Why Your Child’s Teacher Stinks, and What You Can Do About It
by Lawrence MeyersThere are certain professions that carry an implicit mandate, one that goes beyond performing the required duties of that profession. A social contract exists in these specialized lines of works that requires the performer to place the needs to those he serves above his own. Police officers, soldiers, and firemen are three such professions. There is a fourth, but this profession’s mandate has been corrupted by union greed and politics.
I speak of the Teacher, especially the teacher of the American high school and university.
The mandate of the Teacher is simple: to educate. The simplest, purest form of the Teacher can be found in my book Teacher of the Year: The Mystery and Legacy of Edwin Barlow. For 35 years, Edwin Barlow taught mathematics at his beloved Horace Greeley High School in New York. Thousands of students passed through his classroom. Yet when he died, he remained as much a cipher as the day he arrived, for he deliberately shrouded his life in rumor and mystery.
One of the many reasons why he kept his life secret was simple: he only wanted to be remembered as an educator. He only wanted his students to carry his classroom (and life) lessons into the world. Every interaction he ever had with a student always had an underlying agenda: teach that student something, about anything. He did so with a purity of intent unmatched by the greatest philanthropists of our time. He did so wielding a demanding, humorous, profound, and frightening persona. His classes were not merely invitations to learn, they were command performances. At a time in their lives when teenagers are more concerned with physical appearance, he demanded that they respect their minds.
I should know. I was one of his students. In over twenty years of the American educational system, I never encountered another instructor like him. Oh sure, I had plenty of notable teachers who made a difference in my life. None of them, though, provided me with an education in life, as well as their formal topic. None of them had the impact Mister Barlow did. And none of them cared as little about personal remuneration as Mister Barlow did. He chose the esthetic life, gave away much of his salary to charity each year, and didn’t give a hoot about the union.
Ah, the union. Look, unions are often necessary. Heck, I’m a union member. The concept of labor providing a balanced market force against management to secure fair and reasonable wages and benefits is necessary in a free society. However, practice has blown theory out of the water. The forces are no longer balanced. Thanks to bumbling politicians, unions in states like California are bankrupting the treasury. Pension provisions, excessive salary demands, and wacky tenure agreements that prohibit incompetent or even criminal teachers from being fired, have completely corrupted our country’s educational foundation. Don’t get me wrong – teachers deserve reasonable pay, benefits, and pensions. They are responsible for our children, after all. But we have let the situation go way beyond reasonable.
We have. That’s right. We have permitted this to happen. More on that in a moment.
Even worse, though, the unassailable mandate to educate has been corrupted. The recent revelations concerning Academia-Gate are a shameful and repulsive stain on the noble profession of educator. That university professors should even be mentioning their political beliefs in their classroom, much less attempt to indoctrinate their students, leaves me speechless. It wouldn’t leave Mister Barlow speechless, though. He rip them. He’d tell them they are a disgrace to education. He’d tell them to get back to the business of teaching, of fostering the intellect, of pushing their students to go beyond what they thought they were capable of. If these teachers want to march in a protest, they can do that on their own time. If a student comes to them seeking political discourse, that’s another matter. If it’s a political science class, then balance must be the order of the day.
Which brings me to your kid’s teacher. Does your child’s teacher devote himself exclusively to the nurturing of your child’s intellect? Is he giving your child the attention they need? Is he staying after school every day, inviting any student from any class to come for extra help, or even to just chat about some random intellectual puzzle? Or is he just performing at the minimum level to get through the day?
Teachers in our country should be wholly devoted to the task of teaching.
That’s where you, as a parent, come in. You have the right – if not the obligation – to let your child’s teacher know what you expect from them. Thrust a copy of Teacher of the Year: The Mystery and Legacy of Edwin Barlow into their hands. Tell them this is what you expect, and what you demand — that you will not tolerate anything less than 100% devotion to your child’s education. If they start mucking about in politics, social justice, bogus policy papers, or union shenanigans, that you’ll have their head. It is your right – if not your obligation — to tell the Union directly that you will not tolerate the bankrupting of your state, that they have gone far enough. It is your right – if not your obligation – to tell your representatives that the time has come to strip your state’s education budget of everything that does not directly relate to true education.
These are our kids were talking about. They spend 180 days a year with their teacher. The influence exerted by our nation’s instructors is too powerful to leave to individual whim. Be an involved parent. Demand the best, as Mister Barlow demanded the best from us.
