The teacher who lost her job was not using the textbook she was supposed to use. She was skipping meetings. She was not following the school’s system for math instruction. She was sometimes verbally sharp with her students. She made them work constantly and criticized any perceived laziness in a manner that some other teachers thought seemed overly harsh.

That said, I think she may have taught a great deal of math, more than the usual person occupying her position.

Eduhonesty: Our current push toward nothing but positive reinforcement is not in the best interests of America’s students. It’s naive at best. When a student has done a lazy, substandard job, sometimes a dressing down is exactly what is needed. Laziness can be cultivated by positive reinforcement for rubbishy nonefforts. I am afraid we are creating a group of lazy students by not calling them out often enough on their blow-off efforts.

The truth is that I’d give that teacher a recommendation based on what her students seem to have learned. I suspect a good teacher just lost her job for not playing the game. She has not adapted to the new approach to teacher/student relations. But she did make her students do a formidable amount of math.