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The teaching profession is full of a bunch of left-wing ideologues who, instead of teaching, push agendas such as: environmentalism, homosexuality, modern junk math instead of the rote method, whole word instead of phonics, junk science, many no longer give "F's" and an A is now almost meaningless, they push self-esteem rather than grading students properly, etc. And we wonder why were ranked 20th worldwide in math and science. Oh that's right most elementary teachers have degrees in what? And are teaching what? Teachers are classifying too many children all because they can't handle the students, many are actually referring them for Ritalin and it's mostly the boys who the teachers can't teach. Many schools have been changed into social service agencies and baby sitting services. Education should start in the home and must be reinforced in the homes. Well at least I agree with one of your statements--the last one (as most teachers do). Such was the "choice" that my father exercised as his children went through public schools. He taught us good values and reinforced the value of education. All 8 of us were top students and lead productive lives (no we didn't go to Harvard or Yale, but we all are productive in our fields and have strong families--fulfilling my mom's wishes for us to be "good" kids). I can make this part longer, but won't. Oh no, I encountered another angry person like other education liberals. I will finally come out of the closet. I am a left-winger (my right one is getting mended at the moment). I wear a red arm band on my left arm and have a secret mind-control device behind my right ear. I teach terrible things like math and reading. I use phonics (I don't know of any teacher who does not) rules almost too excessively. Yes, I do bad things like teaching respect for parents, working hard, being honest, having strong families, respecting others, and so on. I must be carefl of my left-wing agenda. The kids love my "junk" science. I am making a trip out to the scrapyard this weekend in fact. I make my students take the "drug" of water if they need a drink. I have never referred them for anything else (no teacher is allowed to--any drug referrals are usually done by parents and doctors). Oh yeah, that h---garbage, that's everywhere. It's so prevalent that I have never been able to find it anywhere in our curriculum. Let's see, we are required to to teach respect for national symbols and (respect for) the pledge of allegiance which we recite each day. Oh the horror! Oh no, I don't give f's to a's as do the junior and senior high schools. But there is a strict letter grading system used in our district (Yes I have given all of them). Hmmm, that self-esteem. I will have to remember that one. It's been so long since I've really seen it. I do hear it from time to time from a parent though. I'll have to look it up in the dictionary. Hmmm... elementary teachers (all of them here) have degrees in education, and many with some extra area of emphasis. Wow! We do daycare now?!!! I'll have to tell my sister about that. I wonder if that means we'll have to take some diaper-changing class. We're ranked 20th in the world? Interesting. When I was in Korea (ranked #1 many years), it was only the tip-top students (as in many countries) that took the tests they used. I'll have to work harder to convince them to do otherwise, but as one teacher told me there--"we're trying to be like America." I loved your articles you used. Hmmm....using the same media in some instances (using right-biased ones with an agenda against education in others) that some conservatives decry as being liberal-biased. Yes, I guess people like Dan Rather can make up stories about President Bush, but if people like him say anything bad about education, it MUST be true and accurate. Hmmm.... I'll have to remember that. Yes, those teachers are responsible for all the world's problems, just like the liberals think President Bush is. I think it says somewhere that teachers will start Armageddon too--oh darn--we've been blamed for that too. I will just have to quit doing so many liberal things in my classroom like the free kids' meals when they go up a grade in reading level (about 50 last year). I will have to quit teaching them reading, writing, math, and science so much. The kids will be sad. I will have to quit making those home visits when needed, giving out those awards for being good students, having parent programs about 6 times a year, calling parents so much (about 4 or 5 hours a week, rarely for bad behavior), doing that outside reading tutoring for free 3 nights a week, spending 3 hours a day correcting, and so on and so on. Boy, I must be a BAD teacher. Thank you so much for your pointing that out with your emphasis on the negative, complaining, and blaming others. I should learn from that. They are good liberal traits to have. I do appreciate your last comment. I love working with the parents of my students. I live in the neighborhood I teach and learn much from the good parents of many of the children. We teachers do appreciate good parents and do encourage them to spend more time with their children. We recognize that the best home situation is not Heather and two mommies, but rather a nuclear, two-parent family. I make a particular emphasis in encouraging dads to become part of their kids' education. Thank you for your comments. I do learn from them, especially how really bad I am doing. After all, to become left-wing, is why this white male conservative became a teacher. I decided to do something to see how I could give of my time instead of complain and blame others. Perhaps, I can still learn more of the latter.