Teacher Resigns in Scathing YouTube Video Targeting Standardized Education

As parents in several states have stood up against standardized education such as Common Core and CSCOPE, one teacher in the Chicago area (Highland Park) has taken a similar (although not necessarily directly related) stand that is now going viral.

Last week, 15-year teaching veteran Ellie Rubenstein posted a 10-minute YouTube video where she decried the state of test-centric eduction after the district she was working in said it was going to be transferring her and several other teachers– a move she says came because those teachers were vocal about their issues and one she says the district has attributed to concerns over the school’s “poor climate.”

“This is a total kangaroo court, a retaliation against four teachers who are quite vocal in advocating for their children,” Rubenstein said in an interview last week. “We are at the forefront of speaking our minds and at the forefront of advocating for our students. We are all being falsely accused by the administration and some colleagues of doing things we have never done, and saying things we have never said.”

Frustrated and out of options, Rubenstein decided to resign instead of face the transfer — and she did it in a way that has garnered over 350,000 views.

Among her concerns that have now gone viral: •“I have experienced the depressing, gradual downfall and misdirection of education that has slowly eaten away at my love of teaching.” •“The emphasis in eduction has shifted from fostering academic and personal growth in both students and teachers, to demanding uniformity and conformity.” •“Raising students’ test scores on standardized tests is now the only goal, and in order to achieve it the creativity, flexibility and spontaneity … have been eliminated.” •“Everything I loved about teaching is extinct.” •“Curriculum is mandated. … The classroom teacher is no longer trusted or in control of what, when, or how she teaches.” •She says complaint forms and write-ups are being used as tools to target teachers and keep them as “yes men,” instead of being used to get rid of poor educators — and she even takes a shot at the union.

What you're not going to hear from Obama guard dog Glenn Beck about people like this misguided teacher is the following.

Your kids would never learn anything about the Constitution from this upset "teacher" (babysitter?) as evidenced by the following. This veteran teacher evidently doesn't understand that, given the Constitution's silence about public schools, the Founding States had made the 10th Amendment to clarify that government power to regulate things like public schools is automatically reserved uniquely to the states, not the feds. So public school administrators can completely ignore the federal Common Core program if they want to.

Also, public school administrator / teacher concern about getting screwed out of federal funding if they don't kiss up to the feds is just as unfounded. More specifically, another thing that "educators" evidently need to learn about the Constitution is that Justice John Marshall had officially clarified that Congress cannot lay taxes in the name of state power issues.

"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States." --Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.

So not only do educators evidently not know the Constitution well enough to know that the federal government has no constitutional authority to tell states what to teach your kids in the public schools, but based on Justice Marshall's official clarification of Congress's limited power to lay taxes, neither can Congress lay taxes in the name of funding public schools to indoctrinate your kids.

So public schools are actually wrongly bowing down to the feds because of their inexcusable ignorance of the federal government's constitutionally limited powers.

What a mess! :^(

So public schools are actually wrongly bowing down to the feds because of their inexcusable ignorance of the federal government’s constitutionally limited powers.
__________

the same is true of states accepting medicaid expansion ...for the money.

There are MANY teachers who work very hard to actually teach and are NOT leftists entrenched in union thuggery. It is good to remind readers WHO controls the message and is the message (news) accurate in terms of generalizing ALL teachers are politically motivated.

It sounded to me as if she was NOT the only teacher who was raising concern about the changes to curriculum, again demonstrating that there ARE teachers with appropriate educational goals for students.

Audio interview here - Local teacher superbly explains resignation on YouTube

http://wgnradio.com/2013/05/23/local-teacher-superbly-explains-resignation-on-youtube/

Anyone who speaks out against the Dept. of Education and all of the other multitudinous bureaucracies that control the propagandizing of children today in the name of "educating" them must be willing to be marginalized by the media and politicians.

Even as early as the Year 1886, such was the case. A man by the name of Zach. Montgomery was denied an important post in government for doing just that. You will read some of his words below.

With that said, those who love liberty must be willing to come forward to declare that it is better to be remembered for standing on and articulating enduring principles of right versus wrong, liberty versus tyranny, than to be praised by the mainstream media and so-called "progressives."

I am reminded of the words of Zach. Montgomery in his 1886 Book entitled "Poison Drops in the United States Senate . . . ." Although his treatise dealt primarily with the public school question, the following remarks might be helpful to those who, today, are concerned by what passes for "public education."

Excerpts from Montgomery:

