Anne Perrin's Essay: Stop Blaming Teachers

When schools are failing and students aren’t learning, who is held for responsible? The answer to this question is more likely point toward one answer: teachers. Teachers have long since become the scapegoat or pawn for their students’ performance. Many debaters like Anne Perrin, author of the essay “Stop Blaming Teachers (2008),” argues that the society blame teachers for our nation’s educational shortcoming instead of the “real culprits” (87). I found her essay to be very strong as she uses ethos, pathos, and logos to support her claims as well as use humor to connect with her audience. I agreed with Perrin’s thesis that the “No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law” (86) has not only damaged on public education but also on teachers’ performance. Teachers are unfairly blamed for whatever happens in the “standardized testing” (90), a test created to appease the “No Child Left Behind” (87). Many teachers like Perrin are “dog-tired and frustrated” (86) for being treated with no respect and tire of taking “the heat” (87). She loudly used the word “hate” (86) two time to expresses her dislike for a test called “TAKS” (86), in which the second time the word ‘hate’ were capitalized to show that it not only her who think the same way but others as well. Furthermore, Perrin states that teacher like her and others are blame for something that should be the fault of …show more content…
While it is true that teachers are closer to the parents and students, it doesn’t mean that they should take the fall for it just like Perrin has argue much about in her essay. What the nation should have done is take a step back and look at a bigger picture in concerning about this situation. I personally felt that while the teachers should not only be the one to take the blame for our education failure, but everyone, “government officials, administrators, parents, and especially students,” (87) are all at fault for failing