Teacher of the Year: The Mystery and Legacy of Edwin Barlow can be purchased at Amazon.com. Autographed copies are on sale at my website. From now until June 30, I will donate sale proceeds to the Fallen Heroes Fund. Mister Barlow, as it happens, was also a WWII veteran. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
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148 Comments
…………but he is indoctrinating his liberal school scholars:
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/06/stud...
I once had a man similar to Mister Barlow. I miss him. If you find one your world will instantly improve. We don't generally have Barlows anymore. Particularly in our gov. That needs to change and we as citizens must be the ones to see that it does.
Politics is service not a career.
I just love that picture of barry in class….lol
What can a parent do? If they have the funds or time either send them to a private school or home school them!!!
The problem is you have two-thirds administration and one-third teachers. What is wrong with this picture?
The best reform that could be made for education would be to ban the NEA. They are the biggest obstructionists to any meaningful reform or accountability.
Public sector unions in general have got to go.
i had such a elementary school teacher, mr. johnson, his wife was my second grade teacher. looking back i learned more during that year than any other year. when i finished fourth grade i was one of the two top students in the class, but brown noser i was not. he was tough, and i found out, he was able to paddle us, and paddle me he did. when we tried to assert our smart ass, we got a sore ass. he was there to teach, and we were there to learn. he didn't like anything to get in the way. when i was in that class, i sort of dreaded it, but the last day of school, i felt as if i accomplished something. if teachers could, or were allowed to control thier classrooms, perhaps they might do better.
The teaching profession has, unfortunately, been infiltrated by people with a particular agenda of political and philosophical indoctrination, and as these people have worked their way to the level of school boards and union leadership – the levels where decisions on policy and educational methods and content are decided, the effects of their ideology have become ever greater. Look at what your children are being taught, think about the lessons they are learning, and compare them to what you learned yourself in school. You will see things missing, things lacking, and even worse, you will see things blatantly contradictory to what was learned 40, 30 or even 20 years ago – not in changing subjects such as science, but static subjects such as history, social studies, humanities. Soon you'll see a pattern to the changes and omissions, and that pattern is to create students and young adults thoroughly steeped in a school of thought antithetical to the society that founded this nation and raised in to the level of the most powerful and influential nation in the world, bastion of freedom and force for good that reaches to the furthest corners of the planet. The first step in stopping what they are doing, is *knowing* what they are doing…..
Everything the government does ends up running like a state road crew: One guy digging with a shovel with 6 others watching him.
I just read that Obama wants 50 billion to save teachers from lay-offs. I'm thinking it's about time for those massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters. Their unions have cut the throats of the tax payers for too many decades.
It's time for them to start scaling back. Besides we're effin broke.
If our children were young today, we would absolutely keep them home….
These schools are a disgrace to the values of the Constitution (please read disclaimer)(sarc)…
It's such a shame the system has gone from teaching the 3r's to the 3d's ( dinosaurs, diversity, dolphins),
with no attention to practical courses for understanding basic American life ( simple math, checkbook balancing, Econ101, and dare I say HomeEc)…
Why is Texas head and sholders above Calif in this depression….?
They have better schools…
Excellent article. Thanks for mentioning the selfless service of Mr. Barlow. There are many dedicated teachers in this country, however the politically dogmatic and ideologically driven ones who are protected by tenure can be a destructive force. When you wonder how voters can be so ill-informed and apathetic that they fall hook, line and sinker for the pols that now populate the Beltway, my mind recalls the old cliche….garbage in, garbage out.
I lucked out and got two teachers much like your Mr. Barlow, Mr. Meyers.
In high school, I had a Latin teacher that made teaching his top priority and he made it interesting for everyone. The subject matter was, obviously, difficult but he broke it down in ways that the average high schooler could understand. And he was fun, too. He'd even talk in the third person and add fuel to the rumors surrounding himself with statements like "The Magister was not born; The Magister was spawned."
In college, I had an English teacher who I adored who also ended up teaching one of my programming classes. Politics stopped at the door of his classroom, and he made it easy to understand the concepts he wanted us to learn. We might get the terminology wrong, and he'd correct us on that, but none of us walked away as parrots. I learned more in his classes than I did in other related classes before or since.
Great link, and very informative insight too our near future.
