Well the Leno video & follow up message last night presenting Citizen Control Point #1 as the answer to the question "What does this say about our educational system?" continued to stir things up.
Below is the best response to these last two postings I received that correctly puts parents to blame ahead of teachers in the decline of our pitiful government school educational system. You can argue which came first - the chicken or the egg - but it is clear that parents lack of interest & involvement as well as their belief that their children were entitled to all America had to offer without any work preceded the decline of the quality of teachers that in turn gave rise to the problems with the teachers' unions & tenure. If the parents had been more involved the teachers' unions would not have been able to or had the need to abuse their profession.
The writer of the message below along with her husband have home schooled their three children for years. She may be frustrated now but her children will not have to run - they will walk - past the type of people shown in the Leno video who represent what I have called for years the first generation of mismanaged children. Unfortunately we are well on our way to the second generation.
With regard to her final point I believe that all of the doctors in our network are not members of the AMA or plan to sever their relationship in 2010 - pretty savvy bunch in their own right. I know our messages have helped in this regard with some of the docs.
---Response To Leno Video & Education System Problems---
A little biased here, and although we home school now, my father was president of a teacher's union, and although I am again biased, the crap he had to put up with involved much more around worthless, lazy parents way more than anything else. Part of this involved watching one of his fellow teachers lose his teaching license because he pulled a high school child off of a teacher, who he was beating up. The child – of course, he was just fine and went on with his life. The teacher who was beat up quit, and the teacher who pulled the kid off and was "mean" to him – lost his teaching license. If anyone in this country needs a union – it is teachers. Compared to other countries where education is valued – in this country we pay more money to our athletes than the poor people who teach our children. And parents? Now THERE is another issue. They want teachers to be paid minimum wage, yet teach their children morals, social values, academics, and practically how to eat and drink – and what do they do at home? Ride around in SUVs on cell phones going to have their nails done and their Botox injected. It's pitiful. The private schools do not provide a better education, rather they foster the feelings of entitlement, and that doesn't work well for future generations either. But of course, everyone thinks the home schoolers are the crazy ones? I think not. My children can hold a conversation with someone whether they are 2 or 92. But it involves actual parental involvement – something that most parents today don't want any part of.
Now here's a union worth taking a look at – the AMA!!! The largest union in the country, yet no one touches the good old docs!
Well the teachers do pretty darn good in this township, I'd like to see their convention held in the summer not during the school months. I don't blame the teachers too much for what they are teaching, but I do blame the politicians, and head of program curriculum, and now the far left groups injecting the values in the class rooms, and the teaching of global warming before all the science was in. That’s where the blame lies along with parents that have to work to pay for the teachers perks, so I have to blame whom is connected to the education system all of them not just one group - they are all to blame. Remember it's for the children ,, or is it really?
ReplyDeleteBut who started the slide - it was the parents. When I got in trouble in school my parents were called in to see the teacher & no one even wanted to know my side - the teacher was thought to be right. I just knew I was going to get it when we got home. This has changed - now we start with the teacher being wrong & the children can do no wrong. What teacher of any quality would put up with this? It is the same for the military in Afghanistan or our Border Guards having no backing but putting their lives on the line every day - by comparison the teachers have it easier than this but who in their right mind would want to become a teacher today regardless of how good they seem to have it monetarily. After a while the teachers thought we need a strong union & then the leeches came in for tenure & the result we have is people graduating with honors that can't read, write, or measure.
ReplyDeleteAll of the groups you mention are involved in the educational problem but the root cause of all of our educational problems is the lack of interest & involvement of the parents. We are going down the rat hole as clearly shown by the product of people demonstrated in Leno's video. Who would hire them? & for what? How could the parents let this happen to their children no matter who else is involved?
No I am not going to blame the parents first, nor the teachers first. I blame the do-gooders of society. "Government" and everyone else just went along like a steam roller, DIFUS, court system, anyone that has the authority to put the parents in jail and strip them of their values, allowing children to sue the parents. DIFUS black listing parents for just a phone call and enormous court costs. Who was it that stripped the children of the authority figure, who you ask? - The progressive movement one nut and bolt one nail at a time it was the do-gooders if any teachers read this they should know, look back and look for the changes, it was an onslaught of do-gooders, the progressives finally pried the nail holding the board tight to the floor and they kept pulling and pulling that board to where we are today. Parents now need a sledge hammer to put the board back in place.
ReplyDeleteWe can talk about one amorphous group after another to blame to no avail but to me we have to ask how could the people shown in the Leno video exist if they had the parents you & I had who were civically involved in our country? Lose touch with that & anything can happen. Its the people who let Socialism & the road to the destruction of America happen - the children are not mature so that leaves the adult parents many of whom may be part of the groups you mention. How could the parents let this happen to their children considering love of them & country no matter who else is involved?
ReplyDeleteI taught school in the 60's....it was a whole different ball game back then, with the parents and teachers working together. I had great backup from both my principal and the parents. When I went back to teach in the 80's, it was nothing like my first experience....and I can very well understand what the writer is saying. How sad for our children!
ReplyDeleteDoug,
ReplyDeleteI just spent 1/2 hour writing a response to the AMA point above and decided to delete it. I will just say 2 things. The AMA is not a union. It is a professional association. It is illegal for doctors to unionize because we are separate entities and that would constitute an attempt to form a monopoly. Also, the "good old docs" have been touched plenty by Medicare and insurance companies since the 80s with reduced reimbursements. My favorite example is cataract surgery. I finished my residency in 1987. The Medicare fee for a cataract extraction and lens implant was $1,800.00. Today, I get approximately $740.00. What is that adjusted for inflation?
I think someone that brags about home schooling their children should get their facts straight before making remarks of this nature.