Which is why I could never be a teacher. My moral code would not allow me to do that.
My bride is a math teacher, and she can say “Look, they don’t meet the basic skills required to graduate in this state” and point to the test. She acts “stupid” when the dean pressures her to fake the tests.
She is a much better politician than I am.
Public school teachers are laughing all the way to the bank; despite news stories about teachers “leaving the field”, I have never met an ex-teacher here in NJ (unless they retired). They are our new upper middle class, while the rest of the middle class has been destroyed. We have a huge inventory of unwanted homes in NJ because people have caught on to the fact that they are just renting these homes from the teachers’ unions - and will be evicted when they can’t pay the “rent” (mortgage).
“You know I hate, detest, and can't bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appalls me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies - which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world - what I want to forget.”
I spend a part of my time trying to appeal to my students' common sense that they may understand the lie being pulled over their eyes that public education represents and that they might begin to take their education as a serious and personal responsibility (also that they might consider things from a spiritual, rather than a material perspective). In this way, I hope to set my classroom apart from what is a damnable system and create an environment where education can actually occur.
I'm not about to delude myself into thinking I make many converts, but I draw satisfaction from knowing that I've tried to make a difference (in a world gone mad).