The American education system is in shambles. In Autobiography of an American Teacher, D.J. Wright sheds light on the reasons why. As a classroom teacher, she knows where tax money-earmarked for education-actually ends up. She knows what happens to teachers who stand up for teaching and learning. She’s witnessed the racist education programs, designed to ensure generations of mediocrity. She knows why those with little to no classroom teaching experience are hired as American education leaders. And the worst part is that these shady practices originate in the offices of education leadership. You’ve listened to everyone else. Now, listen to a real American education expert: a classroom teacher.
Many people have ideas about who is to blame for the current state of American education, and how to fix it. The problem is that most of these people have no credible, full-time classroom teaching experience. In America, any person can claim education know-how. This means that those who sound off about how to repair the American education system are usually wrong. We need to be aware of the grossly inferior caliber of persons making decisions that dictate what, how, and when things are taught in American classrooms. They, along with the ineffective, multi-billion-dollar education programs, continually sold to American school systems, have created a cataclysmic rift between what students need and what education leadership demands. American education leadership does not care about American students-it cares about the money it makes off the ineffective, multi-billion-dollar education programs that are continually sold to American school systems.
The real victims, in American education, are its students. Education leadership does not want dynamic, capable, creative teachers, because those teachers will question and demand answers; those are the types of teachers who will refuse to force students to suffer the watered-down common conformity education programs that are squeezing creativity and critical thinking from American classrooms. This is why, in today’s political climate, education leadership is unafraid to go after great teachers. Consequently, unless something changes, American students will have little exposure to truly great teachers.
