Articles by: Belle Chesler

My Covid-19 Teaching Year

My Covid-19 Teaching Year

It seems appropriate that the 2020-2021 school year in Portland, Oregon, began amid toxic smoke from the catastrophic wildfires that blanketed many parts of the state for almost two weeks. The night before the first day of school, the smoke alarm in my bedroom went off. Looking back, I see it as a clarion call, a shrieking, beeping warning of all the[Read More…]

by 01/06/2021 Comments are Disabled World
 The “Great” Reopening Or Setting America’s Schools Up to Fail

 The “Great” Reopening Or Setting America’s Schools Up to Fail

Seventeen years ago, against the advice of my parents, I decided to become a public school teacher. Once I did, both my mother and father, educators themselves, warned me that choosing to teach was to invite attacks from those who viewed the profession with derision and contempt. They advised me to stay strong and push through when budgets were cut,[Read More…]

by 20/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Teaching Across an Abyss of Silence

Teaching Across an Abyss of Silence

Do you hear that silence? That’s the absence of footsteps echoing through our nation’s public school hallways. It’s the silence of teaching in a virtual space populated with students on mute who lack a physical presence. It’s the crushing silence of those who are now missing, who can’t attend the classroom that Zoom and Google built. Maybe you heard the[Read More…]

by 11/05/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Belle Chesler: Making American Schools Less Great Again 

Belle Chesler: Making American Schools Less Great Again 

A Lesson in Educational Nihilism on a Grand Scale  Three weeks ago, I sat in a cramped conference room in the large public high school where I teach in Beaverton, Oregon. I was listening to the principal deliver a scripted PowerPoint presentation on the $35 million budget deficit our district faces in the upcoming school year. Teachers and staff members[Read More…]

by 19/04/2019 1 comment World