Dear Friends,

I apologize for being a little slow in bringing this news to you. I am tardy in getting around to sharing the latest MetLife Survey on the American Teacher. It will not be "news" to anyone who is paying attention or anyone who is living the life of an overwhelmed, underpaid and under-appreciated teacher or principal, but it should be (if only) a wake up call to the politicians and bureaucrats who are busy ruining our schools while they complain about the continuing lack of student achievement.

For those of you who are too busy to read the full Metlife report, I invite you to read at least the "Executive Summary." I would urge you to share the news of it with your colleagues. Start a conversation with your principal, even. You have much in common, it seems, especially if you are working in a high needs school and you have experienced continuing dwindling resources in recent years.

It will be absolutely no surprise to anyone of my friends who are also readers of this post that the survey finds, "A majority of teachers...feel under great stress at least several days a week." Moreover, the survey indicates the following unsurprising fact:  "Teacher satisfaction continues to decline and is at the lowest level in 25 years" (bold emphasis added).

Needless to say, the logic of those who see fit to continue to cut resources to public education while complaining that our students are not achieving enough and are not competitive enough with students in other countries continues to escape me. But I digress. The main purpose of this post today is to make sure that you know about the report.

Until next time.

Kitty