In what’s already become viral amongst educators, one fourth-grade teacher has posted her resignation in an emotional video that’s hard to ignore.
After learning that she would be involuntarily transferred to another Illinois school, Ellie Rubenstein, who became a teacher at 45 years-old, declared that she is tired of being “forced to function as a cog in a wheel” going in the wrong direction.
“I was proud to say I was a teacher,” she explains. “But over the past 15 years, I’ve experienced the depressing, gradual downfall and misdirection of communication that has slowly eaten away at my love of teaching.”
“Raising students’ test scores on standardized tests is now the only goal, and in order to achieve it the creativity, flexibility and spontaneity that create authentic learning environments have been eliminated…Everything I love about teaching is extinct,” she continues.
(Next page: Resignation video)
According to the Huffington Post, Rubenstein’s resignation stems from a dispute between Lincoln Elementary School teachers and North Shore School District 112 administrators. As Highland Park News reports, Rubenstein and her colleagues received letters detailing their mandated transfer to other schools in the district and were given 21 days to respond.
Highland Park News notes that according to administrators, such a transfer is not used to punish teachers.
Rubenstein states that the letter cited a “poor climate” in the building as the reason for her involuntary transfer. “But the truth is, I’m just not a ‘yes man,'” she says.
Veteran teachers with a great record can be dismissed over just one ‘needs improvement’ comment, or because they are two minutes late to a meeting, explains Rubenstein. “Administrators have total control.”
The Chicago Tribune reports that Rubenstein’s resignation and the teacher transfers will likely be discussed at a school board meeting.
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