I do blame the teachers. If they were more interested in the kids instead of their union benefits, things would be different.
> I do blame the teachers. If they were more interested in the kids instead of their union benefits, things would be different. <
How different? No teacher can successfully challenge school board policies for long, and get away with it. It doesn’t matter whether their benefits are their number one priority, or no priority at all.
I was a physics teacher for many years. And for some unfathomable reason, I was told that I must not teach the concept of “torque” anymore. Torque was no longer an approved topic. Teaching an unapproved topic was a firing offense. It was called “infidelity to the curriculum”.
Well, I taught torque anyway. It was just too central to mechanics to be ignored! And I got away with it - of my supervisors didn’t even know what torque was. I was close to retirement anyway. If I was caught, I’d be able to retire before all the firing paperwork was finalized.
But good teachers I know did get fired. For example, a friend of mine would dress up as Shakespeare when he covered Shakespeare’s works. But that was not in the curriculum! He was fired. And since he didn’t have tenure yet, he was fired quickly. Gotta make an example of those rebels!
I wish I were kidding. But I’m not. And notice that nothing here involved unions, or union benefits. (And by the way, yes, teacher unions are corrupt. But that has no effect on curriculum.)
(Sorry for the rant.)
Teachers were my heros. I thought teachers were the smartest people on the planet. Then I grew up and discovered that most teachers aren’t very bright.