Popular Culture Review Vol. 24, No. 2, Summer 2013 | Page 84

80 Populär Culture Review when many think standardized testing is antithetical to teaching. Because these teachers were demanding that their needs be addressed, they were criticized as bad teachers who cared more about themselves than their students. At the end o f July 2011, the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed piece titled “The M yth o f the Extraordinary Teacher.” It was written by a Los Angeles public school teacher who points up a problem in the school System: we are demanding “teachers be excellent in conditions that preclude excellence.” All the children in our schools, she said, “deserve to have not only an extraordinary teacher but a teacher who has time to read their work, to listen, to understand why they’re crying or sleeping or not doing homework.” Her article elicited public responses. P