Why I hate America
Hey Folks –
The next time some Bush-freak asks me why I hate America, I’ll just hand them the August 21, 2007 Columbus Dispatch editorial “Education first.” That should make it clear.
The editorial (below) is written from the perspective of a wealthy, white, Republican businessman criticizing the school district of the city where he headquarters his business but in which he most likely does not live and to which he would never send any of his young, white relatives.
The editorial claims unions make school administrators less "efficient" and "innovative" in doing what wealthy, white, Republican businessmen think the schools should do. It never dawns on aristocrats that wealthy, white, Republican, businessman who don’t live in the district or have kids in the school might not be the ones best suited to guide the district. Perhaps the kids who go there and their parents should have a bigger say.
But isn’t the point of the editorial that parents should be listened to?
No. It is that a few parents at one school should be listened to, but ONLY because in that particular case it meshes with the publisher’s agenda. His agenda embraces the Proficiency Test / No Child Left Behind scheme which, with its emphasis on reading and math (French is never mentioned), has caused thousands of Ohio children to experience cutbacks in art, music, and physical education instruction. The paper hasn’t complained about that (additional funding [taxes] would be required).
This case involves a K-8 French-immersion school where four of the teachers don’t speak French. Three of the four will teach any given child only one period a day; the rest of the day will be in French. One 3rd grade English-only teacher will have two classrooms of students half a day each; how many students does that affect and to what extent?
It doesn’t seem like too much of an impact – not compared to the effects of reduced art, music, and phys ed; increased class size; or the effects of poverty on thousands of students – no editorial complaints on these topics (additional funding [taxes] would be required). So, it’s not about parents or kids getting what they need. It’s something else.
The reason the wealthy, white Republican businessman is jumping to defend a few irate parents is that it gives him an excuse to bash workers and the unions that try to bring them a shadow of the dignity and security long-owned by the wealthy Wolfe Publishing family.
First things first; the wealthy, white Republican businessman assures us that “Superintendent Gene Harris' . . . commitment not to exceed the district's self-imposed cap of 3 percent spending growth per year is appropriate.” Wealthy, white Republican businessmen don’t like spending any more of their money on other people’s children than they have to. Wealthy, white Republican businessmen especially don’t like taxes (ask wealthy, white Republican businesswoman Leona Helmsley).
He admits that “Living within the district's budget required teacher layoffs for the past two years” but complains that “the teachers' contract requires that any vacancies be offered first to teachers who were laid off.” Hence the terrible “problem” that results in a few students hearing a little English along with their French during the school day – a problem easily solved by pushing just four families into chaos and distress.
This sort of thinking isn’t much different from that of slave-owning plantation owners or serf-owning manor lords who saw the aristocrat’s selfish (though officially altruistic and Christian) agenda as preeminent, trumping the humanity of those they controlled. No atrocity committed against these “lower creatures” was beyond the pale if it pleased or enriched the Master or the Lord. With the Dispatch's publisher, it’s just a matter of degrees.
So, why do I hate America? Well, it’s more than what I’ve said so far. Even worse than that is this:
People responsible for such editorials, people who praise such editorials, people who see nothing wrong with such editorials run this country, run America. They own the media and control what gets said in America. They own the politicians and control what they do to America. They own the police and the criminal “justice” system and set the larger parameters of who gets imprisoned, who gets executed, and who can’t be touched in America. They constitute the aristocracy of wealth Alexis de Tocqueville cautioned against long ago. They know their place, and they know ours, and they know best.
This - in such stark contrast to the ideals we embraced as children - is why I hate America.
- Uke Man
Education first
Quality of language-immersion school is threatened by teacher-contract provisions
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Teacher contracts often are blamed for impeding the ability of school administrators to manage their districts efficiently and innovatively. A case in the Columbus City Schools illustrates the point.
Ecole Kenwood, a French-language immersion school, has been one of the district's most successful and popular programs, exactly the sort of alternative it needs to offer families who otherwise might choose private or charter schools.
Now parents are justifiably upset by the news that four teachers assigned to the school for the coming academic year don't speak French.
Two are math and science specialists and one is at the middle-school level of the K-8 school. Parents are most upset, though, about a third-grade classroom teacher, because at that level, students are supposed to receive 70 percent of their instruction in French.
Kenwood's principal will try to make do by having the new third-grade teacher split her time with another third-grade teacher who is a native of France, but that leaves neither classroom with more than half of its instruction in French.
How can parents be confident their children are immersed in the language, as the school's philosophy promises?
Superintendent Gene Harris' explanation is simple: Living within the district's budget required teacher layoffs for the past two years, and the teachers' contract requires that any vacancies be offered first to teachers who were laid off.
Her commitment not to exceed the district's self-imposed cap of 3 percent spending growth per year is appropriate, but failing to ensure that specialized programs such as language immersion are staffed by teachers with specialized expertise is a glaring flaw in the contract.
Surely, the provision requiring that openings go to laid-off teachers with appropriate certifications could further stipulate that positions in specialized programs must be filled with people who have the qualifications required by those programs.
While defining specialized might require some negotiation, language-immersion programs clearly ought to qualify.
This is an area of the contract in which school management should reclaim its rights. Administrators and teachers with students' best interests at heart should not knowingly undermine a successful program in the name of teacher seniority.
