The below article sent to Wisconsin teachers by the Wisconsin Education Association Council states: "In the real world.....where costs increase and children need opportunities to succeed, the coming years look pretty bleak."
Very simply, I do not accept that costs NEED to increase in order for kids to have opportunities. If you're talking only about inflation, fine, that is the one alibi.
Overall, I think the article has a pretty one-sided viewpoint and too eagerly offers to smear. The comparison of Walker to Communist Berlin is either amusing or enraging, take your pick. The authors state that unions aspire for narrow political ends, but I do not agree with that premise. If it were up to them, there would be no checks and balances; unions would allow themselves the ability to rule absolutely.
Lastly, the article cites the ruling of the United Nations and claims to have the support of religious leaders in order to offer credibility to a political or governmental problem. As a result, I think it should be taken with alarm. For starters, the UN is not 100% made up of free nations, not even close. If this is a news flash to you I would strongly suggest not using morphine while participating in life. Until March 1st, 2011, Libya was on the UN human rights council. Fucking amazing, huh?
Education does not have to be expensive to be excellent. Look at the Marines - they get less than 8% of the DOD budget, yet they get tasked with a massive piece of the pie when it comes to operating in Iraq and Afghanistan and all of the constant short-notice strike force capabilities our Nation calls for throughout the world. They are extremely successful. The reason is their discipline and adaptability. There is also no victim mentality in the Marines. All Marines were properly parented in their days as a recruit and young Marine, and except for the few shit-bags that always seem to squeak though, virtually all had an excellent foundation before they became Sergeants and Colonels.
Four traits - discipline, adaptability, lack of victim mentality thereby forcing you to earn everything for yourself, and proper parenting. None of these things cost money. In the case of all the social programs that progressives support, the cost of teaching people NOT to properly parent outdoes any state's school budget ten-fold.
Those four traits also allowed people, some of whom were probably educated early on in a one room school house, to discover atomic energy. Those same traits allowed members of Apollo 13 to stay alive, and what allowed the ground crew of Apollo 13 to make a square air filter round and have it work and then re-calculate every capsule re-entry schematic known to man in a matter of hours. School teacher, one room school house - that is where many of them got their foundation. Imagine that, way before LBJ's war on poverty eventually led to Carter creating a US Department of Education, rocket scientists were, well, learning the baseline for how to become rocket scientists.
Ironically, I remember watching Obama give a speech last year at NASA where he talked about the need to increase NASA's funding and how that would save jobs at NASA. I couldn't believe it. He actually thought it was important to merely employ big numbers at NASA for the sake of the unemployment rate. This should be absolutely shocking to every red-blooded American. If I ran the show, as Commander in Chief I would demand to employ the magic number of people at NASA that led to maximizing achievement. I would look at NASA as being beholden to nothing but excellence, and most certainly NOT anything remotely related to the unemployment rate. 'Not the best in your field, we'll gladly replace you' would be the theme. I would set a mentality that they needed to produce, and that competition was the best way in the world to advance humankind.
When you go out into the forest to learn how to navigate for survival, no true professional will throw you a GPS and say you'll be okay. You have to spend a lot of time, and I mean a lot of time, mastering the use of a 1950's model compass and a basic map and all the techniques in order to make both items work wonders for you. Then, you can receive the GPS that will allow you to shortcut success. But still, pack your compass and map.
In much the same way, nobody needs an iPad or laptop computer to take home with them in order to learn. You also don't need lots of mediocre teachers, you need to have less absolutely excellent ones. Look up Bill Gates on this subject, he is leading the debate for identifying traits in teachers that actually yield results in learning. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/united-states/Pages/education-strategy.aspx
Students need proper leadership that will force needed repetition and the discipline to actually sit there and be patient and not get up until they master the basics. That leadership comes from teachers and parents. I believe it relevant at this time to point out the fact that China and India and most certainly Japan are kicking our asses in math and science. I bet many of their students don't have a new computer in the classroom every year. As you see now in Japan in the wake of the Tsunami, discipline and order is now all that is holding up their society on a day to day basis.
Nobody needs to be handed opportunities to succeed. Give people the basic and proper timeless foundations and they will do more succeeding for themselves than you can shake a stick at. If they fail, let them fail. With a good foundation they will amend their ways and try again, better for the lesson they learned in the process.
My educational bottom line? Change the dynamic of the educator's mind-set - give them incentive to stand on their own two feet and set the bar on their own. Let teachers enforce real and honest discipline, for if they are stripped of their ability to control a classroom, we all fail big time. Find a way to take tenure out of the equation and focus on real results (see Bill Gates link). Far and away, absolutely demand that education begin a new (and old) clear course; one that takes students back to an environment where instilling a brilliance in the basics is everything.
My political bottom line? Let workers organize, but let them not organize as well. Walker has been severely hindered for not making his central argument the fact that when you get hired to teach in Wisconsin you HAVE HAD NO CHOICE but to join the union. I do not understand why Republicans didn't shape the argument by declaring that this was one issue that they were actually pro-choice.
Government is nothing but force, as George Washington stated, and we should never forget that government has a monopoly on the legal use of force. Unions’ allying with the Democratic Party in order to harness the force of government has led to public sector workers being legally forced by statute to MANDATORILY PARTICIPATE in unions. This is nothing more than a mafia tactic, no exaggeration.
To me, that is what this whole thing is about.
Well said.
ReplyDeleteWhat the unions fear the most is that they can no longer require union membership, thus eliminating their gross income base. What the government fears the most is simmilar: efficiency.
In the same breath, as you said, money does not equate to quality education any more than larger federal programs equate to economic prosperity.
I read this great quote by Walter E. Williams last week: "The most promising anti-poverty tool for poor people and poor countries is personal liberty." The government desires us to be poor in liberty. Because if we are rich, then we realize how little we need them. And the unions.