Re: Teacher of the year declines invitation

["Nancy Patterson" <patterna@gvsu.edu>]

Oh, what a wonderful letter!!!  Warms my heart and makes me proud.

Nancy

Nancy Patterson, PhD
Literacy Studies Program Coordinator
Grand Valley State University 
Editor "Tech Connect," Voices from the Middle
Chair, Assembly on Computers in English
patterna@gvsu.edu
http://faculty.gvsu.edu/patterna
>>> sueallison@comcast.net 03/01/04 10:14 AM >>>


http://www.educationnews.org/teacheroftheyeardeclines.htm

Teacher of the Year declines invitation to DOE event
Monday, March 1, 2004 
The following e-mail was sent to a U.S. Department of Education official
who had invited all state Teachers of the Year to an event in Washington
on March 1.  The e-mail is from the Massachusetts 2003 Teacher of the
Year.


Dear Ms. Jacobs,

    I wanted to thank you for your gracious invitation to the conference
of Teachers of the Year that is scheduled for next week.  I was hoping
to attend, but I am sorry that, considering Secretary Paige's recent
remarks about the NEA and the teaching profession, I no longer feel that
his invitation is sincere; neither do I feel that he will be providing a
healthy and constructive environment in which to enhance the education
of our young people.  I am sure that you, Ms. Jacobs, are a sincere and
well-intentioned individual, and I am sorry to send these words through
you to the Secretary.  I do believe, however, that the Bush
Administration is hostile to public education and that the No Child Left
Behind Act is a disingenuous, cynical plan by which to attack the poor
and the non-white.  Again, my comments are in no way meant to be uncivil
to you.  I do not see, however, how I can justify leaving my own
students in order to attend a meeting with a gentleman who seems to
harbor nothing but ill will and contempt for us all.

    Thank you for the invitation, and please accept my good wishes for a
peaceful, fulfilling springtime.

    Sincerely,

    Jeffrey R. Ryan, Ph.D.,
    Massachusetts Teacher of the Year 2003



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