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

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.”