To say that Wanda Lee is a seasoned educator would be an understatement.
The 43-year teacher has taught school all her adult life. The bulk of her career – 38 years – was spent in public school classrooms in South Central Mississippi and her mission as a teacher is simple. It has always been to meet the needs of her students. Over the course of her career in the public school classroom that mission became more difficult.
“I’ve seen so many things come and go,” she said, “and the saddest part about all of it is that we’ve quit thinking about the child. We’ve become focused on testing and scores. We are so under the gun as far as performance that we’ve quit thinking about the child’s needs.”
Wanda recently left the public school classroom along with several of her colleagues because of the intense pressure from the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE).
“The state was in our classroom nearly every day,” she said.
Wanda’s frustration only grew as she was cited by MDE for giving her children in her classroom a math problem to work when department staff deemed the instruction time as reading time.
“They told me morning was not math time,” she said. “I’m not a cookie-cutter teacher. I do what works for the child because every child is different, and it was hard having them in my classroom telling me how to teach.”
Wanda recognized the value of adapting teaching styles but also recognized the lack of confidence MDE placed in her as a professional.
“I felt intimidated in my own classroom,” she said. “It made me feel like I wasn’t worthy of being in the classroom.”
As MDE made more frequent visits to the school, Wanda said it became a production for the visitors.
“When we would find out they were coming, we knew that we had to pull out the dog and pony show,” she said. “Our principal also knew it but asked
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