Teachers are not the Problem

The trash talk from governors, chancellors, mayors, and other insignificant political officials in the past few weeks has been disparaging. Teachers are easier targets than bankers or politicians. Ask any tyrant. Teachers shouldn't be the scapegoat when bankers and politicians are the real culprits in our problems. Let's not get distracted, folks. Follow the money.

Teachers are the good guys. We have always worked for peanuts and done yeoman's work. When times are good, we are invisible. But when times are tough we become the easy target. I am always reminded about how in tyrannical countries the teachers have their heads chopped off and staked or their tongues cut out. In too many undeveloped countries the teachers are the main target of the leadership as the source of the troubles of the country. Who can forget the sacrifice of Socrates? Teachers are the true champions of democracy and that is why they are the targets of all governments that are not democracies. America is not a democracy, it is a plutocracy. Bankers, not the people control our politicians. We are a plutocracy. This is why the teachers are now being attacked in the way they are being attacked. The mayor of NYC is a one of the richest men in the country. Look at how he is behaving. Cutting any part of an education budget is not the answer to any fiscal crisis.

When I hear the new governor of New Jersey compare teachers to drug dealers on the eve of the April 20 school board elections, I know teachers are being used as the scapegoats, because they are easy targets. Here is a perfect example of simply "considering the source" of the slanderous remark. Sure the economy is bad, but are we sure we want to blame the teachers and take it out on them. Teachers didn't make the bad mortgage deals. In New York City, Klein, the classic user of "divide and conquer" has decided to go after seniority in the teacher union. We all know that principals will choose the newer teachers because the budget cuts will demand it. Just as he destroyed the administration union with his antics, he now has younger teachers organizing and creating a group challenging the teacher union. Research shows these new teachers are not the answer. If BloomKlein win this battle, the fate of education in NYC is doomed and will not recover. Here is an example of how not to conduct business in education. Education has not improved during Klein's tenure and it is only getting worse. If NYC is the microcosm of American education run by Joel Klein, then the macrocosm failure of American Education is seen with Arne Duncan's poorer leadership. Obama's greatest failure will be his educational choices and his ignorance of educational ideas and leadership.

The current witch hunt on teachers is not how we fix education in America. We fix education by actually talking to teachers and listening to them. We put too much stock in college professors who know nothing about k-12 education, schools of education that know nothing about k-12 education, publishers who know nothing about k-12 education, and politicians who know nothing about anything especially education. When we get politics out of schools, schools will do what they know what to do.

As a parent, I have not been very happy with the new teachers my own children have had. I have supported them, but I have not been happy with them. They lack experience and that is key. Consider how we select services in our life. We look to experience in the operating room, in the courtroom, in the kitchen, in all aspects of our life. Whenever we watch sports, it may be the young players who bring the excitement but when the game is on the line, we always see the veteran players rising to the occasion. So why would we want to sacrifice experience in our children's classroom? From whom have any of us gained the most insight about ourselves? Who has been the person who has provided us the way to our success? When we look at our success in life, who is it we thank?