Diane Ravitch has a must-read blog post about the heroic actions of the six teachers of Sandy Hook Elementary School who died protecting their children. You’ve probably already heard the heart-wrenching stories about teachers using their bodies to shield their little ones from the gunman as almost every news outlet has covered this at length.

But Ravitch adds some much-needed insight, reminding us that these teachers were “career educator[s]” who “worked in a school that was not obsessed with testing but with the needs of children.” Furthermore, all of these teachers, who the media are rightfully calling courageous heroes, belonged to a union and have faced countless attacks from Connecticut’s Governor and his teacher-bashing friends. According to Ravitch:

The senior teachers had tenure, despite the fact that “reformers” (led by ConnCAN, StudentsFirst, and hedge fund managers) did their best last spring to diminish their tenure and to tie their evaluations to test scores. Governor Malloy said, memorably, to his shame, that teachers get tenure just for showing up. No one at Sandy Hook was just “showing up.”

Governor Dannell Malloy has led the effort in his state to expand charter schools and high-stakes testing. He appointed a state commissioner of education who co-founded a charter chain. He said, memorably, that he didn’t care how much test prep there was so long as scores go up. Sandy Hook is not that kind of school.

Let us hope Governor Malloy learned something these past few days about the role of public schools in their communities.

Newtown does not need a charter school. What it needs now is healing. Not competition, not division, but a community coming together to help one another. Together. Not competing.

I highly recommend reading the entire piece, although I should warn you that by the end I was sobbing uncontrollably.  The Hero Teachers of Newtown.