——————————————————————————–
Here is a video which reveals Obama's end game to Marxism:
i am all for obama getting the 50 billion, as long as he follows his own rules, pay go. cut 50 to spend 50, but you and i know, those rules are for somebody else, not him. and i was thinking, they still haven't spent the first boondoggle, the 787 billion that was going to prevent the unemployment from going over 8 percent. i saw a story on fox, they have 350 billion of that money still sitting around, waiting for the purchase of vote in the senate or house, and the slushing around to try and get some members of the club re-elected. perhaps they can sell some of those signs for money on ebay. or perhaps, they will put thise signs on all schools, since this is where the money is going to?
Exactly Sammy. We simply cannot afford them anymore. Plus they are a bunch of thug bullies and they are no longer needed. We treat our teachers, police and firefighters well. They DO NOT need to be protected by Unions. Teachers should teach our children how to use their minds to make wise decisions for themselves as they grow. It should include moral teachings, not religion, but morals. Don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal, work hard and become what you were meant to be. To the best of our abilities.
We need to start emphasizing love of country, patriotism, liberty, freedom, our rights as citizens of this great country, as well as our duties to preserve, protect and defend. Socialism and communism DO NOT have any place in our country. Entitlements, especially over bloated Union pensions, have got to go. We are broke. We can't afford it. Help those that truly need it, sure, but let's not encourage that entitlement mentality.
Many teachers never get a chance to teach much of anything. I think we should have a cop in every class room, restore discipline in the class room and teach respect of others. I would reintroduce corporal punishment but I know how far I would get in that endeavor, god forbid someone teaches today's children that their are consequences for bad behavior.
Two words: HOME SCHOOL
We took our kids out years ago when we lived in the People's Republic of New York. Best decision we ever made. Our youngest is entering his sophomore year in college.
Wait until healthcare get's "government disease". One doctor operating and three smokong cigerettes and talking, spitting and telling jokes – in the operating room.
Hey majiiic,
Remember that article here about the prof who spoke at the High School graduation class about the AZ immigration bill and got booed blah blah.
I said we all needed to email or phone the school and give them an earful so someone looked up the info and posted the phone numbers. I called and got a 45 second "voice menu" recording. I selected the option to "speak to a principal, right????"
I finally HUNG UP AFTER HEARING THE NAME AND EXTENSION NUMBER OF THE 7TH PRINCIPAL!! FOR ONE HIGH SCHOOL! SEVEN!!!! So yeh….schools might be a little TOP HEAVY, lol!
O.M.G.
The lay-offs are a fabrication. I just when through the Detroit News Sunday want ads and HALF were for "teachers wanted".
And when you're broke you CANNOT AFFORD TO DRAG CHAFE! We have millions of RETIRED teachers, firefighters, police, blah blah, all sucking the system DRY! And as more schools close, more teachers will take that retirement option if they can and further burden, FOR LIFE, an already sinking system.
Man we gotta get the UNIONS OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS!
As for home schooling or group schooling, that's GREAT for the kids, but we STILL have to PAY SCHOOL TAX. We gotta get some tax reform too. Vouchers only work for "special private schools" but nothing allows people who teach their own kids to STOP GETTING ROBBED by school taxes.
Governments LOVE bureauracy. They ARE bureaucracy. They promote and expand bureaucracy.
School systems are mini-governemnts – psuedo governments – they are growing themselves bigger and bigger every year – and they are chewing up more and more tax base every year. Enough already.
From quarter MILLION $$$$ a year "superintendants" with staffs worthy of potentate of a small banana republic to multi-layers of assistants and aides and support staff – school districts (district = TAX DISTRICT – remember that) these entities are out-of-control.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP-IM7maxbI&fe...
Take your kids out of public schools and HOME SCHOOL them instead…
It's the best way to undercut the "indoctrination warehouse complex" and suck the life out of the "teacher" and "public employee" unions at the same time!
Yeah, they only had black and white verichrome film available in Kenya back then…
More teachers to "Teach the test" more administrators to "Administer the test" more money to "Test" there are fewer kids in school yet it cost more money every year. "No child left behind" is a grade "A" boondoogle that I hold President Bush responsible for. That Congress and Senate that passed this abortion is another reason for Term limits and the anti-emcumbent fever we are now experiencing in America.
