Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Connect The Dots of Leadership





        It is time to connect the dots so that everyone can clearly see how our Governor’s negative attitude toward teachers has actually fostered a culture beneath him where administrators within the Department of Education (aka Board of Education) knowingly and incessantly engage in the abridgment of the basic constitutional rights of teachers, students, and parents.

        It is time to connect the dots so that everyone can clearly see how our Governor’s negative perception of teachers has produced an administrative culture where it is permissible to ceaselessly intimidate, bully, and harass teachers; where they are blasé about disrupting lessons and depriving students from a sound education; where they are not interested in facilitating a safe and nurturing learning environment and community building but a hostile and authoritative institution which closely resembles correctional facilities; where they engage in many other immoral and unethical practices with complete immunity against any form of accountability.

        It is time to connect the dots so that everyone can clearly see that these antiquated  “Get-Tough/Scared Straight” tactics, as indicated by many controlled scientific studies, are destructive to the learning environment, toxic to the developing mind, facilitates anger and alienation in children, and teaches children to resent authority.

         Is this what we want for our children around a time that more prisons are actually being built in comparison to schools? Is this what we want for our children around a time that the amount of juvenile court cases has reached the millions? Is this what we want for our children around a time that we are openly experiencing hardship between communities and law enforcement?
   
       You cannot teach children better social skills by being aggressive toward them, their teachers, and their parents. So Governor Cuomo, I implore you to connect your dots of leadership because the adversity Public Schools are currently experiencing is exactly what you will clearly see. Much love to you all, always.


Sincerely,


Luis Angel Perez
Middle School Science & Mathematics,
First Grade, Fourth Grade Educator & Advocate