How to be good democRAT

1. You have to believe the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.

2. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.

3. You have to believe that guns, in the hands of law-abiding Americans, are more of a threat than U. S. nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Chinese communists.

4. You have to believe that there was no art before Federal funding.

5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical, documented changes in the earth's climate, and more affected by yuppies driving SUVs.

6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial, but being homosexual is natural.

7. You have to be against capital punishment but support abortion on demand.

8. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.

9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but loony activists from Seattle do.

10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.

11. You have to believe the military, not corrupt politicians, start wars.

12. You have to believe the NRA is bad, because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good, because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.

13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.

14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, George Washington or Thomas Edison.

15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides aren't.

16. You have to believe that Hillary Clinton is really a lady.

17. You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried, is because the right people haven't been in charge.

18. You have to believe conservatives telling the truth belong in jail, but a liar and sex offender belongs in the White House.

19. You have to believe that homosxxual parades displaying drag, transvestites and bestiality should be constitutionally protected and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.

20. You have to believe that illegal Democratic Party funding by the Chinese is somehow in the best interest of the United States.

VOTE DEMOCRATIC... It's easier than getting a job!

 

And to be a good `publican, you just have to believe everything they tell ya, right?

 

The way GW has F'ed up public education with his "No child left behind" mularky is nothing to be proud of. I know this is lighthearted humor but that any mention of education and politics stimulates the same reaction these days. Either the policy needs to change or I need less teachers in my family......I'd be thrilled to get both.

 

These issues are way too complex to distill into this partisanship-based perspective. Which is a problem in itself.

Could you imgine if the framers of the Constitution had partisan differences when they were trying to draft the document? We'd still be paying taxes to the King of England.

 

Re: Re: How to be good democRAT

The purpose behind the act was to make schools accountable for results. What has screwed up education is the school's response. They now teach kids to take the tests rather than give kids the knowledge the tests were designed to measure.

As usual, the education lobby thinks more money would help.

I would have said "You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th graders how to read at their present pay will somehow get the job accomplished if you pay them more."

 

Re: Re: Re: How to be good democRAT

Money always helps! Just look at what central planning did for the Soviet Union!

 

More stupid partisan drivel. Nothing to see here - move along.

 

Thank you occifer Barbrady.

 

I wasn't talking about you numnuts - I didn't even understand your point.

 

It is a natural response to the law. The legislation is driving this behavior. If the only form a measurement you use to determine my success is test results, what more would you expect me to teach? Why would I worry about conceptual learning when I am not measured on the child's ability to understand concepts?

NCLB is a piece of crap but the schools are not to blame for this situation, the legislation is the culprit.

 

Then what is the solution? How are schools to be held accountable for results? Their performance has been going downhill for years, which is exactly why the schools are to blame. They shouldn't need oversite from outside sources. It's become a union/government job, a fatal combination if ever there was one.
No need to produce combined with no accountability.

What I expect from teachers is that they do the job they are being paid to do or get a job in the private sector.
Conceptual learning is tough when you have no basic education in factual learning. Schools need to get back to teaching the basics first and teachers need to learn adaptive teaching strategies rather than the one-method-for-all approach they now use.

 

IYC, I agree with you. You ask what I think the solution is? The people I work with everyday wont like it but TRUE ACCOUNTIBILITY is the key.

You know what happens when a Principal hires a teacher that sucks? Well, he/she does not tell anyone, and gives the teacher a good job recommendation that carries his/her crappy teaching skills on to the next school.

Until both Teachers and Admins start losing jobs due to poor results (all results, not just tests) we will not have real accountability. They keep saying that it is coming but it never does.

Oh yeah, a little help from the private sector helps too (shameless plug coming)

http://www.thinkfive.com

 

Why are teachers unionized to begin with?

Teachers like to compare themselves to engineers, lawyers, and other professionals. Maybe they should act like them. Those other professions don't have unions to protect the incompetent. Nor should teachers have the right to strike when they also have legal guarantees to their wages (i.e. legally mandated number of school days). When you strike, you're supposed to lose money today in the name of something better tomorrow. Teachers lose nothing as they get paid for a full year regardless of the length of the strike. A strike is a no-lose for teachers. As such, it should be banned by law. Go on strike, get fired.

Why do high school teachers have tenure?

Tenure exists so that professors can perform research without worrying about their job status. Since a high school teacher does nothing of the sort, they have no legitimate need for tenure. As such, it should be eliminated. Then crappy teachers could get the firing they deserve. Performance should dictate pay and employment, not seniority.

Yes, in the south, teachers can be underpaid. But here in the northeast, they are overpaid and underworked. They also have a union that protects losers who deserve to be fired for incompetence.

 

MTK, you hit it right on the head. My sister in law has taught for 10-12 years in FL, and the whole time has had a second job starting at 4 pm. Not because she's underpaid, but because her husband is well, less than gainfully employed let's say. 6-7 hrs a day is not full time, nor is 9 months/year.

BTW, we have home schooled our kids for 9 years and when we started she gave us a load of NEA crap. They take the same standardized tests as everyone else and all but one year both have been in the 90-95% range. One dropped to 88% one year.

