Wendy Bradshaw was a special education teacher for seven years — until she suddenly quit. The Lakeland, FL, teacher at R. Bruce Wagner Elementary School couldn't take it any more.
Bradshaw is convinced the school system and the curriculum is failing students in every single way. The teacher shared her resignation letter, which immediately went viral. It's clear many parents and teachers feel exactly as she does.
The teacher wrote in her letter:
“I just cannot justify making students cry anymore. They cry with frustration as they are asked to attempt tasks well out of their zone of proximal development. They cry as their hands shake trying to use an antiquated computer mouse on a ten-year-old desktop computer… Their shoulders slump with defeat as they are put in front of poorly written tests that they cannot read, but must attempt…
The children don’t only cry. Some misbehave so that they will be the ‘bad kid’ not the ‘stupid kid,’ or because their little bodies just can’t sit quietly anymore, or because they don’t know the social rules of school and there is no time to teach them.”
Bradshaw said that she would constantly tell school administration that the curriculum wasn’t working and that thorough research showed that. They didn’t care. According to her, students felt so much pressure that they couldn’t even make friends and didn’t know the names of the other students in their class.
It was all too much for them to take in.
Do you feel that students are overworked and too focused on tests? Let us know in the comments.
Please SHARE Bradshaw's viral letter if you agree with some of her sentiments!
