Posted on 03/13/2011 7:09:32 AM PDT by Kaslin
Last year, even as education reformers all across the country were turning cartwheels in celebration of Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for ‘Superman,’” I remained skeptical. I’ve been keeping tabs on the teacher unions for years, and understand how they work hand-in-glove with the Democratic Party. Since Guggenheim is a well-known liberal (who famously directed Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”), I was certain that “Superman” would tiptoe around the destructive influence Big Labor has on the education system.
Last fall, during some down time on a business trip to New York City, I finally gave in and bought a $13 ticket at a Times Square movie theater to watch "Waiting for 'Superman.'" I was pleasantly surprised.
I’d gone in expecting Guggenheim to make excuses for the state of public education. Instead, Guggenheim grabbed the whole thing by the throat and didn't let go.
He told stories of children who were victimized by a system that puts adults first. He told of union campaign contributions that go to politicians who, in turn, act as the teacher unions’ political puppets. He showed rowdy union rallies and rubber rooms and classrooms that were out of control.
I marveled that a mainstream (liberal) movie maker was exposing the sorry state of public education and the destructive nature of the well-heeled teacher unions.
Needless to say, Guggenheim’s film did not play well with the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. They set up websites to attack his film. They dispatched high profile speakers around the country to fight back. And they cheered when Guggenheim was snubbed out of a nomination for another Oscar.
I have first-hand experience of how vicious the left’s attacks can get, so I can only imagine how they treated one of their own who had dared to step out of line.
Are these attacks the reason Guggenheim is starting to pull his punches?
In a recent conference call with film watchers, Guggenheim was asked his opinion of the goings-on in Wisconsin. Perhaps forgetting his film's content about union contracts and union priorities, he called collective bargaining an "essential principle." He even went so far as to say that he feared the "pendulum could swing too far the other way and employees could be treated the way they were in the industrial era."
Huh?
The idea of a public employee in a sweat shop is laughable. This is nearly as ridiculous as the president of the Michigan Education Association recently saying it’s beginning to look like “the slave days.” If they don't like how they're being treated, they can go get a job in the private sector because things are *so* much better there.
I’m beginning to wonder if Guggenheim is just a naïve Hollywood filmmaker who thought he was doing a community service by pointing out the shortcomings of public education. Perhaps he didn’t realize that he was taking on the power base of the Democratic Party – that the toes he was stepping on are protected by steel toed boots.
“Superman” correctly identified collective bargaining as a serious problem in public education. That’s how schools get saddled with three hundred-page contracts that are chock full of provisions about salary schedules (which reward years of employment instead of effectiveness), lavish health insurance and pension benefits, sick day pay outs, paid time off to conduct union business. . . on and on it goes.
(In Michigan and Wisconsin, the teacher unions even have it written into their collectively-bargained teacher contract that the school district will buy health insurance from a company owned by the teacher union!)
Guggenheim was right to make unions the villains of his film. But now that he’s starting to backpedal about collective bargaining, he’s getting heat from the reform community. There’s a bit of a mutiny on the “Waiting for ‘Superman’” Facebook page. The comments are decidedly opposed to Guggenheim's view, with some supporters going so far as to say they'll no longer promote the film.
Perhaps they'll gravitate towards "Kids Aren't Cars," a film series that pulls no punches and shows the ugly impact collective bargaining has had on American public education.
While the cause of education reform has been around for decades, I believe it wasn't until this liberal's film came on the scene (along with the ugly state budgets) that the issue finally took center stage. Guggenheim's Frankenstein has come to life. He should be proud of that, but he’s starting to waver.
My advice for Guggenheim: re-watch your film and don't go wobbly on us now.
That is my guess. He naively thought that the powers that be on the left really “cared about the children”. He did not believe that the left is all about power and control. Maybe he is rethinking that now.
bttt
Someone created Bizarro?
Two things liberals/progressives/Democrats hate are Republicans/conservatives and THE TRUTH!
