Day of Action evinces disdain for education

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/9/10 | Debra J. Saunders

[SmithL]

The biggest problem with last week's March 4 Day of Action to Defend Education, which was organized to protests cuts in California's education spending: The event showed how little educators and students value education.

After all, if teachers believed that class time is sacrosanct, they would have scheduled the protests for a Saturday, not a school day.

Of course, on a Saturday, educrats in schools like Oceana High in Pacifica or San Francisco's Commodore Sloat Elementary could not have used other people's children as props for their politics. Fewer students would have shown up. So they gave up class time.

Activists have been equally ready to dispense with college course work. Now I understand why University of California students would be angry at the cuts imposed on the UC system in the face of a 32 percent fee increase in the fall.

What I do not understand is the decision to protest the cuts and fee increases by protesting during precious (and expensive) class time. Ditto, as has happened, faculty and students walking out of classrooms to protest classroom funding cuts.

Whom do these actions punish? Not UC executives. Not Sacramento politicians. They punish only those students who care so much about their education that they don't want to miss a day of it.

As one who worked her way through college, I cannot help but see walkouts and weekday protests as proof that many UC students do not value the jewel that has been handed to them. Students could be learning a language, studying the stars or exploring the chemistry of the human body. Instead, they have chosen to chant and obstruct.

That goes doubly for students who engage in violence or vandalism. If UC administrators had any spine, they would make demonstrators prosecuted for vandalism clean toilets...

[oyez]

With my old principal, detention meant labor. Many a Saturday morning, he greeted the punished with paint brush, or mop and pail. That was a long time ago. If he tried that this day and time he would be probably hit with a lawsuit. (Which is another thing that is wrong with the educational system)

[13Sisters76]

I started college (the first time) back in 1969. In the first few years, I had more than a couple of classes cancelled by the prof because he was joining other “protesters” for a sit-in, be-in, love in or some other goofy collection of nitwits. Of course, back then as a naive 18-19 or 20-year old, I thought they were brave and right, so I ignored those feelings of pique that came from paying for those courses out of my own pocket.

I know better now- middle class kids and “protestors” have no clue about how any system operates and they stage their protests in the vacuum of total ignorance. When one hasn’t had to earn what one owns, it means nothing. That includes an education.

[Buckeye McFrog]

this is the same mentality I witnessed living amongst UAW types in Michigan....if we aren’t getting what we want, we must not be demanding it loud enough...scream louder!