Posted on 03/14/2011 9:15:29 AM PDT by Kaslin
This is the first in a two-part series on our educational system in the United States.
Some e-mail messages seem to float around the Internet forever. Most of them, especially the ones about Lindsay Lohan, low mortgage rates, or offshore pharmaceuticals, serve only to clutter up your inbasket. But every so often, a message appears with some valuable nuggets of information. One of these reappeared on my computer last week.
The message starts by listing America’s ten poorest cities, based on the percentage of people living below the poverty line. It then identifies what all ten cities have in common: They have all been run by Democrats for at least 25 years. (Is anyone surprised?) Some of these cities have never once elected a Republican Mayor in over a century! What it doesn’t say is that the school systems in these cities have been run by the Democrats for the same period – in most cases much longer.
The lesson here is that you cannot fix a problem until you come to grips with its source. Most of America has lived in denial about our public education system for at least 30 years. After all, every poll says that the public believes that Democrats are better at handling the issue of education. How can this delusion persist, when the school system in every major American city is a disaster, and every single one of them is run exclusively by a Democrat machine in cahoots with their union partners?
The professional Left was beside itself when America’s education ranking dropped in a study recently released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a reputable organization of 34 of the world’s most advanced countries. But when you read their columns warning of the coming Armageddon for America (nothing new from the left), not one commentary mentioned the fact that their compadres are the ones principally responsible for these problems.
After all, these are the people who gave us the self-esteem movement, English as a Second Language, grade inflation, social promotion, the elimination of Western Civ and the dummying down of education requirements and the curriculum in its entirety. One has to wonder what they thought would become of our educational system after all of these maneuvers.
Interestingly, Robert J. Samuelson, columnist for the Washington Post, pinpointed the problem by breaking it down into its components. The OECD study of 15-year-olds puts America right in the middle at 17th (out of 34), with an overall score of 500, just slightly above the average (493). Samuelson pointed out that while the average score for non-Hispanic whites in America is in the top ten (at 525) and that Asian-Americans actually place second in the world, the scores that brought down American averages were among blacks (441) and Hispanics (466). Only students in Shanghai, China outperformed Asian-Americans (although the study doesn’t state how the other billion or so Chinese fared).
The vast majority of America’s blacks and Hispanics are located in the large cities, and – again, no surprise here – these are the areas where the Democrats and their union friends have the greatest control. And yet, there is very little demand from the left to do anything about this. Of course, most of them are too busy car-pooling their children to private schools.
A recent documentary, "Waiting for Superman," awakened the left to how bad the problem has become. Oprah Winfrey saw the movie and did a show on it, as if she had never known there was a problem with inner-city schools. All of a sudden the left woke up to who actually created the problem – they did.
Before "Waiting for Superman," there was a 2010 documentary by Madeleine Sackler called "The Lottery." Her film covers some of the same territory as "Waiting for Superman," with some of the same principal characters. "The Lottery" focuses on four families, each of whom is attempting to get a child enrolled into a charter school in New York City. The film illustrates the desperation and despair of those who suffer under the yoke of the New York’s education establishment – a burden and a challenge no different than those faced by parents and children in every other major city in the nation. The test scores shown by the OECD study show the devastating effects of these bureaucracies on the children of America.
Eva Moskowitz runs the charter school that is the focus of "The Lottery." The film depicts her attempt to open a second school, along with the reprehensible reaction of the teachers union, which hired ACORN protesters to try and stop the second charter from being opened (ironically, at the location of a former NYC school which was shut down due to poor performance). The interaction between Moskowitz and the school board/city council members is riveting.
Families are staking everything on getting their kids into her schools because they know their childrens’ futures depend on it. And, yet, she is treated as a pariah by politicians whose first priority is to protect the unions.
Ultimately, when the lottery takes place, you experience the elation of the winners, but worse, you share the devastation of the losers. No child in America should be forced to have their future determined by picking their name out of a hat. That is what the public education system has done to these kids.
The responsibility lies in the hands of the education establishment, their union cronies, and, yes, the teachers who vote for and accept these unions and their leaders. They are all guilty of destroying the future of urban children throughout America. The question becomes how we tear down their structure.
