Jon Stewart has it all figured out about teachers and has a little private talk with them. He wants them to straighten up and fly right.
Jon Stewart’s mother really was a teacher, in New Jersey. Don’t let these teachers fool you! Those money grubbers.
Stewart explores class warfare. The Democrats are pitting the top 2% against the lower 98%. What can be done abouut these villans of chalk board? They are living in the 1890’s. They are destroying America. They have chalk dust on their clothing. They drive old cars. They have special text books with all the answers in them. Who has a gym and a cafeteria at the work place, other than Google employees? What about the greed that led these people into their profession? The Crisis in Dairy Land continues. The Curds are angry.
Stewart explores class warfare, the democrats and unions exploit class warfare. teachers should get a day’s pay for a day’s work, and not a dime more. it’s not exactly like they’re producing an army of einsteins in today’s classrooms. if they don’t like their jobs, do something else. those who can, do. those who can’t, teach
@e
Screw you. Usually people that make statements like that couldn’t teach an Eskimo to make ice cubes.
Actually e, the only reason that you are still on here after the rash of nasty comments is because I am waiting for Elena to get home to deal with you. Be afraid. Very afraid.
e, ever try to teach a band of kids who have no manners or self control, a class with reading levels from K-12 all shoved into an oft crowded room? That is what our teachers face on a daily basis, never mind schools that are bursting at the seams after only 2-3 years of being open. There has to be an incentive to keep teachers teaching.
e,
Do you realize how incredibly insulting you are to people on this blog who may have spent their adult lives in the educational field?
When I was a counselor in the public school system, that solidified why teaching was not a profession I would ever consider. In most jobs you have a specific goal, that depends mostly , on your ability to get it done. Let’s take for instance being a truck driver. You and you alone are responsible for driving your vehicle, sure, there is weather and other acts of nature that can impact your ability to perform, but those are all tangible reasons to possibly delay a delivery.
Now, take teaching, where, many things that predict outcome are out of your control with NO tangible to “blame”. For instance, a language barrier, a learning diparity barrier, a difficult home life barrier, a health barrier, a classroom size barrier, etc etc. Who the hell would want to be a teacher these days with people like you and so many others who have never been in a classroom and yet openly denegrate their profession. The idea that teachers are the reason our economy is in the toilet is simply ridiculous. Were it not for the rampant abuses by banks and investors, much of our current disaster could have been avoided, but yeah, lets put it on the backs of the hard working middle class to balance our budgets.
ah yes, the evil banks and investors, how rude to insult the financial industry and ordinary americans who invest in our country’s future and prosperity! the teaching profession is sacrosanct and beyond reproach, but whatever everyone else does is fair game, eh? if teachers are unhappy with their level of compensation, get out of the field and do something else. there are no sacred cows here. the whole public school industry is a typical government-run behemoth: inefficient, bloated, very little return on the investment (i.e. taxes). and this concept of hard working middle class is another example of exploitative class warfare: poor people are hard working too (sometimes), and so are rich people. the union bosses don’t care about the middle class or the classroom or the kids, all they want is POWER, and the majority of the american peope know it, new york slimes “poll” notwithstanding
I expect the freshman classes at MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Brown, etc would agree with you, e. Yes, throw the bums out. Those uneducated slobs!
This isn’t about union bosses.
Martha of the Faux News 9 am show was on bashing teachers also. She was talking about Wisconsin having the lowest scores in the area. You know, lets bash the teachers generally and prove they shouldn’t have a job or be compensated for it.
Interesting…I recalled reading that the SAT and ACT test scores out of Wisconsin were very good. I looked it up. Wisconsin was #2 with both SAT and ACT. Iowa was #1. Must be the corn and cheese.
I wonder what Miss Faux Martha would say about those outstanding SAT and ACT scores. Funny thing about those college entrance types of tests. You don’t learn all that your junior or senior years. That is years of excellent education of youngsters. Did I mention Virginia was #44. Maybe they should consider going with union and collective bargaining.
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/states/USCHARTsat.html
Geez VA is below Mississippi and ARkansas.
My guess is that VA is testing too many students. If I wanted to improve scores, I would not encourage every Tom, Dick and Harry to take the test.
@Moon-howler
Don’t be hatin’ on MIT.
e,
Seriously, we bailed the banks to a tune of almost 1 billion dollars. Are you suggesting they are not hugely culpable for our current mess?
MH, before you give Virginia a failing grade…
http://www.act.org/news/data/09/states.html
http://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/policyblog/detail/2010-sat-scores-by-state
This date is ‘fresher’ than the data you cite and also shows one key attribute.. percentage of kids participating in the test.
As you pointed out when you have ‘too many’ students testing the scores tend to go down.. So, Wisconsin having only 3% makes those numbers……… artificial. 🙂
Not defending Fox but I don’t think union/non-union really has an effect on students learning (except to say it may or may not take away money from education and put it into the wallets of the union and fat cat union employees).
I personally just don’t think the cost of a union really provides the taxpayers (including that wino cited above that was probably not ‘helped enough’ by his union teacher) a better benefit. We’re not getting the return on our investment…
Cato, I had my sarcasm button on. I wasn’t hating on MIT. I was offering it up as an excellent school that only takes excellent students. In other words, public schools were doing something right if their kids got into those schools.
I don’t think unions necessarily improve education. I don’t think any cause/effect has been established. What the Fauxes were saying was that the scores were low so the teachers didn’t deserve more money. 🙄
Exactly. Actually, the more data entries, the more the tendency towards the middle. If you limit the testing to high achieving middle class students, you will get overall higher scores. If you open it up to the masses, regardless of GPA, you will lower the scores.