I pulled my kid out of a failing school district that is about to have the state take it over (Like that;s gonna help) When I get the report that they have failed again I'm on my way to city hall to ask for my voucher!
Hey, Tater. That was one disgusting video! I couldn't force myself to watch more than 2 minutes worth. That was not education, it was indoctrination by rote recital.
That's so the kid knows what it's going to be like when he gets his Progressive asshat. Yup, in the dark.
I had one teacher in particular who always stunk. Well, it's not so much that she 'stunk'… she wreaked of some bizarre combination of coffee, oatmeal and cigarettes. What's ironic is that she was only one of the three decent teachers I ever had. The rest were all union hacks who'd fail in any true meritocracy. Things appear to be damn near hopeless, these days…..
In government schools, even the best teachers are forced to contend with ill-behaved, even criminal/violent students who have no business in a traditional school. These same teachers must also contend with ignorant, apathetic parents. In an amazing statistical correlation the problem student-to-abysmal home life ratio is usually 1:1. Guess which students occupy 80-90% of the teacher's time doling out discipline while the bright, well-behaved students effectively miss days, weeks, even months of instruction with all the interruptions?
This is not to excuse teachers for embracing and promulgating all manner of PC nonsense. They may claim their hands are tied where textbooks and curriculum are concerned but a teacher who truly wanted to teach facts and get results would find a way around the bureaucratic edicts via self-authored packets or the good old Socratic method. When their students score well on the standardized tests all 'educators' seem to mortally fear perhaps someone will examine their methods.
You said it! But if too many are home schooling you know what the Libs have in store for us… http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2...
That, and no state income tax… and tort reform …. and ….
Nice cups!
I teach composition at the college level. My job is teaching students to write well–NOT to write what they think I want. I tell my students they have absolute academic freedom in my class, and to that end, I never tell them who I voted for in the last election, or whether I'm conservative or liberal. They don't know whether I believe in God or not. They don't know how I stand on hot-button issues like abortion or Israel. We do have lively class discussions about all those things, and sometimes I must bite my tongue very, very hard! But my students leave my class being better writers and thinkers, not well-trained parrots.
I don't know what is wrong with some of you people. Don't you understand the concept that our teachers are vastly underpaid for their superior academia excellence and providing a public service to teach our youth of today for tomorrow's future. I just don't get it with you people. Teachers wouldn't need to strike if everyone would just give into their Union, while fully of good intent, and heed their moral demands for greater pay, increased pension benefits, sick leave rollover and flexibility, shorter hours, and give everyone senior tenure status. The public owes a duty to fund the Teachers Union up to and including everything they want. Let's all just stop our bickering and stand up for these great people who elected to serve our public for the public good. Perhaps in so doing we can avert another teachers strike for the next couple of years, or three. /sarc off
I'm surprised they were able to find a Dunce-Cap large enough to fit over those floppy ears of his.
There are MANY reasons why there is such a difference…
I just listed the basic one that ALL else springs from….
and the cups runnith over…with sillycone…
and 100% union.
That would've been fine for a motivational speech for 'troubled' youth if only they'd left the Hussein worship out of it.
Sick bastards…..
You are so right. Home Schooling is the best solution and far better than the existing one Americans are faced with.
"Things appear to be damn near hopeless, these days…."
That's why we need to "splice" the DNA of Chris "not Lou" Christie into all future Repub elected officials, in order to stem the crisis….
Excellent. You are what teaching is supposed to be about. And it is teachers like you I remember and respect the most. It is unbelievable how many TAs in Liberal Arts form the 70s on are full on Marxists bent on conversion. I tried to comprehend their position when I was young and naive and after 20 minutes of the "Marxist dialectic" realized it was all flowery bullshit to cover for the losers and moochers unite movement.
LOL . I remember. Just figures does it not? Could you please send a MASS migration of Texans to the west coast please? WE need some common sense over here. Peace.
Here is a video which reveals Obama's end game to Marxism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Iz3VjoHXLA
Sound familiar on what is going on right now int he United States?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP-IM7maxbI&fe...
Word.
You sound like an excellent teacher, much like the Creative Writing professor I had in the mid '80s.
Of course, some of the most influential teachers I've ever had were those striving for that 'net negative effect', i.e. a Syrian teacher of American History who spent the entire semester preaching the virtues of communism and Islam while bashing everything 'American', especially our founding.
HA-HA!! I was hoping you'd remember that /sarc tag (just in case, ya know?
