What Is Making Me Mad Today? (part three in a series)

Here is my justification for why so many students are failing my class this year:

Guess what, Board of "Education." I did what I was supposed to do. I made my class as easy as possible so that everyone would have the opportunity to succeed. I rarely gave homework. Toward the end of the year, I even stopped asking them to study and just let them use their notes. I bent over backwards for those kids, and I gave them every opportunity, and you know what? You're right. I HAVE FAILED.

Because I compromised my principles.
Because I focused on the lowest common denominator and let the others slide by.
Because I didn't offer challenges.
Because I rewarded mediocrity.
Because I let myself become a diaper-changer and a bottle-feeder.
Because I settled for peace when I should have striven for excellence.
Because I didn't tell you that you were wrong at every opportunity.
Because I didn't stand up for myself.
Because I allowed people who either haven't been in the classroom for years or have never been in the classroom at all to tell me how to do my job.
Because I suffered in silence when I should have raised my voice.

And most of all, I have failed them because I was not the best teacher I could be, because I did not teach them as well as I could have, because I lowered my expectations, because I listened to some bass-ackward, no-account, know-nothing, superiority-complexed a--holes, WHEN I KNEW THEY WERE WRONG THE WHOLE TIME.

And THAT is what is making me mad today.