AN eventful END TO AN EVENTFUL CAREER
On Tuesday, January 15, 2024 I arrived at school early as is my habit, entered my classroom, turned on the lights and discovered this…
Yes! Over six hundred books were removed from my room with no notification.
When I inquired, my principal informed me that the books were placed in “administrative lockup”. I was welcome to take them home, but they could not be returned to my classroom. That afternoon, my daughter, her girlfriend, and I unloaded four cartloads of books into my truck…under escort from the assistant principal.
It was at this point that I realized that I was no longer capable of bridging the gap between the authoritarian policies I’m expected to enforce, and the values associated with regard to being the teacher I have always aspired to be. I could not in good conscience face my students in a room decorated with empty bookshelves and pretend that this was okay. I felt like a hypocrite.
Below is my letter of resignation.
As I am looking around my classroom, stripped of books, and I consider the consequences of recent policy decisions made by the state and by the district, I find myself facing an inconsolable fact. The teacher that I am and have always aspired to be is incompatible with the current regressive and authoritarian atmosphere that now imbues Florida and Lee County Schools.
I decided to be a teacher over thirty-five years ago. I was inspired by teachers who challenged me, and often discomforted me, with powerful ideas, with innovative perspectives, and outside of the box thinking. They encouraged me, if not demanded of me, that I do more than just find the right answer. From them I learned to ask questions that I otherwise would never have thought to ask, and then question the answers I never thought I could find. I decided, “yeah! I want to do that!”
These teachers were empowered with academic freedom. They were trusted as professionals to inspire, guide, and develop in their students a sense of awe in the world, and the discipline to explore that world. They were trusted to find innovative ways to maximize their students’ potential through free inquiry and inspired curiosity.
By the time I found myself in front of a classroom, however, the system changed. Teachers were no longer trusted. Academic freedom was suspect. Free inquiry was subordinated to standardized curricula, emphasis on benchmarks, and objective measures. The big ideas, the great questions, the empowered thinking became secondary to bubbling in the “right answer” on the state approved assessment for the sake of boosting that all important school grade.
Yesterday you honored me by calling me an exceptional teacher, one you would want your own children to experience. If I have been an exceptional teacher in my career, it is because I always refused to conform to these base standards. I always endeavored to follow the example of the great teachers who preceded and inspired me. In many ways this was, as a former colleague once commented, subversive teaching. I always fought against the standardization tide.
The teaching environment has only devolved. Now teachers must self-censor, police what they say in class for fear of angering the wrong political constituency. I have seen my peers remove beloved books from their classrooms (once upon a time our district emphasized “reading rich classrooms”). They lock their books up in cabinets so no student can touch them. They water down their curricula to the most anodyne elements to avoid conflict. They teach in fear…and fear is not conducive to teaching.
I refuse to spend my professional life in fear. I will not police what I say further than the responsible bounds of professionalism that I have always exhibited in the classroom. I will not cover my books with project paper to hide them from my students because doing so is patently absurd and contrary to everything we as teachers should stand for. The books in my classroom have been vetted…by me…a thirty-year professional with a master’s degree. I guarantee every book that was removed from my shelves over the weekend was appropriate for the students under my supervision. But that does not matter because I, as a teacher, am not to be trusted. I am not even trusted to pack the books into my own vehicle without an “escort.” My guess is that those who removed the books from my classroom did not bother even looking at the titles and thinking for themselves whether the books might be appropriate. Because thinking is no longer the focus of our field. We are just following orders. We are just implementing the policy without regard to its legitimacy and the impact on our students.
Unfortunately for the status of my career, I am constitutionally incapable of mindless conformity. I take the mission and ethics of my profession seriously. I am not the only one. As I was packing hundreds of books into my vehicle yesterday afternoon one of my peers stopped and whispered in my ear, “just in time for literacy week.” Exactly the point. I believe that we as teachers always teach beyond the curriculum. We do so with our actions. Just as teaching flawed curriculum is harmful to our students, teaching an authoritarian hidden curriculum also harms our students and their prospects for living as free and fulfilled individuals. When we teach the importance of literacy through one side of our mouths while banning books, we discredit ourselves in the eyes of our students. When we passively pretend that empty bookshelves or books covered with project paper is normal, we are harming our students by normalizing authoritarianism. When we deny students access to books of interest, we rob them of the opportunity to learn, to grow, to experience transformative ideas. When we deny our students’ very identities by censoring stories that include people who look and feel like they do, by referring to them using their dead names and pronouns, we dehumanize an entire class of people and reinforce bigotry and hate and ignorance.
I have never and will never conform to these regressive expectations. I do not care what the policy requires. Laws and policies in a free society should serve to make us freer. Autocratic laws are illegitimate. Pretending otherwise only encourages the autocrats. It is for these reasons that I must conclude, with great sorrow, that I am incapable of fulfilling the corrosive expectations that now dominate my profession. I therefore respectfully resign effective Friday, January 19, 2024.
I submitted this letter to my principal and she gave me every opportunity to rescind it. After submitting the letter I learned that I am currently being investigated by the school district. I’m not really allowed to know why I’m being investigated, from what I’ve been able to gleen, a complain was made that I was openly flouting Florida’s ban on using a student’s preferred pronouns. If I were inclined to rescind my resignation, discovering that I was under investigation for respecting the dignity of my trans and gender-nonconforming students, that inclination faded quickly.
Yesterday was the last day of my thirty year career. Today, I start a new chapter in my life.
Dangerous Knowledge 
It’s such a shame to see the current state of our education system. Like you, many other teachers within districts that hold similar laws are considering leaving their passion for education behind. I know I never really did my work but for what it’s worth you were always one if not the most inspiring teachers I’ve ever had.
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Thank you. I appreciate that!
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