*sigh* /sarcasm on/ @ e. Okay, teachers don’t teach a thing, we’re not producing Einsteins (even though he did have difficulty in school). So we must be babysitters…right? So why not pay us a babysitter salary. Let’s say 3 dollars an hour. Well below minimum wage. So lets figure this out. Three dollars per hour per student for a 6.5 hour day. We won’t pay for planning, 20 minute lunch, preptime, or before or after school meetings. Won’t pay for teacher workdays either.
So a teacher in an elementary school teaches students for 6.5 hours a day. 6.5 x 3.00 equals 19.50 a day per student. Multiply 19.50 by 24 students and you come up with 468.00 a day. Then multiply that by 181 instructional days and the average elementary school teacher can gross 84,708 dollars a year. Just for babysitting. Get out! Not including teacher work days or “other duties as assigned”. Wow! Sign me up! (But wait I’m already there and THAT is NOT what I make) Let’s look at high school teachers: 6.5 x 3.00 equals 19.50 a day per student. Multiply 19.50 per student by 100 students a day and high school teachers can make in 181 days 325,950 dollars gross per year…just for babysitting and not producing squat as far as Einsteins are concerned. Oh and those SPED teachers…got to throw them some minimum wages for what they do, so let’s pay them 5.10 an hour, only when they instruct, (they can write IEPs on their own time). So a SPED teacher with a caseload of 20 x 5.10 at 6.5 a day equals 120,003 per year. Want to pay me to be a babysitter e? /sarcasm off/
Go DB! You have spelled it out.
Ready for another day of being insulted? I suppose people don’t realize there are teachers and public employees on this blog.
I offer no protection if the entire blog turns on the insulters.
As far as getting paid for a day’s work…a lot of people are under the mistaken impression that educators are paid for summer break. This is not so. We have (around) 180 day contracts, and get paid for that time. It’s just that our pay for that time gets spread out over the entire year. It makes it easier to pay your bills.
In any case, education is not a glamour, fat cat profession. You are expected to work MANY extra hours volunteering at your school and then you go home and grade papers/plan; that is not considered above and beyond but just part of the job. There are no bonuses for your overtime. Schools, for the most part, don’t pay for the supplies you use AND buy for use by the kids in your class; that will come out of your own pocket.
Educators are used to being insulted by some parents and some of the general public. However, it is getting worse recently. Comments like the one at the beginning of this thread are not uncommon, but just reflect someone who has no real understanding of the field. I have a new saying for ya…Those who are ignorant hate; those who are educated appreciate.
Excellent new saying, DG.
Thanks for your input. The continual devaluing of those in education will have the end result of fewer and fewer people becoming educatiors. Who wants to go into a field that generates as much disrespect as education?
I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that those who are disrespectful of education probably didn’t have real successful experiences in school themselves and that is what all this stems from.
Regardless of the reason for devaluing and disrespecting teachers, they will have the last laugh. Much of the teaching force was filled by baby boomer women who had other professions cut off to them back in the day. Those boomers are retiring now, in droves. Who will fill their shoes?
Americans should be prepared to pay more rather than less for teachers in the very near future. All the big assing about firing teachers will not be possible. There are limited replacements.
I have a soft spot for teachers mainly because I’m the product of a public school environment and overall had a good experience. If they came up with some way to pay teachers some base then bonus them for performance (yes, I know how hard this is to measure) I’d say great, I support it and don’t mind paying more taxes to reward excellence. Hell, think outside the box and take a million bucks and award it to the educator of the year. That sets up a beautiful free market situation where every year teachers are going to outperform and chase that reward. I just don’t like the idea of forced unionization and collective bargaining for the same reasons some of the early labors didn’t which is to say that there shouldn’t be an adversarial relationship between elected officials and government workers.
@Cato, I don’t like forced union membership either. I am glad to live in a right to work state. However, I don’t object to collective bargaining and especially in Wisconsin. Let’s put it this way….I totally understand why those public employees don’t want to lose their negotiating tool.
National board certified teachers get paid more in PWC. That’s a good thing and a good way to reward those who advance. That is a very difficult program. I see nothing wrong with rewarding advanced degrees since those represent advanced skills and knowledge. That seems to be a no no with the teacher haters though. Shrug. I know who will have the last laugh though…as long as people continue to reproduce.
That was fabulous diversity gal!
to diversity gal i say: boo hoo. no one in this country has a gun pointed at his head forcing him to do anything. if you don’t like your job, do something else. a day’s pay for a day’s work: for teachers, and everyone else. what makes unions think they’re so special that the rules of economics and common sense should bend at their whim? no real understanding of the field? what, are teachers to be venerated like demigods, and we the common rubes and hateful, ignorant masses are to proffer gifts of worship at the alter of the nea?
It is amazing to see our teachers being trashed by so many who seem to think that educators are on some sort of gravy train. If things are so cushy with these incredible benefits, why is it that historically, one third of new teachers leave the profession in the first 3 years and almost half leave in the first 5 years. Why would they leave a job that is so easy with gravy train benefits and pension? Why do we have teacher shortages in so many subjects and areas and why aren’t people lined up around the block to get on this gravy train? It could be that the job is not an easy one except in the minds of those that are looking from the other side of the fence. When you come over onto the same side of the fence, you will quickly understand that it is no gravy train and know why people aren’t flocking to become teachers. I guess by cutting their pay, benefits, pensions and rights to collectively bargain, we will probably be encouraging a whole bunch of people to go to school to become teachers. Then things will improve quickly for our country’s future!!