No winners

I suppose I’m advertising my age (I’m 57) but when I was growing up, we were taught that individuality (another term for diversity) mattered. We were encouraged to think on our own and to think out of the box. Yet, we demand that our teachers teach without creativity and without bringing to the classroom their own essence.
Think back to the best teachers we had when growing up. The ones who inspired us most were the ones who brought wonderful passion to their subject. I had an elderly math teacher in 9th grade whose eyes twinkled when she taught us. She made math fun. She loved her subject and we loved her for making us love it, too.
So, what are we doing here? Our desires for a well-educated next generation are being trumped and trampled by government mandates we absolutely must fight to retract. How did we end up with the mandates? We took money from governmental sources with mandatory strings attached. These are the chains that bind us and our classrooms and our teachers. Is it any wonder that our good teachers want out or have left? Who are the real losers? All of us. There are no winners.