Guardians at the gate
THE SHORT OF IT…
In a country in which teachers are demonized as incompetent, where everyone wants quality schools but no one wants to pay for them, what becomes of those who stand for principle, who know what to do to teach young minds, but are prevented from doing so by their own supposed leaders? Guardians at the Gate is a satirical examination of the plight of public education. It is a no-holds-barred gut shot to the myths and underhanded purposes that threaten this uniquely American institution. It inspires, it accuses, it will make you laugh and make you afraid. More importantly, it should make you act. There are enemies at the gate; there are guardians at the gate. Which side of the gate are you on?
THE LONG OF IT…
Meet Eddie Hope, a hard-working, overly stressed, absolutely exhausted art teacher in a nowhere elementary school. Eddie is a warrior in the ongoing war for the future of public education. For fifteen years he’s wanted nothing more than to teach his students art and critical thinking. Okay, sure, a bunch of his students are more likely to eat straw than to identify straw man arguments, but Eddie tries. And because he tries, he’s on the chopping block.
You see, what Eddie values is not important to his administrators or to their governmental masters. The only thing they value, the holy writ of school achievement, is scores on the annual standardized test. And the only subjects on the standardized test are reading, language arts, and math. So if reading, language arts, and math are the only things assessed on the only test that matters, and if teachers’ jobs and school funding depend on student performance in those areas…
Then who needs art? Or music. Or physical education. Or, for that matter, science, social studies, or civics.
That’s the conflict at the heart of Guardians at the Gate.
There are teachers in our public schools who, talented as they are, fight an uphill battle against influences that are simultaneously accidental, engrained, selfish, and sometimes sinister. Poverty. Ignorance. Politics. Ambition. And the perceived entitlement to free, government-provided babysitting. Chief among these dangers is the politically-motivated clarion call for accountability. Schools should run like businesses, with the minds of children the bottom line on the annual productivity report.
Still, some stand against this cynical over-simplification of what it means to learn. They fight instead to teach kids to think. As they fight, they are opposed, and power is not on their side.
Except that Eddie Hope has one ace nuke in the hole. He tries for one last grand effort to beat back the tidal wave of cynical mediocrity. He chooses to directly subvert the force at the center of his profession’s decline. He attempts to destroy the standardized test itself.
Assaulted from all sides, staggering, failing, tired, and demoralized, Eddie does what Eddie does best: he tries. He tries and fails, tries and succumbs, falling to the wrong path, the path of ease, of compliance, of letting authority think for him. But, even so, he throws off those wounds and rises. He tries again until, in the end…
But that’s the rest of the story.
GUARDIANS AT THE GATE is a no-holds-barred gut shot to the myths and underhanded purposes that threaten public education. There are enemies at the gate; there are guardians at the gate. Which side of the gate are you on?
Satire, Adult Themes, Comedy, and one grim scene of violence
Paperback coming soon!