My son's GF is one of the most dedicated, professional caring and talented teachers out there.

We took her out for lunch the last week of school. She cried. I asked what is the worst thing wrong with the kids. She said "Most of them just need DIFFERENT PARENTS!"

This year, I asked what was the heartache about that led her to antidepressants.

She said "One of my 12 year old students was taken out of school - because her FATHER was prostituting her out".

I was stunned, of course. "She's back in class but just sits and rips stuff up".

"MATH is not their first priority. I have to teach them Math and grade them on math - but they have much more important problems than learning Math".

And Commoncore testing will probably get her fired because working in a TEACH AMERICA program means "disadvantaged" beyond most people's imagination. I started asking teacher friends. MOST of them are on antidepressants.