Public School Teachers Are SCREWED

OK, in case you're having a hard time guessing, I'm angry. Oldest Sister (not to be confused with Big Sister) has always been the over achiever of us girls. She's brilliant. She has her MBA and worked on Wall Street for about a decade. She found something she loved even more than the market though -- her tutoring kids after work. Soon she went back to school to take education classes so she could teach full time -- and she did it! So she gave up the lucrative world of business to enter a field that is having a hard time luring talented people -- the public school teaching system. As always, she was a huge success. But her kids were a handful so she decided to transfer to a supposedly better school. And what happened next is what's pissing me off.

Enter the charming assistant principal, who apparently has not one compassionate bone in her body. Needless to say, we all had a hard fall with Big Sister's being diagnosed with breast cancer. Oldest Sister had meetings and her classes monitored often during this time. One such visit, the AP monitored a class before Oldest Sister was set to have surgery to remove her own "suspicious" breast tissue (it was benign, thank G-d). Did the AP care? No. The feedback she'd give my sister was cruel, not constructive. My sister tried to take it in stride and improve her focus. Meanwhile, parents were thanking my sister for making a difference in their kid's lives, etc. (You'd think that would matter, but I digress...) Did that help? No. This past week Oldest Sister was told that she would not have a job with them next year. Essentially, they had a personality conflict with her. Probably cause she wasn't a 23-year old pushover on her first gig.

But here's where it gets ugly. They want my sister to resign, so she won't be eligible for unemployment and can't sue. If she doesn't resign, then they will not give her a favorable recommendation, which means she can pretty much kiss another teaching job good-bye. I have one word for you -- blackmail.

AND THIS IS STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE FOR TEACHERS!

I find this disgraceful. They are lucky my sister wants to keep teaching. If this is the way public schools treat their teachers, it's a wonder they have anyone willing to do it.