"My countrymen, disguise the fact as we may, there is in this country to-day, and in both the political Parties, an element which is ripe for a centralized despotism. There are men and corporations of vast wealth, whose iron grasp spans this whole continent, and who find it more difficult and more expensive to corrupt thirty odd State Legislatures than one Federal Congress. It was said of Nero of old that he wished the Roman people had but one head, so that he might cut it off at a single blow. And so it is with those moneyed kings who would rule this country through bribery, fraud, and intimidation.
"It is easy to see how, with all the powers of government centered at Washington in one Federal head, they could at a single stroke put an end to American liberty.
"But they well understand that before striking this blow the minds of the people must be prepared to receive it. And what surer or safer preparation could possibly be made than is now being made, by indoctrinating the minds of the rising generation with the idea that ours is already a consolidated government ; that the States of the Union have no sovereignty which is not subordinate to the will and pleasure of the Federal head, and that our Constitution is the mere creature of custom, and may therefore be legally altered or abolished by custom.
"Such are a few of the pernicious and poisonous doctrines which ten millions of American children are today drinking in with the very definitions of the words they are compelled to study. And yet the man who dares to utter a word of warning of the approaching danger is stigmatized as an enemy to education and unfit to be men tioned as a candidate for the humblest office.
"Be it so. Viewing this great question as I do, not for all the offices in the gift of the American people would I shrink from an open and candid avowal of my sentiments. If I have learned anything from the reading of history, it is that the man who, in violation of great principles, toils for temporary fame, purchases for himself either total oblivion or eternal infamy, while he who temporarily goes down battling for right principles always deserves, and generally secures, the gratitude of succeeding ages, and will carry with him the sustaining solace of a clean conscience, more precious than all the offices and honors in the gift of man.
"History tells us that Aristides was voted into banishment because he was just. Yet who would not a thousand times rather today be Aristides than be numbered amongst the proudest of his persecutors.
"Socrates, too, in violation of every principle of justice, was con demned to a dungeon and to death. Yet what name is more honored in history than his? And which of his unjust judges would not gladly, hide himself in the utter darkness of oblivion from the with ering scorn and contempt of all mankind ?
"From the noble example of Aristides and of Socrates let American statesmen learn wisdom, and from the undying infamy of their cow ardly time-serving persecutors let political demagogues of today take warning."

So said Zacharias Montgomery in 1886. Read his complete work at HERE.

Anyone who reads his complete volume will realize this man's ability to see the consequences of what his fellow Americans were advocating in the area of education of youth.

A fair question. I was always pleased when my students did well on their standardized tests. But since I taught a nonessential subject—jr. high history—standardized tests were dropped because of the expenses involved. (No, the tests aren’t free and after a while one can start to question whether the expense is worthwhile). I always measured my own success as a teacher by what my graduates told me of their high school experiences. If they said that high school history was easy compared to my classes, then I figured I had done my job well.

But let me ask you a question, if I may. Of all the teachers you had, at all of the levels of education you attained, how many of them do you remember fondly? If you are like most, you can count them on the fingers of one hand. You know what I mean, the ones who somehow made a connection with you and many of your fellow students. What made them stand out? Test scores?

In my opinion, teaching well is so much more an
art than it is a science. All that making good test scores the be-all and end -all of schools is that in the future there will be no remembered teachers, because they will interchangeable clones of one another. Everyone will be mediocre.

“But I think that the real problem lies with trying to hold the students and their parents responsible. The thing that is killing public education is the fact that the public schools must accept every warm body that shows up.”
+1

“The more problems and ‘handicaps’ a child has the more rights he or she is given. The mainstreaming of problem children means that your normal child gets to learn in a circus atmosphere. “
+10

” Sending a child to the principal is frowned on and requires the filling out of a long form. Suspensions do occur, but are rare because ‘that’s just what he wants’ and of course cost the school money. And God help a district if the percent of protected classes being suspended is to high.”
+100

“Of course kids get passed on to the next grade regardless of what he or she has learned. Who wants a 15-year old in the fifth grade? Certainly not the parent of a normal fifth-grader. The best we can hope for is that he will be quiet in his eighth-grade class and let the others learn.”
+1000

“I don’t think teachers really asked for any of this.”
+10,000

Thank you for saying some things that ought to be said.

First of all, my wife was a junior high history and I liked it in junior high...so it might be non-essential but it’s certainly interesting.

I agree that teaching is part art and part science...and I’m someone who believes that it’s hard to measure the quality of art.

Unfortunately, public schools in the U.S. seem to be failing on both levels. With all due respect, the teachers seem to deflect all blame to parents (who don’t motivate the kids), taxpayers (who don’t pay enough in taxes), and management (who make teachers use the tests) while completely absolving themselves of all blame. I think the taxpaying public has become tired of it.

It also seems that test scores become worse as kids stay in the system, so your metric of measuring your success by how well the kids in high school might work in some cases but doesn’t seem to be working overall. Teachers (unions) have seemed reluctant to agree to any sort of systematic measurement of success in any aspect. Since you theoretically can’t test the “art” component, you need to test the science, i.e. subject matter, component of teaching. Hence, the tests.

To answer your other question I pretty much liked all of my teachers all though school (1967-1984). The ones I didn’t like were people whom I wouldn’t have liked regardless of their job. My favorite and best grade school teacher was a test-score-driven teacher who force-fed algebra in order for us to do well on the Catholic School Entrance Exam. My favorite high school teacher taught Latin basically by memorizing vocabulary and syntax, which is essential in learning Latin. By my junior year I could read it like English. I can still read it, though a dictionary helps. Maybe I learn better by rote memory and testing.

As far as making a connection, some made a connection and some didn’t but none of them really worried about making a connection with the students. They taught us and tested us on what we knew. To your point about making future school easier, their approach did make college courses seem easy because they demanded a lot out of us. We didn’t take standardized tests; however, they could say that every student in my class either went to college or the military.

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Well isn't that sorta semi-special!