Next to being a mother, teaching is one of the most rewarding professions.
When the two roles intersected in Dr. Wendy Bradshaw's life, she had an epiphany.
As she nurtured her newborn, Bradshaw thought about her students whose needs had been neglected in lieu of standardized test scores.
So she resigned from her position and posted why on Facebook.
"I love teaching," she says. "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."
But, she continues, "I have become more and more disturbed by the misguided reforms taking place which are robbing my students of a developmentally appropriate education."
Instead, today's standards are "are actively forcing teachers to engage in practices which are not only ineffective but actively harmful to child development and the learning process," she says. She goes on to say her students have cried because they feel inadequate when it comes to reading, typing and learning overall. Some of them misbehave.
"My master’s degree work focused on behavior disorders, so I can say with confidence that it is not the children who are disordered," she says. "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."
Read her full letter below.
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