The Sandra Seeley Column

After one and one half years of retirement from the Pittsburgh Public School District, I'm calling an end to my self-imposed (possibly district-imposed) vow of silence. There are some truths that need to be told. Perhaps administrators and law makers will take heed, and the children just may benefit. I wrote my article, " Future Champions " in 2007. What I didn't disclose to my readers was after that amazing breakthrough and connection with my students, I was forbidden, yes forbidden, to do anything like that ever again.Why? Because it was not part of the curriculum. Had I been allowed to continue motivating and challenging the students in my own way, I would not have had the discipline issues and low test scores that were so prevalent. I was told by Principal X that the coloring portion of the lesson was totally pointless. However, I knew in my heart that this would keep my students calm while meditating on the passage they had just heard. My thinking was valid...

 A Modern Day Fairy Tale Once upon a time, back in the day and in the hood, there were two principals, one male and one female. They wore their fancy clothes, lofty ideals and arrogance like a cloak of immunity. Meanwhile, the teachers of the realm toiled in the fields of despair, extended day after extended day. They wept with deep sorrow over their dangerous classroom conditions. They skipped lunch. And the principals profited from their labor. Out of the masses, arose a small group of old-timers who remembered a long ago time when children did not run the schools. They actually remained seated. They did not hurl expletives and desks with equal force. This little weary group of rebels longed for the time to come when they could speak freely without repercussions. They believed in Martin Luther King's Dream and had some visions of their own. Many years and tears later, their brightest moment came. It was decreed that they were RETIRED! Whether retirement was forced ...