in state-level education policy and/or create a massive movement for fully funding public education--stop penalizing teachers and kids for stupid standardized tests, and start giving them the money they need to actually support public education's ability to thrive.

The only complaint I could hand to my kids' school district this entire time was their insistence on continuing to administer all standardized tests (including horribly designed snapshot ones like STAR, which aren't even required for Common Core) throughout this time, including last spring when everything was still new and shocking and an everyday scramble. Other than that, the district has done an incredible job with what they've had and wouldn't want to be in any of their positions.

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Anne Murphy's avatar

This is just heartbreaking to read, but something I've been hearing from the people I know who are teachers. The entire system is broken, badly, and was even before the pandemic. Returning to the status quo and sweeping everything back under the rug while the pandemic still rages isn't doing anybody any favors - yay capitalism? Not yay. A similar thing is happening amongst library workers across the country who are also undervalued and viewed as expendable, and are being pushed to reopen (or worse, never closed in some cases). Thank you for naming it - demoralized. Career change seems like the only way out for so many people, and that's not an easy thing to do.

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