Posted on 12/02/2002 9:13:24 AM PST by geedee
So yes, I bash "teachers" fully recognizing that on the whole, they are good-hearted, well-meaning people. Perhaps not the sharpest tools in the barn, perhaps rather sheltered, but honest and generous nonetheless.
I bash a hopelessly broken system that the same people, teachers, would defend to the death.
I bash a philosophy that believes that the State knows better. If the same good teachers believe this philosphy, so be it.
I bash a culture of dependency- the notion that you can't know something unless a "teacher" teaches it to you. Many teachers are threatened by the idea that they aren't essential.
I bash the idea that a teaching credential imparts a special, cosmic power to an individual, elevating them to some mysterious higher plane of being "qualified" to spend time with a child. I took those classes and they were quite useless.
I bash equating grades with worth or potential. It is a false standard. I bash anyone who waves grades in a parent's face as a measure of a child or their parenting skills. My gpa was higher than yours, but what does that mean? Not a blooming thing!
I bash the notion that children are little cookie-cutter people that can be put together on an assembly line in a factory, who all learn to read at the same age, who all learn to multiply on the same day, who all paint blue skies and red flowers with green leaves. Teachers who pay lip service to the individuality of each child, but then try to cram them into a cagegory (like "learning disabled", "ADD", "average", etc.) need to be bashed along with the system.
I bash without apology because it is going to take quite a jolt to dislodge the mass-schooling paradigm in this country. And I encourage all teachers to read the writings of John Taylor Gatto. His essays are widely available on the internet and several chapters of his book is at his website.
You ask what I (among others) am doing? I have volunteered in my kids schools in the areas of my expertise and have been constantly engaged with the marxist and socialist history facutly in my daughters' high school. Perhaps, if I am not too old then, I will semi-retire to teach after my kids are out of college. The problem, of course, is that it is almost impossible to be hired if you are a conservative, because the existing faculty are all so left wing. In our 22 person social studies department, the most conservative person is a liberal democrat, most descibe themselves as some sort of democratic socialist or social democrat -- they admire the European lefts --, and a few are avowed Marxists. How anyone can be a committed Marxist after the Fall of the Soviet Union is beyond me, but there you have it.
My experiences with teachers overall has been mixed. Based on my own primary and secondary school experiences, I used to believe that 3 out of 4 teachers were incompetent. The schools where my children are growing up (Greenwich, CT) are far better, perhaps only 1/2 are incompetent, and of those, perhaps 1/3 are bright enough, but burned out.
How am I making a difference? Beyond keeping myself informed on issues in my local school district and voting, I homeschool. And yes, I do think that is making a difference. A big one. Otherwise the NEA would be so against it.
However, even if I didn't have small children, I wouldn't consider teaching. Having seen first hand how teachers' hands are tied to affect any disclipline in their classrooms. Knowing the kind of person with and for whom I'd have to work, I'd be miserable.
My favorite teacher in high school quit the year I graduated. He saw the changes in the students that were coming up in the system and he didn't relish the thought of having them in his class. No too many years later, he return to teaching. It was his passion and he just wasn't happy in private industry. He was a tough, no-nonsense teacher who had high expectations and knew his stuff. Teachers like him I applaud. That is not, however, what the "Educational Establishment" trains their teachers to be.
FP
It must be terribly frustrating for you in the teacher's lounge. My wife's immediate family has several teachers and school psychologists. Wonderful people. But they are not the intellectuals thay fancy themselves to be and their brand of smirking liberalism can infuriate me. Keep freeping!
That said, liberalism is far too institutionalized among education professionals.
How the hell would I know that? If you are a teacher, then you understand my frustration with the constant bitching about education by people who do nothing about it.
I wasn't talking to anyone in particular. I was just pinging people to my original post. It's great that you have taken action on the issue, but it's too bad you have to be a jerk about it.
I see kids who aren't prepared everyday, and it is frightening what they do not know. Stuff I took for granted, like wires and batteries and lightbulbs making a circuit, are foreign to them. My first grader is at the top of his little class. He's won awards for reading, math, behavior, you name it, and he reads at least two years ahead of his grade. My wife (a stay-home mom) and I work with him every day. When he was a baby, we talked to him, read to him, all that, and when he started school, we wondered if he was a freak for being so bright, or was that normal, the way kids should be, without all the cultural bull***t that has produced a nation of morons.
I worry about our society because I see it crumbling before my eyes. I do my best to teach the kids not only math, but as much morality as I possibly can because I know I will stand before my Lord and give an account for it. But I honestly can't wait for the whole stinking system to implode because in all the ensuing chaos, a better system will emerge. I can't wait for all the union dorks who have no business in the classroom to be shown to be the inept, wretched cowards they are. I pray for the day!
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