ABSTRACT
As educators, we are living in hard times. Stories of outstanding teachers and principals leaving the profession are not uncommon. After a decade of teaching, Katherine Bomer (2005) began to feel that her classroom curriculum was not her own. Instead of focusing on student needs, interests, and meaning-based literacy strategies, she faced mandates that emphasized skill-based instruction, basal readers (not real literature), and various regimes of testing:
We have witnessed Katherine’s spectacular teaching and know that her exit from the classroom is a great loss.