I was in a teacher's union once, and not by choice. One of the union rules: Part-timers couldn't teach more than two courses per semester for the first three years. Why? More part-timers means more dues. And few part-timers could afford to stick around for 3 years, so the union had a revolving door of dues-payers. Why negotiate for more full-time positions when you could collect so much more cash from a never-ending herd of part-timers?
It was disgusting.
I agree and would add… eliminate the federal department of education which is redundant and a waste of funds.
You need to move ur lil ole self to Texas. Never be a more fiscally advantageous time for your business or a socially advantageous time for your family. Seriously. Texas has spent years structuring one of the most business friendly tax environments in the nation, it's an open shop state, folks are so friendly and there's nobody smarter than a West Texas rancher with a sharp pencil,
))))), and the skilled labor force is huge.
It's a CAN DO, GIT'ER DONE place and whatever "climate/environment" you like, from coast to inland, to mountains (well okay, small mountains) it's got the place for you. And the cool thing is they really ARE recruiting residents. They WANT folks to come cause where people go, work, business, prosperity follows….if you leave them the hell alone!
And that common sense helped minimize the housing bubble in Texas. Folks stopped buying once sellers put ridiculous prices on their homes. Rule of thumb was "No more than $110 bucks per square foot….unless the walls were gold plated" lol. So prices didn't balloon up and crash. They floated up and have floated down, but the range is much slimmer there than in Cali or AZ.
Just don't expect "PC" chit chat. We're friendly, but not idiots. And besides you need an IPOD to keep up with all the "allowed words" these daze. Just spit out what you think. We're tough. We can "hear" words and not melt or have our brains seize up.
Git the feeling I'm tryin to get folks to Texas? I am. You need to establish residency now…before you have to apply for citizenship.
You'll thank me later. bwahahaha
Lots of public schools suck. But not all of them. My daughter just finished 6th grade, and so far she is well ahead of grade level in all subjects. She enjoys her teachers, especially the one who is toughest on her! She has a lot of friends. She plays an instrument along with 2/3 of the student body. The school is famous for fielding track teams of 250 kids, wrestling teams of 100 kids, and multiple volleyball and basketball teams (both girls and boys). There are academic champions of all kinds, from MESA to Odyssey of the Mind. Her school is the tech focus middle school in the district.
There are many teachers doing many things right, despite the many obstacles in their jobs. Teacher unions, on the other hand, are another story.
Trolls are still doing drive-bys, thumbing down the posts they don't agree with.
If they had any guts, they'd engage with facts to support their disagreement.
Thanks for your valuable insight on this very important issue Mr. Meyers.
The minds of our children are the keys to our nations future and the progressives have very nearly stolen them through their takeover of education. As a parent, this particular issue is one of the most difficult ones to deal with. An individual family has no more chance of causing a change in the way school is conducted in their district than a flea has of piloting a 747.
From entrenched education bureaucrats to the unions to progressives who use the mantle of education as a stage to push their agenda, it is time to collectively bring pressure not only on our representatives, but on every school board member.
This is OUR country, not the bureaucrats!
Together, we can make a difference. United we stand, divided we fall.
Freedom!
I just ordered his book and I can't wait to read it. I have been a teacher for 28 years (the last 18 at the college level), and I know something needs to be done to hold teachers' accountable for TEACHING!
My wife and I have homeschooled our 3 children since birth – just graduated the first one. No one is going to have 7 hours a day to force my kids to learn and regurgitate progressive talking points. I hope that you can find (and afford) a private school that teaches truth for your kid to attend. What I could do with $4500 per year to educate my children!
You know it, WeWeed. lol. I agree with Missy8s above point of home schooling. This would be a sure fire way to strike back at these Unions and hopefully bring back a sense of pride to these people. I don't know of any teacher who is starving in this country and most are paid very well, especially the tenured. Not only that but they enjoy excellent benefits compared to the private sector. Enough of this crap of taxing the people for more and more so these people can live a life of luxury. They are the ones who chose to teach and knew going in what it paid. Moreover, teaching is a profession much like all other service employees and they do it because they love helping people – or so it was at one time. Let these teachers put on a helmet and learn to shoot a M16 in a combat theatre – I sure don't see our blessed troops complaining and going on strike about their poor pay and benefits, or hellish working conditions. To hell with these leeches in life. No one is making them teach. It definitely pisses me off that every four years these Unions are eating up more of our taxes all on the backs of the working people.
