question for teachers:

[Hannah Bell]

do you discuss the issues discussed here at du with your co-workers & others?

specifically, do you discuss or allude to the idea that this administration & the previous one are/were deliberately trying to destroy the public school system?

if so, what's the response?

if not, why not?

[saracat]

1. I used to teach and I have a lot of friends who currently are teachers

and some do talk about the destruction of the Public Education System. They feel that Duncan wants to destroy the Public School system and insitute charter schools. They feel teachers are being blamed for everything and that they are forced to compete with charter schools who can cherry pick students and they must take everyone , including special needs kids and then they are evaluated on the same basis as the schools with the cream of the crop.They are angry and disguted with Duncan and Obama.

[Hannah Bell]

2. so is it your sense that there's a general awareness among the teachers you know

that this is what's going on?

[saracat]

3. Many of the ones I know are politically aware And we have the former AEA State president

running for Superintendent of Schools, so that focuses a little more attention on the issue.But there are also a few GOP teachers who are oddly apathetic.

[Hannah Bell]

4. thanks. trying to get a sense of what the rank & file are thinking.

[Hardrada]

5. My wife teaches and Obama & Duncan are bywords for treachery

and menace.

[lamp_shade]

6. I have many teacher friends; some very good, some not so much, two are just

downright lazy and hate teaching. The good and truly dedicated teachers say "It's about time drastic measures were taken" while most of the others are "appalled" at the actions taken. I just listen.

[Hannah Bell]

7. you're saying the "dedicated" teachers support mass firings & charters & the "lazy" ones don't?

just want to make sure i understood you.

[lamp_shade]

8. Yes... the assumption being that those teachers who are motivated to give the extra time

needed to improve student's scores and who are willing to improve their own teaching skills will be rehired. I personally don't know how I really feel about this matter. I've heard so many arguments. What's interesting to me is that the 2 gals I consider bad teachers are very close to retirement and that seems to be all they care about. I've known them for 30 years and the closer they get to retirement, the more bitter they become.

[tonysam]

13. You don't know what in the fuck you're talking about. It's obvious. n/t

[tonysam]

14. You are so full of it. If they were shitty, then it is a principal problem.

But you are full of it peddling the horseshit no teacher can be fired in public schools.

By the way, if a teacher has worked 30 years, he or she probably doesn't NEED to put in the extra hours every day because this teacher KNOWS the content and knows his or her craft and has all the materials needed to teach a lesson.

[tonysam]

10. What constitutes "good" and "lazy" to you?

What a crock of b.s.

[tonysam]

11. I am not in contact with ANYBODY there at WCSD, so I don't know what they are thinking.

I DO know from newspaper reports the union thought new superintendent Heath Morrison was just hunky-dory wonderful based on reports from Montgomery County, Maryland. However, it appears people in the district are completely unaware of his privatization slant, as he and "new" senior administrator Pedro Martinez, a crony of Arne's in Chicago, are both Eli Broad "academy" "graduates."

Since Washoe County School District is among the 50 largest school districts in the country, people working there had better be scared. Morrison is not a good ole boy dipshit like previous superintendent Paul Dugan; he may be a dipshit, but his rhetoric about data, etc., had better get the alarm bells going.

[lamp_shade]

15. Feel better now that you got all that off your chest?

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. I don't believe you

Unless you have actually been in their classrooms how do you know they are lazy or poor teachers?

I also don't know ANY teachers who approve of the mass firing in RI. Not one. It makes zero sense that an educator would agree with that.

[lamp_shade]

22. I don't think you know very many teachers.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. LOL

[Hannah Bell]

23. i don't believe that person either. maybe because she believes the teachers

who agree with her are the "dedicated" ones & the ones who disagree are the "lazy" ones.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. S/He doesn't think I know many teachers

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Reader Rabbit]

9. I try, but at my school there are many heads in the sand.

We've had massive turnover in the last few years, and most of our politically active veterans have retired. We've got a lot of bright-eyed youngsters who don't believe anything bad could ever happen, because they care so much and work so hard. Like the poster up-thread, they consider any teacher who wants to fight for respect and equity as someone who must be lazy and unwilling to do the job.

Generally, there's a "It can't happen here" attitude. Depressing.

[tonysam]

12. They think they can't be fired. Oh, but they can and they will be.

They can commit the most petty offense and get sacked.

[Fire1]

18. If they end up like RI, they're all going to be sacked anyway.

If they re-apply very few will be accepted, if any. The union can help them find another placement but that can be a nightmare.

[Starry Messenger]

16. Not yet.

I'm using this place as a soundboard to try to get my thoughts lined up. I have a facebook friend who works in state government who has been posting the newsweek article and the other anti-teacher's union articles posted here on his facebook wall and making the kind of anti-teacher union remarks we read here. He's in a position to be somewhat influential, so I'd like to craft rebuttals that are persuasive. (edit to add: I just posted him a link to a review of Diane Ravitch's new book http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2010/1003.kahlenberg.html maybe that will spark a conversation...)

My teaching partner is a republican and I'm not sure what kind of inroads to make there. I have a hard time suppressing my revulsion when he goes on mini-rants about "illegal aliens draining the state coffers of school money." I shot back at with with a jab about Enron stealing billions of dollars and that shut him up. We've had an uneasy truce ever since.


One other dear friend of mine who works in arts education did express disappointment that money was being funneled to the wars and not to education. She's someone who I could discuss this with and probably will. I think she'd be receptive, I just have to lay some groundwork.

[Fire1]

17. Our union and parent activists have been fighting NCLB and the

obvious take over of the public schools for over a decade. We're also in agreement that most of these take over efforts seem to be concentrated in urban districts.

[radical noodle]

19. I discuss this with co-workers

I am not a teacher, but my husband is a retired public school teacher. My daughter is doing her student teaching now. There is a good bit of unhappiness now with our current governor over the lack of funding for schools and the terrible toll it's taking on the quality of education, so education and schools are a frequent topic of conversation. I take every opportunity to express my opinions about the destruction of public schools and the sacking of the more experienced teachers. Most people agree, although who knows what they really think?

I think more non-teachers need to be involved, as teachers themselves are thought to have a private agenda about their own job. Hope this helps.

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. Yes

We are more concerned all the time. Our supt has already threatened to do a mass firing here.

[LWolf]

26. Yes.

They don't see it as strongly as I do, but acknowledge the bad signals.

My current state and district is behind the curve in comparison with the district I worked with in CA; they are more sensible and student-friendly, always trying to find ways to support teachers and kids while complying with current realities.