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authentic classrooms, developmentally Appropriate Practice, ESE, Exceptional Student Education, Florida legislature, harmful educational practices, Making kids cry, Opt Out Orlando, Opt Out Polk, Polk County Schools, real leraning, real teaching, Teacher of Conscience, Teacher resigns, Teachers, The Opt Out Florida Network, Wendy Bradshaw, Zone of Proximal Development, ZPD
Teacher Wendy Bradshaw pictured last year with happy student, Dayon, 6.
Wendy Bradshaw, Ph.D., is a mother, a teacher and a scholar. She specializes in working with children and families living with disabilities and has worked with children aged infants through fifth grade to help improve their educational and life experiences. She is also a tireless advocate for public education and an administrator for the Opt Out Polk group in The Opt Out Florida Network. She writes:
I consider it baffling that telling parents the truth about the harm being done to their children in the public education system is considered an ethical violation of my teaching license, but making their children cry and hate school is not. This affects students and teachers even more so in my field of specialization, Exceptional Student Education (ESE), with our most vulnerable students. Today, I resigned from my school district. I would like to share with you my letter of resignation:
To: The School Board of Polk County, Florida
I love teaching. I love seeing my students’ eyes light up when they grasp a new concept and their bodies straighten with pride and satisfaction when they persevere and accomplish a personal goal. I love watching them practice being good citizens by working with their peers to puzzle out problems, negotiate roles, and share their experiences and understandings of the world. I wanted nothing more than to serve the students of this county, my home, by teaching students and preparing new teachers to teach students well. To this end, I obtained my undergraduate, masters, and doctoral degrees in the field of education.
I spent countless hours after school and on weekends poring over research so that I would know and be able to implement the most appropriate and effective methods with my students and encourage their learning and positive attitudes towards learning. I spent countless hours in my classroom conferencing with families and other teachers, reviewing data I collected, and reflecting on my practice so that I could design and differentiate instruction, that would best meet the needs of my students each year. I not only love teaching, I am excellent at it, even by the flawed metrics used up until this point. Every evaluation I have received has me rated as highly effective.
Like many other teachers across the nation, I have become more and more disturbed by the misguided reforms taking place, which are robbing my students of a developmentally appropriate education. Developmentally appropriate practice is the bedrock upon which early childhood education best practices are based, and has decades of empirical support behind it. However, the new reforms not only disregard this research, they are actively forcing teachers to engage in practices which are not only ineffective, but actively harmful to child development and the learning process. I am absolutely willing to back up these statements with literature from the research base, but I doubt it will be asked for. However, I must be honest. This letter is also deeply personal. I just cannot justify making students cry anymore. They cry with frustration as they are asked to attempt tasks well out of their zone of proximal development. They cry as their hands shake trying to use an antiquated computer mouse on a ten year old desktop computer which they have little experience with, as the computer lab is always closed for testing. Their shoulders slump with defeat as they are put in front of poorly written tests that they cannot read, but must attempt. Their eyes fill with tears as they hunt for letters they have only recently learned so that they can type in responses with little hands which are too small to span the keyboard.
The children don’t only cry. Some misbehave so that they will be the ‘bad kid,’ not the ‘stupid kid’, or because their little bodies just can’t sit quietly anymore, or because they don’t know the social rules of school and there is no time to teach them. My graduate work focused on behavior disorders, so I can say with confidence that it is not the children who are disordered. The disorder is in the system which requires them to attempt curriculum and demonstrate behaviors far beyond what is appropriate for their age. The disorder is in the system which bars teachers from differentiating instruction meaningfully, which threatens disciplinary action if they decide their students need a five minute break from a difficult concept, or to extend a lesson which is exceptionally engaging. The disorder is in a system, which has decided that students and teachers must be regimented to the minute and punished if they deviate. The disorder is in the system which values the scores on wildly inappropriate assessments more than teaching students in a meaningful and research based manner.
On June 8, 2015 my life changed when I gave birth to my daughter. I remember cradling her in the hospital bed on our first night together and thinking, “In five years you will be in kindergarten and will go to school with me.” That thought should have brought me joy, but instead it brought dread. I will not subject my child to this disordered system, and I can no longer, in good conscience, be a part of it myself. Please accept my resignation from Polk County Public Schools.
Best,
Wendy Bradshaw, Ph.D.
Links to Additional Information:
What Is Exceptional Student Education for Children with Disabilities?
Zone of Proximal Development
Developmentally Appropriate Practice
Thank you for standing up for all children. I’m sorry valuable teachers like you are having to make the sacrifice of positions they love and the families they serve. Please know that there are parents that see the problems too and appreciate your observations as we are often treated as though we know nothing about children and how they learn. As many families have also departed from the public school system, there are many who look to experienced, credentialed, loving educators to assist in their homeschool journeys. Thank you again for making your voice heard for our children and our future.
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Reblogged this on gottadobetterthanthis and commented:
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Pingback: Polk County Teacher Resigns to No Longer Make Students Cry | Town News Today
Impressive letter of resignation! My story is very different. I grew up in a small teacher’s-college town. That meant that as public school pupils, we got a lot of student teachers! From that viewpoint, I saw a lot of beginner-enthusiasm, ineffective busy work, and what has since come to be called OCD (although we called it “uptight”) in the student teachers for whom we were the lab rats. As a result, I never went into public education. I have tutored a lot and been involved in homeschooling. I love the individualized freedom of both. I found it incredibly interesting that both the Iowa Tests and the Stanford Achievement tests are the ones that have been favored by home educators for well over a quarter of a century. We don’t look at the scores as trophy points; they are simply nets we check to make sure our children are not falling through any cracks.
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Good for you!!!
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Nice! Preach it! This is precisely why I retired from teaching too even though five years ago I thought it would be my lifelong career.
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My son graduated from high school in 1994. He had had 5 brain surgeries due to a benign brain tumor that left him with epilepsy. An experimental neurotransmitter stopped his seizures but his memory was so bad, his grades dropped even though he studied. He had to come off the baseball team and it broke his heart. They wanted him in LD classes which greatly upset us all. The rule then was, if you went into LD classes, you did not get a diploma. You got a certificate of high school completion. Plus, he could not walk with his class. Seeing his tears anf frustration, I sat and talked to him. I am now a retired teacher and told him while I could not do how work for him, I could try to devise a way that might help him remember so bit better. He wanted that so we took a plunge, said a prayer andvwentbtonwork. He had to do his homework twice every night. He had to rad chapters in books three times, not one, and answer the questions in the back of the books three times every night. I made up tests for him to take every night….it was exhausting for him and me but HE did thevwork. He made it, just barely but he walked with his class and got his diploma, He was so proud and so were we.
But it should not have had to be this way. Their idea was LD classes were “easier” and those in “regular” classes worked harder. I could not believe it. Hevworked so hard. But to this day, I see all those years, his self-esteem took a hit. And it was so unfair.
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Her letter needs to go to the National Media CNN, MSNBC especially during this election year campaigning going on. My niece in Largo Florida has gone through the same pain and the teachers do care but their hands are tied. Please try to get National Attention to this asap…..Especially with Common Core possibly coming which will guarantee failure rates will get even higher.
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Reblogged this on horseofmanycolors and commented:
Florida Teachers IMPLICIT OATH of Conscience Opts Out of Making Kids Cry https://theoptoutfloridanetwork.wordpress.com/2015/10/23/florida-teacher-of-conscience-opts-out-of-making-kids-cry/ via @wordpressdotcom
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