Orwellian Schools and the Peeing Gods

About the Book

How is it that in five short years, American schools have come to resemble so closely Orwell’s Oceania? Why are teachers (formerly a respectable profession) such popular targets for virulent Two Minute Hates? Pacing Gods is an attempt to bring perspective to the intrusive, chaotic, overlay federal bureaucracy has imposed upon schools throughout the nation. It provides context with regard to how faulty logic and disastrous outcomes are masked by a careful maneuvering of language. No Child Left Behind, signed into federal law in 2002, touts as its lofty goal the elimination of “achievement gaps” amongst various segments of the population, while demanding 100% proficiency for all students by the year 2014. Adherents argue NCLB creates an accountability framework. Yet each state selects its own performance bar; and standards and testing criteria vary widely from state to state. Most educators feel the law is unrealistic and unfair, and serves to divert meager resources and instructional time away from meaningful learning. It undermines rather than, supports disadvantaged populations targeted for improvement. Peeing Gods provides a teacher’s-eye-view of the impact of NCLB on local schools; it seeks to restore “face” and “voice” to teachers and students, who have become objects, rather than participants, in the debate. The book illustrates consequences, intended or not, of desperate administrators who create constant uproar in their scramble to find that magic “Big Fix”. Teachers are held “accountable” despite having little input or control over the material they teach. Bullied into using scripted, robotic, standardized programs, often with incorrect information, teachers get the blame when students do not achieve desired outcomes.

About the Author

The author is a thirty year veteran of the California Public School System. She is currently working as a Resource Specialist in the Rialto Unified School District. Her most fervent desire is to get a crack at explaining “why those teachers are whining now”.