I recently wrote a column pointing out the absurdity of the teacher union’s position that simply paying teachers more money would make them do a better job. That elicited, not unexpectedly, howls of protest from the usual crowd of public school apologists, well-represented by this grammatically-challenged diatribe emailed to me by “mike hayes” (if that’s his real name):
“Are you familiar with what goes on in a classroom today? Teacher’s (sic) don’t just teach. The plethora of societal, physical, discipline and learning problems found in a classroom is stunning, it doesn’t say much for society as a whole. Kids enter the ‘Education System’ so parents can go to work or so teachers can raise the children for the people who shouldn’t be parents and don’t have a clue how to be one, some actually come prepared to learn, many come needing to be educated about how to learn and interact with other human beings before they can be taught; teacher’s (sic) handle this plus they have to try and educate parents who don’t understand their role as a parent and they diagnose the other problems that need to addressed by an array of social and physical specialists.”
Sheesh. As the old saying goes, Joan of Arc did less whining at the stake.
Parent-blaming defenders of the status quo such as “mike hayes” miss the key point. Let’s say for argument’s sake that everything he yelped about in his rant is true. Let’s say the system sucks (it does). And let’s say there are a thousand different things that could be tried to improve it. Maybe those things will work; maybe they won’t (remember “whole language”?).
But the real question is simply this: Who gets to decide?
Why should any parent be forced to allow the government to use their kids as guinea pigs while the bureaucrats and union leaders move from one educational experiment (fuzzy math, class-size reduction, all-day kindergarten) to the next while blaming parents for their failures in the process? Why shouldn’t concerned parents – especially lower and middle income parents who can’t afford private school tuition or a new house in the ‘burbs - be able to opt out?
Education is important. So is eating. But we don’t let the government run our farms and operate our supermarkets, do we? So why let it run our schools and grant it a virtual monopoly over them? And why can parents be trusted to decide which doctor will take care of their kids’ physical health but not which teacher will take care of their intellectual development?
Parents who are satisfied with the product the government collective is cranking out these days should be free to keep sending their kids to the government schools. But parents who want something different, something better for their kids, should be allowed to make that decision, too - just as they get to choose whether to go to Smith’s or Safeway, McDonalds or Burger King, Bank of America or U.S. Bank, Southwest or Delta, Wal-Mart or Target, Home Depot or Lowes, etc., etc., etc.
When it comes to education, it’s long past time to give choice a chance. After all, it’s the American way.
Posted on February 10th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
Pay teachers based on grades! The grades of the kids they are “supposed” to “teach.”
Hey Chuck. I agree that throwing more $$ at the problem isn’t going to solve it. I also agree with Mike. I see this every day as a nurse practitioner. People with tons of kids, poorly raised, & not guided a bit. They won’t give the medicine they beg you to order because “little Johnny doesn’t like it.” No common sense. No idea what being a parent means. No personal responsibility as everything is someone else’s fault or problem to fix. They run in at the first sniffle, but don’t get me started on the dumbing down on our health care on purpose for greed. Sigh…
I’m just saying that Mike really isn’t whining. He is speaking the truth of what he experiences every day. You can’t expect good results when you tie teacher’s hands, & threaten to sue them for any attempts at discipline. You can’t expect good results when the laws force them to mainstream children who are disruptive & will never be able to learn or perform with brighter kids who should be pushed, yet aren’t, & then teach to the lowest denominator, & watch the bright kids get bored & in trouble. You can’t water down grade standards, expect the minimal from students, & get high quality. Mike isn’t whining. I have no idea how great a teacher he is, but I wouldn’t teach in a public school for a million dollar salary. Until you stop the liberal nonsense that has infused our world, return to proven standards of education, raise expectations, & actually reward excellence & frown on poor performance, you will have what Mike sees.
Do I support a parent’s right for vouchers & private schools? You bet! But please don’t label what Mike says as whining. There are some good parents, but a large percentage are not. They are clueless, & are squandering our future by raising a generation on drugs to control behavior (ADHD, etc), instead of being good parents. Children run the house, not parents. They are indulged, monitored by the TV, & are not expected to do much of anything.
