Just what I didn't need

So, it's been a ridiculous day, starting with helpless parents of helpless students, moving on to a conference with the parent who is allowing her child to mianipulate her and withhold his grades from her, capped off by an idiotic battle for a basic desk tool that my students will never be allowed to use again. Then I read Jay Matthews' column, here, and my blood is boiling. Exactly which teachers in this piece had 'low expectations' of their students? Exactly who are the people we keep hearing about? Fifteen years, four districts, five schools, and I've yet to meet one of these individuals practicing the 'soft bigotry of low expectations'. If anything, what we keep hearing is that we are demanding too MUCH of the students, not too little. One of today's parent's actually questioned why I included a few questions on my test from previously taught and tested material. Oh, I don't know, maybe because your 8th grader will be tested on ALL of this in the spring before we can talk about high school? Ya think?