Posted on 12/02/2002 9:13:24 AM PST by geedee
After reading about the trials of Santa Monica (California) High School student Steve Miller, to say nothing of how many young minds are being poisoned every day, teachers themselves, seemed like a worthwhile educational topic.
Teachers Consider Themselves Victims
According to the National Education Association (NEA), the average salary of a U.S. public school teacher for the 2001-02 school year was $44,499. No doubt, this is much lower than other professions such as law and medicine, but one can't enter those with a 2.0 undergrad average from, say, Chico State, nor are there many emergency provisions to obtain employment in those fields without proper certification.
Unlike the other professions, teaching has the security of civil service, and there are almost unlimited opportunities to make considerably more money by simply hanging in, running extracurricular programs, and by becoming an administrator. It is not uncommon for a school administrator, in larger districts, to make well over $100,000.
The "victim" persona comes from them comparing their worthy occupation of instructing America's youth, and being involved in intellectual pursuits, to highly paid entertainers and athletes. To be fair, they also take way too much criticism for being the sole cause of our country getting continuously more stupid with every passing year. They are more aware than most that this failure is primarily the result of the destruction of the American family – especially amongst the Black population – but being toe-tag liberals, cannot say this. This makes them feel even more victimized.
If you're a victim, you're a leftie.
Teachers Consider Themselves To Be Intellectuals
Teachers work with books all day, and, at least, on the surface, are engaging in activities of the mind. They can take some comfort in this, when they compare themselves to athletes and others who seem to get a lot of money for merely physical attributes. Most intellectuals believe that they are superior to all other people, who, even if they must use their minds in their work, have sold out in some manner to achieve their economic success. What could be a more pure use of the intellect than instructing children, after all?
As intellectuals, they are only too ready to tell everyone else how to live, and to put that into practice requires an all-powerful government. Like most intellectuals, they seem to care little for the original functions of government, such as defense, police, and promoting commerce. And like most intellectuals, they enjoy embracing the most perverse ideas, just for the attention.
If you're an intellectual, as this term applies today, you're a leftie.
Teachers Belong To A Huge And Powerful Union
Stripped to its essentials, the NEA is about more money for the school districts, always and without limits of any kind, less accountability, and nearly every single left-wing cause you could possibly imagine. Oh yes, they talk about accountability, but inevitably refer to it as a complex issue that will require more study, so nothing ever seems to actually get done about it.
The NEA sends more voting delegates to the Democratic National Convention than does the State of California, yet the NEA enjoys tax-exempt status, claiming not to engage in political activities of any kind.
Perhaps the teachers would consider themselves less of a victim class if they made significantly more money, but the NEA – like most unions – does its best to determine that will never happen, by protecting bad performers, and fighting against the competition that would occur if vouchers were widely used. The NEA's animus against vouchers stems, of course, from its atheism, since a goodly portion of vouchers would be used to support parochial schools. I guess it's important to be able to choose to terminate a pregnancy, but not to choose where your kid goes to school.
If you're still a true believer in trade unions, you're a leftie.
Teachers Have No Self-Esteem
I know teachers talk about self-esteem all the time, but think of the frat boy who always talked about his sexual conquests, and then was unmasked to have none. For many of them, it's all they can do to lord it over a bunch of kids, and it is just in this kind of environment that Leftist politics flourishes. Why? Since none of the cockamamy ideas would ever stand up to debate, and can only be promulgated unchallenged. That's also why most teachers tend to hang out with other teachers. Despite all the air of superiority, they really do feel inferior. They can take comfort only with their own, and other downtrodden folks.
If you have no self-esteem, you're a leftie.
One or two of these factors would push many people over to the Left, but since most teachers have all four going full-blast, their present condition is easy to understand.
This is disgusting. Most organizations that lean to the left, such as AARP, receive tax preference. Donations to conservative groups, to the contrary, are not deductable.
Public unions can be broken, Reagan did it, Thatcher did it. It takes will and the will to mobilize resources to do without the 'withheld labor' of the unionistas.
Seems to me I've met one or two of those....
If I recollect correctly, National Education Assn. was founded by an insurance agent whose wife happened to be a teacher. He cooked up a better insurance package than teachers were getting from their districts. Sounds good to me. But once the money and power were there, corruption by the Democrats soon followed.
Sweden good, USA bad;
collectivist good, individualist bad;
black, hispanic, native American good; white, jewish, bad;
Islam good; Christian, Jewish, bad;
socialism good, capitalism bad;
enrivonmentalists good, industrialists bad;
emotion good, reason bad;
and on and on and on.
I asked my son to get me this teacher's email address. He did it.....if a bit nervously.:) I sent this clown an email wherein I explained that I was VERY aware of what he had been spouting to his class (his own, very liberal opinions) under the guise of "teaching". I challenged him to openly debate such issues with me in front of his class(es) if he was so sure of the veracity of his stances. I made it clear that it was his duty to teach; to present facts; to present multiple sides of every issue. He wasn't doing that, so I called him on it. I also laid out my qualifications for such a debate, provided my work and home phone numbers, and awaited a response.
I got one......and double quick.
The guy sent me an email response and fell all OVER himself apologizing. I mean, I thought he was going to drive to my house and beg to kiss my behind while exposing his throat.
No more problem.
Stand up to these jerks, folks, and CHALLENGE them. Like all bullies, they back down when someone stands up to them.
The motivating force behind teaching and all the problems of mass-schooling is control, which is, of course, the heart of leftism. Control drives the unions, it drives the laws, it lays seige on the homeschoolers. (Perhaps the desire for control arises out of low self-esteem or perhaps the low self-esteem develops out of a failure to do something besides learn how to control. It matters not. Any point that relies on a "self-esteem" argument is lame.)
John Taylor Gatto wrote an excellent essay ( The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher) on this topic. Even the most well-meaning teachers fall into the control trap.
The right of public employee's to strike needs to be resolved, and soon (within 50 years). I do not believe that an employee of a government entity has a natural right to strike. The employee of a private entity has the natural right to withhold his labor, as the opposite would be slavery.
Employee's of public institutions, by virtue of the inherent security of government employment and the publics reliance on a monopoly of labor, i.e. police , fire, should not have the right to strike. They should, however, be granted immediate access to the courts for the resolution of grievances.
Some of my friends wonder why I am not complacent about certain things. If you don't stand up to the "Velvet Glove Bullies", they tun into "Iron Hands".
I suppose I should have noted that many, if not most, are already tilting left to begin with. Our universities virtually guarantee it.
You did the right thing calling this guy on the carpet.
As an instructor myself, I have observed many kids accept what they are taught. So many times, differing opinions are ostrasized in the classroom, so kids just go with it; they don't want to be singled out by the teach.
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