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In The New Meaning of Educational Change Fullen wrote, Low morale, depressed, feeling unfairly
blamed for the ills of society? You must be a teacher. This quote spoke volumes to me as I watched
politicians jockeying for position by spewing their recycled political rhetoric, and then launch an all
out attack against public school teachers.
In years past these attacks had been levied against those receiving social security, Medicare and
Medicaid which mainly affected the poor, disabled and elderly. Dont get me wrong these issues are still
on the table, but I guess politicians felt they had beaten them with a dead horse and needed another
soft target to spark the publics interest so public school teachers was it. They struck with a vengeance
firing public school teachers by the thousands throughout the country. In an attempt to reduce the
collective bargaining power of teacher unions, such as American Federation of Teacher (AFT) in Texas
they claimed the only way they knew to help balance the state and district school budget shortfalls was
to rescind some of the benefits they had agreed too.
It hurts when the profession Ive dedicated over half of my adult life (25 yrs.) to; is under attack by
politicians and others that have no true concept of whats involved in being a public school teacher.
We have absolutely nothing to do with the decision making process. First were told to do one thing
and then were told to do something entirely different. Its almost schizophrenic.
To all of my colleagues that remain on the frontlines of public education and those that are planning
to take up the banner This books for you. You might not have control over the decisions being made
outside your classroom, but you can control those things going on inside. I provide ways to control
student behavior by the design of your classroom to the use of a simple yellow tablet.