D R E A M

     Neighborhood public schools deserve to be hubs of creativity and innovation and teachers given the autonomy and flexibility and trust to make it happen.

     I dream of a day when there are no more high stakes tests that serve only to rank and sort children and schools in invalid ways. I dream of a day when the discrimination stops and all children are encouraged to find their individual talents and precious gifts. High stakes tests are promoting discrimination and stealing hours and hours away from what children need most. They deserve movement, engagement, experimentation, joy, and classrooms in which the love of learning is central. Rigid, scripted programs, and developmentally inappropriate pacing guides need to be shredded and burned.

     I dream of a day when it is realized children do not have standardized brains. Standardization emphasizes everyone being the same… “common”… when really divergence and individuality are what have made the United States of America great.