I coined the phrase, “Community-Down Syndrome,” as I attempted to understand why teachers assigned to our broken and dysfunctional communities are being targeted, humiliated, and driven out of the profession at a greater rate than teachers assigned to more affluent schools in healthy communities. Teachers who agree to work with some of our most damaged children, in broken communities that are dangerous, non-supportive and rotting, work with damaged children to bring them to a place where they can achieve. Many are the best teachers in America. As Rita in Tennessee notes, “Before the teacher gets thrown away a report is published of the inadequate test scores from the teacher’s inadequate, indifferent students, just so parents and the community at large can see how poor the teacher is…”
Most sickening, is the silence of a profession which allows this type of evil to continue. Educators who do not speak out. Educators who are cowed by lies and misinformation generated by those who wish access to our education tax dollars for political or corporate profit.
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