Public School Gone Wild

[Gina B]

I think there's a lot of people posting that are basing things on personal experience or what they see in their own area, failing to look at the big picture or take into account how things vary from state to state, teacher to teacher, and even district to district. Nobody appears to have bothered to look up the averages for each district/state. Many of you are accurate, but the majority are still wrong. Reminds me of this poem:

The Blind Men and The Elephant
By John Saxe

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

The First approach'd the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, -"Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"

The Fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he,
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Then, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

MORAL. So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

 

[glfredrick]

If you're up in that area, you probably deal with that a lot.

Most of us, though, are not union.

Wisconsin is a firestorm right now for union activists. They are working to recall the governor of the state just because he upset their little apple cart and halted their pillaging of the public treasury.

I am, however, under the impression that the majority of public school teachers across the nation must belong to the NEA in order to secure their positions. I'd love to be corrected if I am wrong, but the power of the NEA to dictate policy and drive the direction of schools across the land is quite evident.