“I can no longer be a part of a system that continues to do the exact opposite of what I am supposed to do as a teacher – I am supposed to help them think for themselves, help them find solutions to problems, help them become productive members of society. Instead, the emphasis is on Common Core Standards and high stakes testing that is creating a teach to the test mentality for our teachers, and stress and anxiety for our students….Students have increasingly become hesitant to think for themselves, because they have been programmed to believe that there is one right answer.”

Colorado Springs teacher Pauline Hawkins and her 9-year-old son plan to move to New Hampshire later this year after she resigns from teaching English at Liberty High School. Hawkins posted a blog earlier this week laying out her reasons for resigning, and it’s gone viral.

A poignant resignation letter that Colorado Springs teacher Pauline Hawkins wrote and posted on her blog Monday talks about her love of teaching and the pride she has in her students, colleagues, school and district.

And yet, she writes that she is resigning her post after 11 years as an English teacher at Liberty High School at the end of the school year for reasons that reflect a flashpoint for many frustrated educators here and nationwide.

The letter has gone viral, and her blog, paulinehawkins.com, has received more than 9,000 online hits in less than two days.

Her letter is a sad farewell to her administration and her students, laying bare her feelings about what she sees as the federal and state government overstepping local control of schools. At the heart of her distress are the new Common Core standards, low teacher pay in Colorado and endless testing and teaching to the test, which she and many others believe is making students fail rather than succeed.

Hawkins’ letter says in part: “I can no longer be a part of a system that continues to do the exact opposite of what I am supposed to do as a teacher – I am supposed to help them think for themselves, help them find solutions to problems, help them become productive members of society. Instead, the emphasis is on Common Core Standards and high stakes testing that is creating a teach to the test mentality for our teachers, and stress and anxiety for our students.”

She added, “Students have increasingly become hesitant to think for themselves, because they have been programmed to believe that there is one right answer.”

Farewells go public

These types of public resignation letters are showing up more often in social media as teachers vent their frustrations with a system they believe is failing them and their students. Recently, a letter from a 20-year teaching veteran of Cambridge Public Schools in Massachusetts expressed similar pain that went viral on social media.

“I feel my spirit, my passion as a teacher slip away,” the teacher wrote. She, too, pointed to mandated assessment tests.

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Read the original blog: “My Resignation Letter”