Hope and Change my arse. Impeach Obama.
I feel like a broken record, but… Not all families can home school. Many of us have both Mom and Dad working. This doesn't mean that parents shouldn't attend EVERY conference, school play and concert, because they need to maintain that level of involment, at the very least.
The real crux, I believe, is allowing parents, via school vouchers, to vote with their feet. The time for this is now. This is the only way to break the back of the parasite teachers' unions. Why else would they fight so hard against vouchers?
It's basically a home school run by some ladies close to our home and what's $$$ if you can't beat Uncle Sam to spending it!
Hear, hear!
WeWeed, fortunately for me I recall my teachers for being great not only at their profession, but as people as well. Most if not all of my several teachers growing up had a compassion for teaching and made certain that their students at least understood the fundamentals of the basic core curriculum through K12. Of course, it seems since the early 70's this has all changed now and most of the teachers of today could not hold a candle to most of my teachers of the past. The vast majority go into the profession for the prospect of greed rather than a interest to serve and help improve the minds of their pupil. It's like everything is flipped.
Of course, I do recall one especially foul teacher that none of kids enjoyed being around too much. She was a stern disciplinarian and demanded respect. She didn't get many red apples, but I do recall that she found a few aspiring stinging scorpions lurking about inside her desk drawer one fateful day and I have never heard a woman scream so loud as she slammed shut the drawer. (A few of us caught these critters and pulled out their tail stingers with a set of tweasers – so the scorpions were harmless). I don't recall whether or not she had her desk replaced, and she never found out the culprits as none of us dared let anyone know – as in those days the wooden paddles had holes and they left a sharp pain in the butt. lol.
We have sat on our buttocks for over fifty years while the entire teaching profession has been infiltrated with socialists and their ideas. What better place to start a reformation than with pliable, innocent minds that are slowly, deliberately turned into pure repositories of socialist thought. Where do you think "it's not your fault; it's society's" originated? Where did the "gimme generation" sprout wings? And how did the "what's in it for me" crowd find it's beginning? It was in the classrooms and universities throughout our country. We didn't see it due to its subtly. But it was there, and grew like a weed among generations of students.
Continued below.
Now we deal with it. Initially we break the unions. Yes, it will be difficult. But it must be done. We demand schools return to the three "R's" via state legislatures. We demand teachers teach, and we support them by placing reasonable demands on our children to study and to improve themselves both physically and mentally. We demand the best teachers around and refuse to accept mediocrity. And finally…… There is no finally. It's an ongoing, continuous work in progress. We can do this. We are America where the difficult is easily done and the impossible takes a little while.
I live in Tennessee where my daughter is a tremendous first grade teacher and a conservative (as am I). Conservatives tend to blame teachers because they're not "successful." Teachers like my daughter know that being "successful" is almost impossible today. Here’s why: 1) The dissolution of the American family. Very few children have intact families. Children have no secure base from which to begin learning. They are full of anxiety and live with neglect. 2) Those families that are intact usually have two working parents. IMO, most mothers have to work today, to pay the extravagant taxes so that single women who choose to, can stay home and be fed by the federal government. Again: anxiety and neglect. 3) The dissolution of Judeo/Christian morality. Sexual abuse is shockingly high. Parents are addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex, romance, etc., etc. 4) Big government – teachers have to spend hours every week creating paperwork to jump through hoops imposed by politicians who want to look like they're addressing the education problem.
Missy, I agree and support your idea, but we must cut FUNDING to these school systems equal to the cost of homeschooling our kids (where yes, they will escape the indoctrination, but perhaps miss some of the trials and tribulations or youth, adolencence and young adulthood too, but that's a choice that has to be made). Raw, huge chunks of TAX $$$$$ are the life blood of school districts no matter how "good" or "bad".
Forcing these individual school districts to MAKE CHOICES, hard budget choices – will expose the waste, fraud and abuse of our, the tax payers – hard earned and much confiscated tax money.
Infinite supplies of $$$$$ causes waste, fraud and abuse. Look at certain defense contractors, public works projects, transit authorities (buzz word – "authority" i.e. "Authority TO TAX!") Water Districts and all these other quasi-governmental entiities -WASTE. FRAUD. ABUSE.
