Chicago Teachers Vote to Continue Strike

We are in a historically bad economy with unemployment levels only surpassed by the Great Depression. As a consequence many people with degrees are forced into areas of the work force which does not use their degrees as intended, “underemployment”. This is why you are noting degreed people working at the stores and jobs you reference.

In my opinion, the Mayor forced this strike by increasing the school day by an hour without negotiating it and by increasing the weight of test scores (read - the community) of the yearly evaluation by 33%. I am not sure why he did this but he either miscalculated on the Union’s acquiescence or did it to be The Man On The White Horse to save the city from the Union. It is extremely interesting.

I am sure you do know how these unions work and would appreciate your observations on just what is going on here. But it is not a case of the teachers walking for more money there appears to be some very deep forces going on.

I agree with you re: any government unions striking. It is part of the curse of government employment that it either protects bad employees or leaves good ones vulnerable to the wrong side of patronage systems in their various forms. A good reason to keep government as small as possible!

I remember back in the ‘70s when black-majority inner city school boards and parents started demanding that their teacher population reflect the increasingly black demographics of the student bodies. In many cases this led to much more qualified and literate teachers being let go or not hired for the sake of taking on too often lower-quality black teachers.

I can’t help but think of all of the millions of black students over the decades since who would have been better off with a higher quality education, even if it meant they encountered a caring white adult in their daily lives. And of course, the same demands trickled up to the principal and superintendent levels as well. (This is of course not to say that there weren’t and aren’t some very good and qualified black teachers in the system.)

And I agree with you that the ‘business model’ of test score-based merit pay, etc., is not the answer to our failing school systems. IMO a lot of the problem is simply caused by having adopted the ‘whole language’ or now ‘blended’ teaching of reading as well as simply atrocious processes for math. Less teacher ed and more straightforward teaching of content would do our educational systems a world of good.

Children are shaped largely by the cultures they are raised within. Those of particularly strong ego structures can raise themselves above their backgrounds but it is not that common.

What the War on Poverty has done is INSTITUTIONALIZE poverty.
And in order to do this it had to destroy the Black family.

In the 1930s the out of wedlock birth rate of blacks was similar to that of whites, now it is 75% or more. It is that sense of loss which allows the rage and hatred to grow.
These fatherless children hate themselves and therefore everything else.

This strike has turned over some interesting facts. Chicago teacher racial composition has changed drastically and now the per cent of Black teachers is far below the per cent of Black population and especially Black students.

Small government has to be demanded by the People and, so far, it has not. This makes it hard for those campaigning on a small government platform to win.

How much bigger has the federal government grown as a result of protecting the rights of Blacks? Numerous court cases, Justice Department involvement, Education Department, HUD, even, under Ike, military involvement. A growth industry.

I guess there are some education courses which are necessary to teach though I do not know what they are but the whole curriculum should be reduced and hiring of actual subject majors be increased along with you.

I am totally aware of the near-impossibility of teaching the welfare class, as I spent 14 years in public schools as a teacher (my first year was in a firmly welfare-class school).

But I also know that some teachers are not educators - they teach to draw a check. Chicago is one of those states - they are the highest paid baby-sitters in the country (other than possibly the US Secret Service).

The problem is massive - and the teachers are just one component in it. Government control is one major problem - those who are making the rules, requirements, and policies for schools known nothing about the real state of schools and “education”.

The courts have hog tied schools in many ways - from giving special protected status to a major portion of those students who DO NOT BELONG in the regular school setting. They can come and disrupt, they can break the rules, they can break the LAW - and the school cannot kick them out (well - they can, but then they must still provide 100% of the educational servicing to that student outside the school setting - who can afford to hire a private teacher for each kid that gets suspended/expelled for bad behavior who has been classified as “special needs” - formerly special education).

And we now are seeing the 2nd and third generation of fully-indoctrinated teachers who take their charge to further indoctrinate children more seriously than their responsibility to teach them how to read, write, calculate numbers, and real history.

We have school administrators who are not “educational leaders” - they are bullies who nitpick the minor details, while allowing Rome to burn. Then again - it is hard to blame them - the courts and legislatures have bound their hands from addressing many of the components that are causing the fire in the first place. So they pick on what they can... which causes students to further withdraw, and teachers to have low morale.

The majority of “parents” (I use quotation marks because REAL parents, those who take their God-ordained responsibility to raise their children, to provide for their children, and to make certain their children are educated STARTING AT HOME, are few and far between) are disengaged from their children’s education. They only get involved when the situation forces them to. Even then, they often engage the school with rather extreme (and unmerited) hostility. The few parents that have legitimate complaints and concerns often get lost in the mess, or their concerns have no clear answers because of all the above.

In Chicago - the teachers and their union have made excuse after excuse and refuse any changes (because change usually means more work). Without change, the Chicago schools will never improve. But without a massive change in attitude of the people (not just the students), legislators, courts, and the government in general - those kids are stuck along with teachers who are more concerned with getting paid more than the majority of Chicago citizens than doing all they can for the kids.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.