> The unions are the biggest defenders of maintaining the “status quo” over who can teach & who can’t. <
That might be true at the national level. I have no idea what goes on there. My point is that teachers - and their unions - have no input on what is actually taught in the schools. That is decided by state functionaries and by local school board members.
Might some of those folks be listening to some union guy? I guess. But in my long working career I’ve never heard a single union leader say “We’ve got to quit teaching X and starting teaching Y.”
I agree with you that much of what is being taught in public schools is garbage. And I agree with you that things must change. But the culprits are not the teachers, or their unions. The culprits are higher up on the food chain.
Side story: Maybe 20 years ago our district decided to make American History an optional course. Instead of taking that once-required course, you could take African History or Asian History instead. Imagine that. An American student need not learn his own history!
The history teachers were outraged by this. But nobody listened to them. The union stayed neutral, as this was a management prerogative. So who should get the blame for this stupid decision? Not the teachers. Not the union. I’d say it’s 100% on the school board.
“...I’ve never heard a single union leader say “We’ve got to quit teaching X and starting teaching Y.” ....”
They don’t need to say it. Its being pushed at the national leadership level by their leadership (Who didn’t just appear “ex nihilo”! Somebody backed them!) I guarantee if someone (a state legislator maybe!) went after those state education bureaucracy positions or ran “independent” of the “education” establishment the unions would go after them like a big dog over a bone!
I am not blaming the teachers for the most part they are trapped between a rock and a hard place.