Teachers live under stressful, ridiculous rules of engagement in the classroom (yeah, the war theme is intentional). Until a collective voice of reason demands a return to non-experimental methods of learning that worked for many decades, long before we had to “fix” a system that wasn’t broken to justify someone’s PhD thesis, we will continue with a system based on “self esteem,” not teaching our children to have disciplined behavior & manners, & not really learning what is needed (ie, how to reason, use logic, & have basic math & communication skills) to compete in the world.
Thanks for letting me rant. By the way, my parents were both teachers, retired long ago before they snapped. That’s why I’m an NP. The world was starting to change when I made my decision for career, & has rapidly slid down hill ever since!
Mr. Muth, God you’re strident! You’re factually challenged attack on teacher’s is wrong, inaccurate and misplaced! Thank you Barb C for verifying what the current public school environment is like.
Chuck, push back from the keyboard and spend some time in a classroom and see for yourself what kind of problems teacher’s face. Society and the educational machine is broken. Chuck, I don’t whine, it’s not in my nature, I do get angry with pundits like you who try and blame teachers for the failures of the “system”. If there is one cog in the education machine that works it’s the front line teacher. If teacher’s could suspend or expel disruptive students you’d see improvements. If you eliminated the students with severe learning problems like Barb C mentions, teacher’s could spend more time teaching rather than diagnosing and dealing with these severe learning impaired individuals.
I don’t care that you want to give parents options or vouchers but how about offering them to teachers as well? I do care that you try to fix the blame and not the problem by going after teachers. Is the prison system broken because of the guards?
I’m not a pro-union, more government bureaucrat you dolt, I am someone who knows what a tough job teacher’s have and I resent people like you trying to blame the failings of society, the government and the system on underpaid, hard working individuals who have a gut wrenchingly difficult job and have to take heat from armchair critics like you. Get your facts straight and your diatribes might do some good.
No new taxes and less government involvement in our lives is something I strongly believe in so when pundits like you jeopardize this goal by publishing uninformed antagonistic blogs you just drive a wedge in the effort to get government out of our lives. Teacher’s could be allies in this goal but you turn them against the effort by attacking them and their good work. Do more homework Chuck or sit in the corner with the dunce cap on, oh, that’s right, teacher’s can’t do that anymore, you’d have to be evaluated and have a personal education program, PEP, constructed for you then the teacher would have to teach you according to your individual special needs rather than teaching the class as a whole. Good topic and issue Chuck, wrong placement of blame. Do you really think teacher’s like the system? And it’s good to be king huh Chuck, you get to edit out stuff you can’t deal with like how little teacher’s really make.
Mike, get back on your meds. And learn to read for content.
My columns, despite your claims to the contrary, didn’t go after teachers, but the teachers’ union and their ridiculous notion that simply paying teachers more money would fix the problem.
The only problem I have with competent teachers are the ones who belong to the union which blocks every attempt to give parents a choice.
I never said teachers were overpaid or underpaid. Only that simply raising pay, which is what the union wants to do with their initiative, won’t result in better education.
No one is putting a gun to any teacher’s head and forcing them to go into the teaching profession where they know, in advance, what the money is.
Oh, and I AM a teacher. So you might just want to consider the wisdom of keeping your mouth shut and be thought a fool than opening it and removing all doubt.
And yes, you ARE a whiner. I’m half-tempted to send you my son’s pacifier. You need it more than he does.
Barb C… Thanks for your observations. I agree completely. Breeders are making a mess of a lot of childerns lives….which makes for maladjusted adults.
I had to laugh at Chuck’s line, “So is eating [important]. But we don’t let the government run our farms and operate our supermarkets, do we?” If there is any one area that is more controlled and regulated than our food industries, from seed to shelf, I don’t know what it is.
Completely off subjectt, why is John Shadegg retiring from Congress?!?!?