“I love statements like this, because they manifest the professional educator’s worldview that learning only takes place in school.”
That isn’t their point at all. The real message is that real learning must be conducted under the auspices of a professionally trained and unionized school teacher. This is the classic union tactic of restricting the supply of labor in order to drive up wages.
What I love is the teacher union mantra that ‘we must increase teacher salaries to attract better teachers’. I have a series of questions when I hear this:
-What will you do with the present inadequate teachers when you get the new and better teachers? After all, if the old teachers are inadequate, why keep them?
The usual response is ‘who said the present teachers are inadequate’? And, the answer is ‘You did when you said you needed to pay more to get better teachers’.
Another response is ‘if we pay them more then they will teach better.’ And, my response is ‘do you mean the ones you have now could be better teachers if they would just try harder and work to their full potential? Do you get rewarded with pay raises when your boss thinks you’re not working to your full potential?’
You can have all sorts of fun with questions like this.
We’re not going to get any real political reform in California until the public employee’s unions are brought under control.