Next week we will visit a charter school in Los Angeles to get some answers.
If you think that these Education “problems” just exist in urban areas just try to do ANYTHING in Mid-West Rural Disticts. In most Mid-and-Smaller Mid-West disticts the Schools are the Largest Employer in the area.
A: Sell the d*mn school system to people that could make a profit.
It's easy. The only thing this system has that keeps it going is the power to confer its bogus credentials, yet they don't even guarantee the product!
It's high time to dump the entire fraudulent 19th Century educational paradigm. If a private company set up in strip malls offering testing and credentialing services to all comers, together with an insured guarantee that anybody who could pass that test could perform specified tasks competently, that would end the education system as we know it. Any student, anywhere, with the drive and determination to learn could then blow off the entire education establishment as we know it. Parents would no longer be forced to cough up a fortune in post tax savings, or worse, to refinance their homes just to pay a claque of incompetent leftists to brainwash their precious children with trash while abetting self-destructive behavior.
The system has failed, as planned. Let it go.
To fix:
1) NO education degrees. If you want a math teacher, get one with a degree in math. If you want a history teacher, get one a degree in history. If you want a stupid teacher, get one with a degree in sociology or education.
2) Vouchers, vouchers, vouchers. One exception. NO VOUCNERS TO GO TO A MUSLIM SCHOOL. After all, we don’t want to out-stupid our existing school stupidity.
3) No stinkin’ unions. EVAH! Send their sorry socialist butts to Mexico...along with the millions of illegal students we’re being forced to support.
How To Help Destroy Teachers’ Unions (Vanity)
My Fertile Brain ^ | 03/13/2010 | Uncle Miltie
Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2011 11:00:47 PM by Uncle Miltie
Here’s one way to help destroy Teachers’ Unions:
1) Start a YouTube Channel: “Worst Teacher in America.”
2) Let kids post surreptitious videos of their teacher’s horrible skills.
3) Let people vote on “Worst Teacher.”
4) Track “Worst Teacher” listings by State, District, and School.
5) After a year of postings and voting, award the “Worst Teacher in America” a full retirement from the Rose and Milton Friedman Foundation if they agree to never enter a school again.
Maybe we can shame bad teachers out of the profession.
I’ve pinged Breitbart, since those guys have done well with ACORN, Planned Parenthood, etc. I’ll ping the Friedman Foundation next.
Is anyone else out there technically competent to get this ball rolling, even without the retirement plan? We could have a cabal of FReepers manage the YouTube channel.
What say you, brothers and sisters? Can we do some damage?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2688381/posts
Just put my name on the ballot to run for a school board position. Not sure what I can do but I am sick of talking about it and am ready to take action.
“The responsibility lies in the hands of the education establishment, their union cronies, and, yes, the teachers who vote for and accept these unions and their leaders. “
Oooooo, naughty boy. That was a NO-NO. NEVER blame teachers for ANYTHING. ALWAYS blame the parents. Yea, it’s all the parents’ fault - at least according to one clown on this site.
Wrong: the responsibility is with every citizen who supports single payer education; every citizen who is addicted to OTHER PEOPLES MONEY when funding the education of their children.
For education to improve in this country, there are two requirement.
1. Parents must pay directly for their child's education.
2. Fathers must raise their children.
The rest is just treating the symptoms.
You mean this clown?
Perhaps we teachers could do the same.
1. Create a worst student/parent award. (sic) Lowest test score, lowest attendance, lowest amount of homework returned, and highest # of swear words thrown (sic) at a teacher.
2. Worst Private Contractor. We could highlight the companies that are supposed to do out side (sic) contract work for the district and screw it up. (Like my heat ALL YEAR)
3. Worst administrator. Find the principle (sic) that hasn’t returned referral sheets, or dealt bulling (sic) or harassment complaints. I like the ones that want you to fill out their paper work. Bonus points for “handling” the situation with no one getting into trouble. (Except me that is) (sic)
4. Worst curriculum director. Hasn’t gotten you the approved books for three weeks, and still doesn’t know when they are coming in.
