Johnny Can't Pass The Test? It's The Teacher's Fault!

The Department Of Education (DOE) and their media followers (Daily News, New York Post, & The Sun) love to blame the teachers when something goes wrong in the schools. The DOE's top-down management imposes a strict curriculum and micromanages the classroom. This stifles teacher innovation and doesn't allow teachers to enrich the subject. Without teacher innovation and enrichment the students become restless and bored. When the students perform poorly on the "dumbed down" state and city tests who gets blamed the TEACHER!

When the students come to school without parental support and discipline and act up in class it is always the TEACHERS FAULT! If the teacher dares to discipline the unruly student, the teacher is removed from the classroom and is subject to the corporal punishment regulations along with a 90 day unpaid suspension at a minimum.

When the DOE refuses to spend the money in the classroom and instead uses it for their favorite consultant or charter/small school, the result is oversized classes, poor materials, and overcrowding, it's the TEACHER'S FAULT that the students don't meet standards.

How dare teachers complain when DOE brings in the Leadership Academy principals (many without real classroom experience) and they use the business model and it doesn't work. Ignore the fact that children are incomplete personalities and unlike widgets, they are all different. It can't be the business model ? IT'S THE TEACHER"S FAULT!

The student who comes from a dysfunctional family and has poor work skills and when the student can't pass the state & city tests is it the parent's or student's fault? Of course not! It's the TEACHER'S FAULT! According to DOE a good teacher can get all the students to pass.

DOE has established a culture of disrespect for the teachers. Teachers are rarely consulted on decision affecting the classroom, they are removed from a classroom based upon a student's unfounded accusation, and no longer can grieve any administrator's observation. Why does the DOE disrespect the very teachers they need to improve their statistics? Why it's the TEACHERS FAULT that they don't buy into the failed DOE business model.

The DOE solution? Let's get Jack Welsh, Bill Gates, and other notable business leaders to tell them what needs to be done to improve our schools. You mean this has been done and so far there has been little or no improvement? Why it must be the TEACHERS FAULT!

In conclusion, whenever a school fails under NCLB, the state and city tests, it's not the students, it's not the parents, and it certainly not DOE. Therefore, it must be the TEACHERS FAULT!