In Response to Making the Grade...

The state of America's education is dire. Agreed. There are more students in classrooms than ever before; there is more pressure on teachers than I have ever felt in 18 years. Watching Tamron Hall and Hill Harper discuss the state of education with their "experts" has left me frustrated and near tears. Never before have I felt so ready to find a new job, and I LOVE WHAT I DO!

Right, there are bad teachers, but do you really think that's the majority of us? I just spent the last two weeks of my "summer vacation" moving furniture from one room to another for the third time in three years, and developing my first two units of the school year. I have spent time looking for material that would be engaging and meet the standards that I want my students to acheieve. Then I watch this program that talks about how all these bad teachers and the teacher unions are the reason for drop outs.

At 1:17 minutes into a 2 hour program before the experts start talking about what teachers need to be successful, what tools we need. How about smaller class sizes? How about more prestige given to the profession? How about just not bashing us? How about putting ONE TEACHER on the panel of "experts," Ms. Hall? HOW ABOUT THAT? Ms. Hall, if I held you to the samde standards for your journalism as you hold for me as a teacher, I believe that you would be failing to "make the grade" as well.

I have never been so disappointed in a journalistic endeavor in my life. Rather than offering solutions, all this program did was place blame and most of it on my back...on the teacher's back. I was hoping to see you profile effective programs that address educational issues. Wouldn't it have been more effective for you to profile that school in Houston and talk about what they're doing than to have a panel of experts give sound bites? What about giving us something to walk away with? Something beside a black eye?


At 1:28 you begin to really address the issue of parental involvement, but who's responsibility is it to engage those parents...oh yeah, the teacher's.