Obama should be forced to wear a dunce cap every time he speaks in public
Bless you. You are an educator.
Thank you. There is no higher joy in my job than seeing students thinking for themselves.
They wouldn't know a fact if it jumped up and farted in their faces.
I agree. And also, not all parents are cut out to home school their kids. I'm a teacher, and I would be lousy at it! It's a weird paradox, along with lawyering or doctoring or being in business with your kids.
We go to each and every conference and event, track her grades, and correct any "PC educational BS" we encounter.
Teaching in the public schools is like wrestling in the UFC with both hands tied behind your back, then being spit on because you lose.
Hey, hey, back OFF! He has declared that taunting him about his ears is strictly off-limits.
You might just be a a list somewhere now…
Be careful what you wish for… more dullards do not a party make
I am so naive about this "stuff". How does one go about breaking a Union? If you try, do they all come screaming onto your lawn, scaring your children?
Sorry, I accidentally gave you a thumbs down! You are right on. Try getting those points across to a "regular" teacher, though.
We made sure we were transferred form our previous assignment before our oldest went into middle school. Some of the teachers there were beyond lazy. A few were quite impressive. Here, our (brilliant) children are in the top third instead of being in the top two people in their grades. Much more challenging. We chose an area with an emphasis on keeping the nitwittery out of the classroom. It is okay so far…
As I agree with you. After teaching skiing for 15 years, one of the lessons that I learned, and apply it to many other situations, is to never instruct someone close to you. A constructive criticism is very likely to be misconstrued as a personal attack or something else out of context. Yes, a home school teacher has my utmost respect.
Some of my best teachers were nuns, way back in the day, and they were in the toughest union EVER.
I was a long time ago.
Like the New Wolverines said… "you ain't down if you ain't on a watch list"
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, the best professor I had in college (a year or so back) at U Texas El Paso was a lady from inner city Boston. She is a PhD and has two other Masters Degrees. She didn't tolerate laptops, i-phones, etc. You could NOT be late, come in the wrong door, sit anywhere you wanted, the list of rules was long and they were enforced. A glance from her could wither either man or machine.
We LOVED HER, we loved the rules and how she controlled her classroom. People adjusted or dropped (not many drops) QUICKLY.
She also told everybody, (criminal justice class) "Don't NOT tell me O.J. was INNOCENT. Do not insult my intelligence, I may be a black person but I have eyes and ears and a brain. O.J. DID IT!" Everybody loved Dr. Bracewell. Her husband was deployed to Afganistan and she moved back home while he was to be overseas. Big loss for UTEP.
I think everyone considers their own children "brilliant." And yet you will probably complain about every child in this generation feeling a sense of entitlement and feeling "special." Wonder where they get it from?
Good luck changing things, I'm sure it will really work out for you. And the reason military personnel don't complain is because the military recruits from the poorest sections of this country where is the military is an improvement from their current standard of living.
I am sure if you are referring specifically to my comment, but I am a little sick of everyone being a serious as a heart attack about every little detail. I think I pretty much explained where my kids are and how happy I am that they are being challenged. A sense of entitlement comes from kids who get something for nothig.
Wow. That sounds like the kind of teachers we need. I hope you check out the book and compare Mr. Barlow to your instructors, to see what the similarities and differences were.
A round of applause for your efforts. Not to push the book over and over, but I really would like you to check it out. I'm interested to hear what you think of Mr. Barlow's controversial tactics.
I think you will be amazed at the difference in your child if the ladies really care about what they are doing.
Red, Thanks for letting me know why I lost my one thumbs up, Red! I felt bad until I read that – lol! Children with parents like you, do great. There's such a distance between those such as yours and so much of the rest of our country's children. It's so sad.
CP7768…I beg to differ. I served honorably during the Vietnam era and I came from a middle-class family. Yes, back then there was a thing called "mandatory selective service" but I enlisted straight out of high school and upon my own accord. Had nothing to do with standard of living or whatever it is you seem to make out of it. There are many highly skilled and educated people serving in the military who today join freely upon their own free will, and there are many who do so for the opportunity to receive a degree in higher education.
Yet, you seem to be one of those who bask in your lavish lifestyle or whatever fantasy world you live in and have sit back while the few brave souls in this country fight proudly to ensure your freedom from hostility. Thank God I don't take my freedom for granted; nor would I ever share a foxhole with a person like you.
