Feeling under siege, non-returning KC district teachers get defensive

[proud2BlibKansan]

Katie Schowengerdt has done a lot of moving because in five years she has taught five grades in six buildings.

Her students knew she was losing her job, and Ann Randle had no idea where she was going.

So she began writing her personal email address on the white board at Kansas City’s Southwest Early College Campus so her seventh-graders could find her wherever she ends up.

“I had hot tears going down my face,” the fifth-year teacher recalled, fresh tears welling. “I don’t want to lose them.”

That’s when it hit her — that sense of being under siege. It’s a feeling many U.S. teachers are sharing these days, with so much criticism directed at them and their unions.



Read more: http://midwestdemocracyproject.org/articles/feeling-under-siege-non-returning-kc-district-teachers-get-defensive/#ixzz1KPXDyzNy

Megan Riggs recalled a year of teaching abroad in Taiwan, where public schools and the teachers were held in high esteem.


Melissa Sanders has taught and served as a teacher mentor and cheerleading coach while earning positive evaluations.


Christel Walker said she was “going to stay in education until it kills me. Now it’s pretty close. I feel pretty broke down.”

[madfloridian]

1. What they are doing to teachers is unforgiveable.

Recommended and will keep it kicked.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. Thanks mad

[Snoutport]

21. We teachers appreciate the support we get here! :0)

I'm in a blue state but we're getting the heck kicked out of us here too. Big cuts. :0(

[Trajan]

2. I loved so many of my teachers ....

Even some of the assholes taught me something of value ....

Most ? ... Golden angels ....

[Hannah Bell]

3. kr

[Kablooie]

4. Republicans seem to want to eliminate education for Americans.

Probably because they know that the more uneducated, ignorant people there are, the bigger their base.

[fredamae]

8. Critical thinking does not compliment complacent obedience

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. It's not just republicans

The school board that fired these teachers is mostly Democrats.

[LWolf]

16. I think that compounds the feeling of betrayal.

:(

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. Definitely

It's hard to know where to turn for the support we need.

[reggie the dog]

5. look at those lazy bitches wanting entitlements

they actually thought doing a good job and having a good evaluation would mean they got to keep their job!!! lazy asses should have known that connections get them everthing. plus the lazy public servants have all of summer break to get off their lazy asses and get new jobs. after all they were just paid to play with kids anyways


the sad thing is there are actually people in our country that believe what i just typed.

[coalition_unwilling]

20. I find that one's abiility to play golf also gets you places where

doing a good job and getting a good evaluation will not. Those 'lazy bitches' should have focused on their golf games instead of on the children.

Based on what I've encountered, the people who believe this also believe that those who could not leave New Orleans before Katrina struck were either too stupid or too obstinate to leave.

[reggie the dog]

26. just what goes on inside the brains of people who believe this

kind of crap?

[coalition_unwilling]

33. They (the 'Un-Human') were absent or MIA on the day that the empathy genes were

being distributed.

Cf. MI Repuke State Rep George Caswell's proposal that foster children only be able to buy second hand clothes:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x947310

[GreenPartyVoter]

25. A lot of people do. :^(

[xchrom]

6. Recommend

[Scottybeamer70]

7. How terribly sad

that the very people to whom children are entrusted each day, are being singled out as not worthy to
do the jobs for which they are trained. For some children ( probably a lot of them ), their teachers
are the only ones who have faith in their abilities and train them for a better future. Many students
confide in their teachers more than any other adult.
The corporate world is out to destroy the very foundation of education and replace it with charter schools.
I doubt Bill or Melinda Gates would last more than 5 minutes in a classroom. Suddenly they, and a few
other CEO's have become education experts! I wish there was an answer on how to stop this madness.
I would have never made it through high school and college had it not been for the teachers who believed in me.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Bill Gates admitted he could never be a teacher

He spoke to AFT delegates last July. I was there. And he admitted he had so much trouble helping his own kids with their homework, he knew he could never teach. I wanted to scream at him - 'Then what makes you think you can reform education?'

[madfloridian]

12. Getting "their own" people in via TFA and TNTP

Remember my words. They get to pick and choose the teachers through those projects and get PAID by the public for doing it.

By "they", I mean the corporate reformers and the politicians they have paid off.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. And TFA gets a $3000 finders fee for every TFA intern placed in the district

Nice gig if you can get it. :)

[Reader Rabbit]

14. "Going to stay in education until it kills me. Now it's pretty close."

These words are so sad—all the more so because of the truth in them. When will America stop abusing its teachers?

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. She's an excellent teacher

It really saddened me to read that.

[donheld]

18. k & r

[Rage for Order]

19. A teacher giving her personal email address to 7th graders is inappropriate

What business does she have with them when the school year is over? The blurring of the lines where adults try to be both an authority figure and a friend to those in their charge is troublesome.

[MadHound]

22. It is called mentoring,

It is another one of those unpaid jobs that teachers do that few outside the profession know anything about.

She isn't wanting to be their friend, but rather a mentor, somebody they can come to for advice. Big difference.

[Rage for Order]

23. How can you be so certain of her motives?

She can't possibly be a mentor to every child she teaches, so why give her personal email address to every student in class by writing it on the whiteboard? If a 27 year old male teacher was giving his personal email address to 12 & 13 year old girls there is no way anyone would think it was okay.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. Interesting that this is what you choose to comment on

Nothing about the unfair firings or the TFA replacements but you're concerned about a caring teacher giving out her email??

[callous taoboy]

30. No shit.

[MadHound]

31. Geez, your head goes right to the gutter, doesn't it.

Wonder why?

You obviously have no clue about what happens with teachers, or the profession of teaching. My father taught for thirty years, and still had students calling him for advice decades later. Oh, yeah, and some of them were women as well.

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. Every teacher is a mentor to every child. That's what teachers are taught to do.

[sudopod]

24. It will probably destroy America. nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. That's very common

Lots of my formers find me on Facebook and friend me. If they're over 16, I accept.

[callous taoboy]

29. Yeah, a teacher friend of mine did the same thing. Here's what happened:

She ended up getting a text in the middle of the night from one of her students who was about to kill himself. He had nobody else to turn to, so he turned to my friend, his mentor / teacher. She saved his life.

Your statement indicates a total lack of understanding that for some students, you (the teacher) are so much more than a teacher. You are life itself.

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

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