Perhaps they'll gravitate towards "Kids Aren't Cars," a film series that pulls no punches and shows the ugly impact collective bargaining has had on American public education.
The fundamental problem with "public" education is that it is **PUBLIC**!!! ( Is a "duh" needed here?)
Unions are merely a symptom of the disease. The real disease is government socialism. Getting rid of unions is like surgically removing a wart from a person with stage IV cancer. Yeah!...The person is improved but does it really make a difference?
"Public" education is **government** education. Government programs by definition are built up compulsory socialist-funding, compulsory enrollment, collectivism, and voting mobs that elect comrade committees that control their neighbors. Government programs are **secular**! Therefore... ALL government schools in this nation are godless and have taught godless secular humanism thinking and reasoning to our nation's children since the days of my grandmother ( born 1894).
Government schools are what they are because they are **government**! It is inevitable that we will have all the problems in the government schools that come with **all** socialist programs.
Solution: Begin the process of privatizing all education. Get government out of the education business on every level ( federal, state, and local).
the problem starts with the parents. if parents took the time and really cared if their kids are getting a education. it would change.
To me the problems really started to take hold during the ‘witch trials’ of daycare workers and teachers in the mid 80’s.
That’s when the whole ‘strange-danger’ started to take hold.
That’s when all adults were not to be trusted, parents were not to be trusted, teachers were not to be trusted.....There was a power-shift.
Whole sectors of government were put into place to defend kids and give kids the ultimate power. Society as a whole accepted that ‘children come first’ and ‘children don’t lie’ and ‘adults should not be allowed to (fill in the blank)’
The societal mood changed to “It takes a village” years before that phrase went mainstream. It was up to the village to make sure the villagers didn’t discipline or educate the kids as in the past.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_care_sex_abuse_hysteria
The most amazing and impactful movie in the past 10 years. Do NOT miss Waiting for Superman.
I watched it a couple of weeks ago - very good!
Surprised with that director -I can see many liberals flocking to it because of the directors last movie and many conservatives shunning the movie for the same reason.
It’s coming out now that the opposite is true :)
Ah, yes.......the old "parents are to blame" tune. Please elaborate. BTW, considering that this is a thread concerning education, the sentence structure of your post is hilarious.
Oh wow! More “blame the parents”!
So?...Who “educated” the parents? Our nation's parents have been indoctrinated in government schools that taught from a godless worldview since at least the days of my grandmother ( born: 1894!) Surely, that must have some effect on our nation.
Also..How do we even **know** if government schools teach anything? Where are the studies that plainly separate out what is learned in the institutional school from what is acquired **in the home**?
If you know of an academically successful child, that child was **afterschooled** or homeschooled. BOTH take the SAME AMOUNT OF TIME and work by the PARENTS!
The following is an anecdotal observation:
I was the owner of and doctor in a large health clinic. Over my career I have know several thousand families. I asked parents who had academically successful children about their home habits and study habits. ( Mostly, I was looking for ideas for my own family.)
I found that there was little to **NO** difference between families ( homeschooled or institutionalized) with children who were academically successful. Both sets of families had the same values and home habits. Both sets of children were spend about the **SAME** amount of time in study at the kitchen table or at their desks IN THE HOME.
The same was true for academically successful foreign born children. Their parents were getting help from older children, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, and ( especially) parent organized study clubs. The success of their children was due to the massive amount of work done **OUTSIDE** of school and IN THE HOME!
I concluded:
Again...If you know of an academically successful child, that child was **afterschooled** or homeschooled. BOTH take the SAME AMOUNT OF TIME and work by the PARENTS!
But...When it comes to undoing godless government secular humanist indoctrination...that may take **more** time on the part of the parents.
Finally...If it really is the parents who are doing all the hard work, then maybe we, as conservatives, should shut down the government schools and focus on getting the parents educated!
( Capitalizing for emphasis only.)
