"I am Sarah Scott, a veteran teacher who will be entering her 40th year of teaching in the 2006-07 school year. I enjoy teaching and I enjoy children.  I have a Master's degree plus 30 hours. I have been properly trained and have attended numerous workshops and training sessions to ensure that I keep up with the times.

"In spite of all this, my creativity and imagination are being tampered with and then replaced by nothing better."

"Several times administrators or supervisors who have no idea what kindergarten is all about have questioned me about lesson plans or methods that I feel are best for my students. I am bothered when my peers at other schools have to suffer because a lesson plan has to be exactly like the principal designs it, or using guidelines that have been designed without the input of experienced teachers. "

Another thing that disturbs me: We are constantly told that we do not really need textbooks and that we should be using many different resources. I like that idea, but then why buy textbooks if we don't need them?

"Finally, we are given a comprehensive curriculum that is not sequenced using the textbooks that have been purchased. If I am to be held accountable, let me teach the way I know how and the way I was taught. After all, my kindergarten children do learn to read, write their own stories, count, add, subtract, do fractions, measure, and more. Do what is best for the students: Let the teacher teach."

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