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Teacher resigns with YouTube video, saying she can’t do anything meaningful

May 28, 2013, 8:30 AM | Updated: 9:10 am

As the school year winds down, with just weeks to go in the Puget Sound area, this teacher has had enough.

“I thought I would be a teacher for the rest of my life, but I no longer feel that I’m doing anything meaningful. I’m not being allowed to spark enthusiasm for learning in children in my own way, rather I’m being forced to function as a cog in a wheel, and this wheel is not turning in the right direction,” says Ellie Rubenstein, a fourth grade teacher in Illinois.

Rubenstein believes the public education system is too focused on testing. So she’s quitting, but not before posting a resignation video on YouTube.

Rubenstein left a business career to earn a master’s degree in education at night school while bringing up twins in order to ‘do something meaningful,’ now she says she’s in a system that won’t let her do that.

“My sense of humor, personality, creativity, self expression, passion, opinion, my voice, all are being stepped on, crushed and ground down, and I have to get out before my sense of self and self-worth are completely obliterated. Sadly there are many others who feel as I do,” says Rubenstein.

The teacher from Illinois says when it comes to dealing with school administrators, “Unless you are a ‘yes’ man, you will soon find out your only choice is to become one or leave.”

“They want to take away my freedom to nurture my students and help them grow. But I won’t go into their cage, so I’m leaving my post, and I too am backing down with a sad, heavy heart. I hereby submit my resignation effective beginning the school year 2013-2014.”

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Teacher resigns with YouTube video, saying she can’t do anything meaningful