Tell Cindy to read this article. I was a little skeptical about this film because it was produced by a liberal. She said the movie was legit. But I had a feeling it was a matter of time. Guggenheim is going wobbly.
It must be tough for a liberal to get sniffed at and snubbed by the same liberal cocktail party crowd that once celebrated you for alerting the world to the coming “global warming” catastrophe.
(( ping ))
Have you seen the film? MANY of THOSE parents were DOING JUSt thAT....sacrificing for their kids so they could get out of the educational propaganda factories. The movie exposed the CHILD Abuse the unions promote.
Thanks for the ping.
Last fall, during some down time on a business trip to New York City, I finally gave in and bought a $13 ticket at a Times Square movie theater to watch "Waiting for 'Superman.'" I was pleasantly surprised. I'd gone in expecting Guggenheim to make excuses for the state of public education. Instead, Guggenheim grabbed the whole thing by the throat and didn't let go... I marveled that a mainstream (liberal) movie maker was exposing the sorry state of public education and the destructive nature of the well-heeled teacher unions. Needless to say, Guggenheim's film did not play well with the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. They set up websites to attack his film. They dispatched high profile speakers around the country to fight back. And they cheered when Guggenheim was snubbed out of a nomination for another Oscar. I have first-hand experience of how vicious the left's attacks can get, so I can only imagine how they treated one of their own who had dared to step out of line. Are these attacks the reason Guggenheim is starting to pull his punches?
>>>the problem starts with the parents. if parents took the time and really cared if their kids are getting a education. it would change.<<<
You would think, as a teacher myself, I would agree with statement. I don’t.
Parents, like all of us, respond to things according to the environment in which they find themselves. Back in the day, when school districts were operated by local school boards, some parents did work (and volunteer) for the schools because that was the only way to get things done. Not all parents, though. A check of the literature from 100 years ago shows that there was the same worry we have today about uninvolved parents.
Unfortunately, the response was to professionalize teaching, something done at the hands of ardent socialists like John Dewey and institutions like the Columbia University Teacher’s College. Sure enough, teaching schools starting producing educators who knew “methods” that set them apart from the sort of learning that went on at home - and since it’s natural to consider “them” as stupid or bad, teachers starting thinking of parents as the enemy of education. I’ve seen this throughout my teaching career.
This is my point about environment. If you’re a parent confronted by a major institution in your community telling you that they know better about teaching your child, a fairly robust number of people will accept that as fact. Involved parents are seen by teachers as annoyances interferring with “professional practices,” and most parents don’t want to fight that battle. So parents remain uninvolved. (In fact, if you want the hair on your neck to stand up, read a little of the obtuse verbosity of John Dewey and Edward Thorndike, both of whom thought they could shape new human beings in schools once the little snots [my words] were out of their restrictive homes and communities.)
So here we are - an elite teaching our kids, parents shut out by design, and the students themselves torn between both. Don’t misunderstand me, either - societies that consider teaching an elite profession, like the Chinese, Japanese, and Jews, produce fabulously good students. The different is that those cultures have families and parents working closely with the teachers. Our teachers stand apart.
The soluton, in my mind, is to get rid of tenure, along with The Union Which Supposedly Represents Me. Restore local control of schools, with each community school board determining what is taught. Get rid of the Department of Education. Allow people with knowledge from the private sector easy access to teaching credentials. (For instance, I was a journalist for 20 years - sad but true - and the state of Alaska would not accept that working experience as sufficient to teach English. The same is true for an engineer on the North Slope who wants to teach chemistry and physics.)
Last, I’d say that the attitude of teachers needs to get a swift kick in the ass (which is coming, thanks to Wisconsin). My job is to support the parents of the students in my classroom. Like I said, many parents have been beated down by the system, but that doesn’t mean I have to join in the brawl. My students know that their parents and I are on the same side. You’d be amazed at how effectively that establishes discipline.
Be well.
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