No Fascist Left Behind

There is a persistent and powerful attack on public education in this country, and it is the stuff nightmares are made of. After almost seventy years knocking around life, I have reduced my focus to three things: reading, writing,and thinking. Today it seems reading is being reduced to programmed texts that are acceptable to the ruling elite; writing is being discouraged; and thinking is being eliminated wherever possible. There are politicians in this country whose power and livelihood depends on hornswoggling uncritical voters and disenfranchising anyone who might be a threat to their scam.

I believe in public education (I also believe in long, slow kisses that last three hours or more). I recognize that there are problems with education in America but they are problems that can be rectified by strong public support and involvement. A schoolroom can be very powerful: any place where there is a free exchange of ideas is powerful. It’s easy to see why the American oligarchy and its bought and paid-for politicians are afraid of public schools …

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Are you sick of highly-paid teachers?

Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work nine or ten months a year! It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do — babysit!

We can get that for less than minimum wage.

That’s right. Let’s give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and planning — that equals 6-1/2 hours).
So each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day…maybe 30? So that’s $19.50 x 30 = $585 a day.

However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.

LET’S SEE….

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How Testing Is Destroying Education

Jeff Bryant, in Nation of Change, has presenting a good argument for re-thinking our focus on testing as the true measure of the effectiveness of teaching. This is an old argument of mine and this article makes some excellent points that I will add to my arsenal.

How Test Obsession Is Killing Education

Jeff Bryant, Nation of Change

Decisions to pass or fail students, rate teacher “ineffective” or “effective,” even keep schools open or close them down are now being made to an ever-increasing extent based on scores.

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