The next time some Bush-freak asks me why I hate America, I’ll just hand them the August 21, 2007 Columbus Dispatch editorial “Education first.” That should make it clear.
The editorial (below) is written from the perspective of a wealthy, white, Republican businessman criticizing the school district of the city where he headquarters his business but in which he most likely does not live and to which he would never send any of his young, white relatives.
The editorial claims unions make school administrators less "efficient" and "innovative" in doing what wealthy, white, Republican businessmen think the schools should do. It never dawns on aristocrats that wealthy, white, Republican, businessman who don’t live in the district or have kids in the school might not be the ones best suited to guide the district. Perhaps the kids who go there and their parents should have a bigger say.
But isn’t the point of the editorial that parents should be listened to?
No. It is that a few parents at one school should be listened to, but ONLY because in that particular case it meshes with the publisher’s agenda. His agenda embraces the Proficiency Test / No Child Left Behind scheme which, with its emphasis on reading and math (French is never mentioned), has caused thousands of Ohio children to experience cutbacks in art, music, and physical education instruction. The paper hasn’t complained about that (additional funding [taxes] would be required).
This case involves a K-8 French-immersion school where four of the teachers don’t speak French. Three of the four will teach any given child only one period a day; the rest of the day will be in French. One 3rd grade English-only teacher will have two classrooms of students half a day each; how many students does that affect and to what extent?
It doesn’t seem like too much of an impact – not compared to the effects of reduced art, music, and phys ed; increased class size; or the effects of poverty on thousands of students – no editorial complaints on these topics (additional funding [taxes] would be required). So, it’s not about parents or kids getting what they need. It’s something else.
The reason the wealthy, white Republican businessman is jumping to defend a few irate parents is that it gives him an excuse to bash workers and the unions that try to bring them a shadow of the dignity and security long-owned by the wealthy Wolfe Publishing family.
First things first; the wealthy, white Republican businessman assures us that “Superintendent Gene Harris' . . . commitment not to exceed the district's self-imposed cap of 3 percent spending growth per year is appropriate.” Wealthy, white Republican businessmen don’t like spending any more of their money on other people’s children than they have to. Wealthy, white Republican businessmen especially don’t like taxes (ask wealthy, white Republican businesswoman Leona Helmsley).
He admits that “Living within the district's budget required teacher layoffs for the past two years” but complains that “the teachers' contract requires that any vacancies be offered first to teachers who were laid off.” Hence the terrible “problem” that results in a few students hearing a little English along with their French during the school day – a problem easily solved by pushing just four families into chaos and distress.
This sort of thinking isn’t much different from that of slave-owning plantation owners or serf-owning manor lords who saw the aristocrat’s selfish (though officially altruistic and Christian) agenda as preeminent, trumping the humanity of those they controlled. No atrocity committed against these “lower creatures” was beyond the pale if it pleased or enriched the Master or the Lord. With the Dispatch's publisher, it’s just a matter of degrees.
So, why do I hate America? Well, it’s more than what I’ve said so far. Even worse than that is this:
People responsible for such editorials, people who praise such editorials, people who see nothing wrong with such editorials run this country, run America. They own the media and control what gets said in America. They own the politicians and control what they do to America. They own the police and the criminal “justice” system and set the larger parameters of who gets imprisoned, who gets executed, and who can’t be touched in America. They constitute the aristocracy of wealth Alexis de Tocqueville cautioned against long ago. They know their place, and they know ours, and they know best.
This - in such stark contrast to the ideals we embraced as children - is why I hate America.
- Uke Man
Education first
Quality of language-immersion school is threatened by teacher-contract provisions
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Teacher contracts often are blamed for impeding the ability of school administrators to manage their districts efficiently and innovatively. A case in the Columbus City Schools illustrates the point.
Ecole Kenwood, a French-language immersion school, has been one of the district's most successful and popular programs, exactly the sort of alternative it needs to offer families who otherwise might choose private or charter schools.
Now parents are justifiably upset by the news that four teachers assigned to the school for the coming academic year don't speak French.
Two are math and science specialists and one is at the middle-school level of the K-8 school. Parents are most upset, though, about a third-grade classroom teacher, because at that level, students are supposed to receive 70 percent of their instruction in French.
Kenwood's principal will try to make do by having the new third-grade teacher split her time with another third-grade teacher who is a native of France, but that leaves neither classroom with more than half of its instruction in French.
How can parents be confident their children are immersed in the language, as the school's philosophy promises?
Superintendent Gene Harris' explanation is simple: Living within the district's budget required teacher layoffs for the past two years, and the teachers' contract requires that any vacancies be offered first to teachers who were laid off.
Her commitment not to exceed the district's self-imposed cap of 3 percent spending growth per year is appropriate, but failing to ensure that specialized programs such as language immersion are staffed by teachers with specialized expertise is a glaring flaw in the contract.
Surely, the provision requiring that openings go to laid-off teachers with appropriate certifications could further stipulate that positions in specialized programs must be filled with people who have the qualifications required by those programs.
While defining specialized might require some negotiation, language-immersion programs clearly ought to qualify.
This is an area of the contract in which school management should reclaim its rights. Administrators and teachers with students' best interests at heart should not knowingly undermine a successful program in the name of teacher seniority.
1 Comments:
Hi Tom,
Some really good points here. The world is full of contradictions and you can bet the little people will be the victims. Sondra
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home