High school (English) teachers: what do the schools NOT let you say or teach your class?

I'm not really sure what you mean in regards to what teachers "are not allowed to say to teach". Do you mean in regards to curriculum or personal information? I'm just a little confused.... As for the "reading material", that's a little easier to answer. I have been a teacher for the past 8 years. I teach three different preps; English I college, English I honors and Humanities honors (an English and History class combined). There are some works that I am required to teach by the school curriculum. They are; Romeo and Juliet, Oedipus, and The Odyssey (imagine they are either properly underlined or italicized). Obviously The Odyssey fits nicely into the required mythology unit. Romeo and Juliet, and Oedipus fit nicely into the required drama unit. For the poetry and short stories unit I can pick the texts. This is also true for the other works I use for the mythology unit and the non-fiction texts I use throughout. Honestly though, most of what I teach comes out of the school purchased, and provided Freshmen anthology, or the school book room. For my honors class and my Humanities class I will often get outside works, but these need to be photocopied, or purchased, if novels. I need permission to do both. After all it can get expensive to photocopy a class set of even a short story. Luckily, my department head has been very supportive and usually accepts my requests. Look, here's the thing. If you want to be a teacher, then go for it. Don't let what you may or may not be able to say, do or teach deter you from what you want to do, especially from a person who may not even be a teacher (at least that's what it sounds like from your question). Every school system is different, and maybe at some point you'll find yourself in a restrictive system. No biggie, move on until you find a system you like and that fits your vision. Hope this has been helpful!

I'm not a teacher but from what I have heard and read, because of the NCLB law, teachers can ONLY teach what is on state tests. They can't teach anything else. They can't teach what they want to teach. They can't teach waht they think is best for their students. The reason for this is because the higher the test scores, the MORE MONEY the school gets. And, teachers have to teach the kids HOW to take the tests! It is SO stressful and a lot of teachers have quit because of this. One thing I have learned about not what to say and do, is that kids with learning problems. The teachers are NOT allowed to tell parents if they think their child is having problems, because the school doesn't want to help them thru special ed. Many a teacher has been fired for trying to help children like this.