The Story of Oklahoma, the state’s wildly outdated history textbook.
Credit: Melissa Smith/AFTVoices

I am a proud general at US Grant high school. We have the best administrators, the most dedicated teachers and amazing students. But we are struggling. Our building is only 10 years old, but it was built for 1,200 people. We currently have 2,000 students and 160 staff members.

Our classes are extremely overcrowded, with 30 and 40 students per class. Some of us don’t even have enough desks for our students to sit in. Coach Aaron McVay, one of our PE teachers, has had classes of more than 80 students. How much learning happens in a class of 80?

Some teachers don’t even have classrooms. They keep their belongings, textbooks and supplies on carts and push them from classroom to classroom, hour to hour. I have been a traveling teacher. Like some of our fellow union members who are adjunct college professors and hold “office hours” in their cars and nurses who travel from school to school, fingers crossed, hoping no one at […]