5. Worst IT member. 180 days, you outsourced jack wagons can’t keep us running 180 days.
6. Student arrested (sic) achievement award. Determined by the number of fights, (x2) for staff hits.
7. The porn awards (sic) going to the student with the highest amount of sexting in a month. Triple points if caught hooking up in school.
8. A special mention for parents that (sic) have two or more students achieve one of these awards. (Must have different fathers).
Last but not least a special award to all the lazy armchair QB’s (sic) thinking they could do a better job. Step on up and do better.
14 posted on Sunday, March 13, 2011 11:47:15 PM by Martel1971
Deconstruction of the “Edumacator’s” post here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2688381/posts
“You mean this clown?”
No, but WOW, unbelievable. For someone to get to that level, they have to have been TOTALLY INDOCTRINATED, for YEARS. It’s mind-blowing that teachers on this site (assuming that is a teacher) would have that mentality.
It’s funny - where I work, if someone says that I screwed something up, my first thought is to prove the person right...only after I really review my work (and find it ok, usually, but not always the case), will I explain to the person why I was right.
The mentality that unions impart on people is just plain scary. They have absolutely NO capability to accept blame for ANYTHING.
By the way, it wasn’t that person, it was someone else - more classy, but the same in the end - the person claimed to have watched “Waiting for Superman” but was still an apologist for the teachers and blamed the parents for all the world’s problems.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2688381/posts
That is one of the funniest (and saddest) threads that I’ve ever read...GREAT JOB.
I’m terribly sorry for my grammar and spelling errors the other night. 12:30 A.M. and sleeping pills are not a great mix with the internet. Still, I’m lucky it was Free Republic and not my district e-mail.
That being said, some people can’t help but find any fault, with any teacher, at any time. It’s like they can finally get the revenge they have fantasized about for years. Hope it helped.
Will you admit that a fraction of teachers are bad, that unions protect them from being fired as they should, and that therefore the outcomes for kids are bad?
If you’ll just go there with me, I’ll back way the heck off.
FReegards,
UM
Will you admit that there are many teachers that are accused of being “bad” when in fact they are not supplied with proper materials, or are in situations of poor school leadership that prevent them from being ‘good” teachers.
Bad teachers are just bad employees like everywhere else. Not showing up on time, cussing people out, sloppy, not doing paperwork, and in general jerks. My union doesn’t waste time with these people. By the way tenure only means they have to give a reason why they fire you in these cases.
Many principals cry “union” when in fact they don’t want to do the simple job of writing someone up. It takes a strong person to say “you’re fired” and most people don’t enjoy doing it. Also remember when you fire someone you hire it is like admitting a mistake. Not something principals and superintends like to do. It calls their hiring judgment into question.
Here are some of the issues that got me involved with my local.
I’ve seen a teacher given poor reviews by a building administrator because the principal wanted to return to the classroom and take that job. Union couldn’t do anything, teacher was not rehired.
Our district just had a teacher fired because she reported being struck by a black student to the police. (Rib nearly broken) Well, technically her contract wasn’t renewed, even though the principal wanted her back. We have a very anti union, pro minority superintendent. Teachers are afraid to call the office sometimes. We have been told not to call the cops if assaulted, in such a manner as can’t be proven, of course.
Christian teachers have been called in to the principal’s office for having bibles or religious material on their desk. No preaching, just lunch reading material. You would be shocked how many times teachers are defended by their union for simple religious freedom issues that wouldn’t even cause comment in the private sector.
Teachers have had to invoke the contract in order to get enough desks and chairs for their students. Yet our superintendent’s office has been remodeled at least two times in the last 6 years.
My union constantly goes to bat for workplace issues that have a direct positive effect on the students. Usually to get the teacher agreed upon materials or space to do our job. This is done far more often than defending teachers being disciplined.
You rarely hear about these issues because we are not allowed to talk about them in public. Many of my fellow teachers are conservatives and came into the profession determined that the NEA or AFT was some type of evil empire. I did. It takes less than a year for most of them to turn around.
If you don’t believe me feel free to join up. We always need good people.
A simple “Yes” would have sufficed, after which the remainder of your rant would be fine.
However, since “Yes” is not forthcoming, I’ll presume your answer is “No,” and treat you like the Government Union Shill all your posts sound like.
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