FIRE THEM!
Once again, Bill Maher has penned an honest portrayal of the idiocy in this country. I admit, I’m a bit biased when it comes to this but lets talk about education for a minute. First, my background. A significant number of my immediate and extended family members are teachers or have been teachers at one point or another in their lives. Growing up, education..or more to the point, GETTING ONE, was the number one rule, ahead of anything else despite my pathetic attempts to think otherwise at times. My folks made time for reading every night to my sister and me whether it was reading TO us or allowing one of us to read to THEM. They both struggled along with us trying to figure out ways to tell a 14 frustrated year old that Algebra is actually relevant and to just suck it up and learn it and they RE-LEARNED it with me. My folks went out of their way to provide Sarah and me with educational opportunities, not because they wanted genius children (hopefully that was not their wish) but because they both knew and understood the importance of a basic education. They sent Sarah and I to enrichment programs, they participated and helped us to participate in Cub Scouts, Brownies, plays, programs, events, museums, and yes, even instruction about shoveling shit on the farm. Education is important. It was important to my parents and it was eventually important to me. I’m not talking here about post-secondary education but the basic shit. Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic — K-12 public education.
Firing all the teachers may feel good – we’re Americans, kicking people when they’re down is what we do – but it’s not really their fault. Now, undeniably, there are some bad teachers out there. They don’t know the material, they don’t make things interesting, they have sex with the same kid every day instead of spreading the love around… But every school has crappy teachers. Yale has crappy teachers – they must, they gave us George Bush.
According to all the studies, it doesn’t matter what teachers do. Although everyone appreciates foreplay. What matters is what parents do. The number one predictor of a child’s academic success is parental involvement. It doesn’t even matter if your kid goes to private or public school. So save the twenty grand a year and treat yourself to a nice vacation away from the little bastards
Click on the link above to read the rest.
I get so sick of the bullshit in the papers and on line criticizing teachers for ‘failing kids’. Bullshit. The only teachers who are failing kids in this country ARE THE PARENTS. Yes, there are bad teachers, AND bad doctors, lawyers, and scientists but come on if you are going to take the time to write in to the newspaper editor, at least show your kids that you know how to use a spell checker or that you can FINISH a fucking thought in a single sentence! So, the next time you get an urge to criticize a teacher, stop and think for a minute about what you are doing. Is little Jimmy’s failure to learn his times tables the fault of the teacher OR is it YOUR fault for failing to make sure little Jimmy got home after school to DO HIS HOMEWORK! OR, is it YOUR fault for failing to drill them into his head like you were asked to help do by the note you got from the teacher BECUASE YOU YOU COULD NOT BE BOTHERED TO SHOW UP FOR PARENT / TEACHER CONFERENCES!
One reason, among many others that I got out of the Education thing for myself was that I had a very difficult time understanding the lack of involvement of parents in their kids lives because it was SO foreign to me. Growing up I couldn’t shit without one of my parents asking me about school and about my life and good Lord there were times when I absolutely HATED their incessant nagging, prodding, and scornful stares and I would slam my books on the table and leave for coffee at Denny’s just to piss them off more. My parents were doing their jobs, THEY were being teachers, never mind their own backgrounds. THEY were demanding accountability from me and THEY were going to stand by me and help me even while frustrated with me to make sure that at the VERY least, I got my ass through High School with an education. Yes, I know everyone has shit going on in their lives but come on, you do not have to be a scholar to be a teacher to your child, you only have to be there and show that to your child. They will know your expectations, you don’t even have to explain what they are, that’s the beauty of a parent / child relationship. The kid WILL come to you for help even when they know you won’t be able to give them the answers.
Lack of parental involvement is the #1 reason that our education system in this country is shot. It is not however broken and it is not un-fixable. It is also not the sole responsibility of teachers in this country to raise YOUR CHILDREN.








