Guardians at the Gate

Margaret C. Carbuncle is the principal at Amethyst Elementary. She has an insatiable appetite for power and soon becomes a tyrant; she also develops a desire for prestige and glory, and she knows the only way to attain this is through high test scores for her elementary school. Therefore, she drives her Teachers into a frenzy as she demands that they instruct only those subjects that will be included on the all-important, all-consuming state examination. She is ruthless in her desire to achieve her lofty goals. She happily destroys the lives of anyone who gets in her way. Some of the Teachers fight back, and some of them are destroyed by her; still, she cannot be everywhere at every moment, but when cameras are put into the classrooms, the Teachers are nearly under her complete control. But then the Secret comes, and with it, the Teachers are able to carry on, and wait for the day they will be liberated and can educate as they know best; yes, they survive, but the school slowly dies, for no true learning occurs, only monotonous, repetitive lessons that inoculate the students with certain test-ready knowledge. And then one day, two small visitors come for Carbuncle and attempt to teach her a real lesson in civility and charity and give her a chance to repent for all she has done to the inhabitants of the school. Will Carbuncle reform? If she reforms, will she fight for the Teachers? If she refuses, what will be the consequences? And what is the Secret? Public schools are an easy target for anyone who has a yellow pen or a high position in society or politics and who decries the state of education in America, thereby crucifying every Teacher in every school and empowering principals like Carbuncle everywhere; yet, these people form their opinions about American schools from flawed childhood memories, unreliable anecdotes, and distortions of the truth. Read every word between the covers of this book and you will soon know what is really going on in the secret world of public schools, for the author of this tale is a former educator, and reveals the unabashed, sordid truth, albeit in novel form, about America's crumbling educational system.