Now she has her own kid and says there is no way she'll put her in ANY government school, even the one she teaches in. About 1/3 of government school teachers put theirs in private school.

 

At one point in my life I considered a career in the teaching profession. Am I glad I decided against it!

One thing you teacher-bashers should remember is that teachers are extremely limited in what they are allowed to do, but the expectations placed on them are unrealistically high.

They are expected to teach the most egregious PC crap/drivel you could possibly imagine. They are handed teaching materials such as textbooks/videos/software, and told, "You must teach what is in here, strictly by the book, even if you know the facts are wrong and/or conclusions are wrong." Whatever is popular with the PC crowd or the history revisionists this year is what gets taught to your children. I've read a number of recent textbooks used here in NC, and I've consistently been astonished at what is taught that passes for fact and history.

If a teacher deviates from the standard curriculum or crosses some arbitrary, invisible line of PCness, they can expect to be reprimanded or fired. A few years ago a teacher near Wilmington, NC was severely reprimanded for teaching her class the word "niggardly." A parent, who did not know what the word means and didn't care to learn, was offended because she thought it sounded like a racial slur. Last year a teacher in the Sanford area was fired because she casually mentioned to another teacher that she had applied for a Concealed Handgun Permit. The 2nd teacher went to the principal and said she was in fear for her life. Result - you're fired because someone irrationally believes you might be a danger.

Parents have learned that they can ignore their children's behavior, and blame it on the school. Teachers are expected to keep problem children under control, but the teachers had better not lay a hand on the child or even speak a harsh word. OTOH, there is no protection for a 5'2" 105 lb. teacher from a 6', 190 lb. 14-year old who is on drugs and is pissed off because his parents pay no attention to him. I have seen parents angry over their child's poor performance scream at and threaten a teacher, when it was clearly the fault of the parents for not being at all interested in their child's schooling.

There's a lot more stuff like that. It's no wonder the teachers have banded together and made their unions even stronger. I'm constantly amazed that anyone even wants to be a teacher anymore. The problem is that when you make it that difficult, the good ones leave and only the dregs remain.

 

I agree S & S, and I don't know what the large scale solution is. I'm not bashing teachers per se, they are indeed restricted in what they can do. I don't hold the teachers as responsible as I do the NEA. They are after power - not smarter kids. When I was 12, if I smarted off I got whipped by the teacher. Now we are too 'enlightened' for that, and we have huge levels of stupidity coming out of government schools.

Here is where I believe it started: during Viet Nam, to avoid the draft many went to college. The easiest courses are in the education colleges; thus we had a whole crop of left leaning draft dodging teachers, who are now the NEA and in charge of those colleges of education. I know what I just said is a giant hand waving generalization, but you get the point.

Socialism only takes hold when a population is dumb enough to let it or worse, vote for it. With our kids being taught that capitalism is bad, the Founding Fathers were all Facists, God is dead and condoms can replace judgement, who could predict anything else but what we have in the last 30 years?

Think about it: you're out busting your butt in a business or a job, paying taxes so some 23 year old can tell your kid how evil and stupid you are because you are one of THEM.

Parents used to be able to trust teachers - no longer. It is the parents responsibility to make sure kids are taught morals and everything else.

MTK, didn't you say you got a parochial school education? You may not like the religious aspect, but at least your not an idiot now.

 

No, I went to public school. I just got the after school version of Catholic indoctrination.

As for teachers and their problems, I frankly don't give a good dump about their problems. In my view, they're overpaid, underworked, and then have the chutzpah to compare themselves to career fields that are much more academically rigorous and also don't get three months of vacation every year.

 

My wife is a teacher and this bashing is seriously pissing me off. My wife isn't perfect but she's not lazy, stupid, or trying to get away with anything. She, and we by extension, endures rediculous wages for a college educated professional. Can anyone name a profession that requires a Bachelors degree and offers $24K with laughable benefits? None of that matters to her (it drives me nuts) because she loves teaching kids. The BS that comes with the job is rediculous and wouldn't be tolerated in any other profession. Perhaps the union is just weak in NC. At any rate, the BS is driving her out of the profession and this will be her last year. I'm thrilled at the shorter hours and increased salary she'll be bringing in but for the kids its a loss.

My hats off to teachers -- I wouldn't take that shit for 2 seconds.

 

That's there.

Up here, teachers start at about $35k.

If they manage to not impregnate or kill any of their students for one year, they get tenure. Then it's a job for life. No longer do you have to worry about actually being able to teach, because they've got tenure to protect them in case they're incompetent.

No HS teacher deserves tenure, period. They don't do a damn thing that could be considered "research" so they don't deserve the protections of tenure.

Then once tenured, the money really starts to roll in. Several of the local school districts have HS teachers making $75k per year or more. In fact, several districts have that as the average salary. My own HS was in that category. I had about two teachers who were worth the money they earned. The rest were overpaid and underworked. Unless you consider "in by 8, out by 3" as a full day and nine months as a full work year. I don't, on either count.