I really don't understand your comment to Red. Feeling her children are brilliant doesn't exclude her from thinking all children are special. I can't speak for her, but I certainly know all children are special. But there's a vast difference between "special" and "entitled." Every child needs attention and security and so much more. The parents are the best able to provide their needs, because they are best able to see their child as brilliant and special. Children need this. Parents, who are not messed up, do anything, including die, to give it. When you start putting children into this huge mass of humanity and making government responsible for forcing everyone to meet every child's needs, you get public school. You get WIC. These do not turn out the best results. I'm not saying, "Don't meet their needs," but when you raise a generation to feel entitled, you wind up with way too many people needing help to give it adequately or succesfully.
A great way is to get your state legislature to legislate a Right to Work state. Voters in the state then vote the statute into law. If the teachers unions strike, replace them with new teachers non union teachers. Another way is home school, charter school, voucher program, and/or private schools. The absolute best way is to return education to the state legislature and get the feds out of education.Doubt that will happen unless a conservative congress and president get into the act.
All these pro home school comments. How many parents have the intellect to home school, huh? In the real world, most families need 2 paychecks. Nice if you can swing it, but not too realistic. Aside from the extreme liberal college professors, most teachers just do the best they can with what they're given. My son is a High School English teacher. Last year he spent over $500.00 out of pocket, JUST FOR COPIES!! Not counting numerous other expenses. Go easy on the teachers, it's the parents who are uninvolved or just don't care about their kids who are at fault. Granted, there are sure to be some lousy teachers, but for the most part, they do the best they can. Walk a mile in their shoes!
I feel your pain and totally agree with you. Our comments are very much alike. Nothing is different here in Connecticut. It's really a shame.
Get rid of public schools. Get rid of all of the expense associated with them. Then hire the best teachers for tutors and/or private school instructors. Let the market decide their worth or if they should be selling shoes down at the Payless. Competition IS good. Those that cannot even teach… well, you know the adage.
I have a gifted kid. I attended a parent teachers conference and within 48 hours of the conference, the kids math teacher was fired. I was shocked. I only made a couple of comments to the principle in the teachers absence. The teacher called me at home in a few days and told me. She asked me to ask for her back. This is very rare.
Hear hear! A friend of mine is an administrator at an inner city school. They can't get rid of kids that bring knives to school and brandish them, and get physical with the cops that ARE in school. The same kid has been up for expulsion twice, and both times released for technicalities. The real reason? Federal guidelines on how many kids are allowed to be expelled. There were too many bad kids, so they had to stop expelling them or risk federal funds. Another example of how our own money is held hostage by someone in DC thinking they know better!
I am a teacher in NYC. I fight everyday against the ignorant indoctrination of my students. You have no idea how bad it is out here. No idea. The upside is students come to me to verify what their other teachers say, they know I am honest and will give them the facts. One student even referred to his other teachers as coffee shop revolutionaries, so all is not lost.
Nor would I ever be in a foxhole in the first place.
Taken care of MW, every good guy on this page gets a bump from me!
Great article. A generation of Mr. Barlow's in our education system is all that will guarantee that our country not only survives, but thrives. Our current situation is an example of what happens when we turn the education, make that indoctrination, of our children over to progressives with an agenda.
I hope for your sake not a oven, as well. Never know though, it's happened before. Sadly.
MW, don't sweat it. We all see what is going on and how these losers in life troll the board for the mere purpose to thumb down our many great and insightful comments. I consider it as further proof to the extent how hopeless and clueless these progs really are. In short, it has to hurt for them to invade this board and truly shows how childlike they are. Nothing but a bunch of spineless HuffPuff losers.
It's great to be a Conservative. Not done.
I will explain so y'all won't have to defend me or pile on, depending upon your view….sigh…
in our military world, we move. Everyone moves every few years. Every mother that I have met thinks her children are special in someway. I think they should–frankly. Every school that I have gone to, the admin always says "yeah, yeah, every parent says they have gifted children." So, now we mock it. It is fun. It is funny. It is harmless. Y'all better think your kids are terrific at something so you know what strengths to build on.
In our case, our children are not always academically challenged enough in the classroom. My point above is that they are challenged where we have them now. It is a great school within a great community which embraces a conservative school AND my kids no longer sit at the head of the class for little effort. Kids need to work in school or they think everything in life comes easily.
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