Choices

I've been a special educator for what seems like all of my life. I retired from the classroom to go back to school for a PhD, because I believed that I could make a difference in the field. I feel less like this now, than when I originally started writing this entry in 2008.  

In the present world of policy, I'm afraid "choice"--for schools, for birth, for social security investment, for health plans, for privatization, for vouchers, for the kind of research that "guides" the purchase of textbooks, for curriculum aligned to "what is on the test"--that kind of "choice" is no choice at all.

I am often relieved to be out of the classroom, but at the same time I feel as if I should warn future teachers about these unnatural "choices" that will guide their practices for years to come.