Great teachers don’t teach the same year twenty-eight times. They teach twenty-eight years once.
I may reuse activities or revisit lessons that worked well before, but I never reuse the same plans year after year. Why? Because students change. Every class brings different strengths, different challenges, and different needs. Teaching isn’t about repeating what worked before—it’s about responding to the learners sitting in front of you.
That’s why treating teachers like interchangeable parts is such a fundamental mistake.

There’s a growing narrative that teachers are free to teach whatever they want, pushing personal agendas in the classroom. That simply isn’t true.
Teachers are required to follow state standards and district guidelines. We are evaluated on how well we teach that curriculum. There are checks, balances, and accountability built into the system. The curriculum is public—anyone can look it up online. Families who are uncomfortable with certain topics have always been able to work with school leadership to adjust instruction for their child. We’ve done this for years, especially to respect religious beliefs and family values.
None of this happens in secret. What’s missing isn’t oversight. It’s trust.

In recent years, there’s been a push toward scripted curriculum and rigid pacing guides. These programs assume that all students learn the same way, at the same speed, using the same words. They leave little room for flexibility, creativity, or professional judgment. In doing so, they strip teaching of the very thing that makes it effective: responsiveness.
Here’s what this looks like in practice: A student raises her hand and asks why the math formula works the way it does. In a responsive classroom, the teacher can pause, draw a diagram, use a real-world example, or even say, “Let me show you a different way to think about this.” In a scripted classroom, the teacher must keep reading from the page, even if half the class is confused and the other half is bored.
Good teaching requires the ability to pivot. Sometimes a concept needs to be explained differently. Sometimes students need a real-world example instead of what’s printed in the book. Often, a discussion leads to deeper understanding than a worksheet ever could. Teachers make these decisions every day, in real time, based on the students they know.

Teaching is a profession that requires education, experience, and constant learning. It demands content knowledge, classroom management, understanding  of child development, and emotional intelligence—all at once, all day long. When teachers are micromanaged, handed scripts, and second-guessed at every turn, it doesn’t improve learning. It drives talented educators out of the classroom. And when innovative teachers leave, students suffer most.
The truth is, great teachers are like great doctors: they follow evidence-based practices and established protocols, but they also diagnose, adapt, and respond to the individual in front of them. No one would hand a surgeon a script and expect good outcomes. We shouldn’t do it to teachers either.

If we want strong schools, we have to treat teachers like the professionals they are. That means trusting their expertise, valuing their judgment, and giving them the flexibility to meet students where they are.
Teaching isn’t mechanical. It’s human. And it works best when teachers are allowed to be exactly that.
Great teachers aren’t scripted—and students pay the price when we pretend they are.