Are Teachers to Blame?
August 31st, 2010
I suppose this post is long overdue. I continue to hear rumors that go around the Alpine school district concerning how I criticize teachers or similar statements. I am grateful to those of you teachers who have helped defend me because you are able to see the issues as well. It seems that a lot of teachers don’t realize that criticism of the “district” isn’t necessarily criticism of them, in the same vein that criticizing the out-of-control federal government isn’t criticism of all the citizens of the country.
The answer to the question I’ve posed to myself is, yes and no. I will give each answer separately so that those at ASD who wish to pass on to others that I blame teachers can easily pass on the YES answer without the NO. :) Please understand that there are teachers who fall into EACH category. I’ve never heard of anyone who has EVER lumped all teachers into one boat. There are good and bad in the profession just like everywhere else.
The NO answer: No I don’t blame teachers for our predicament. I blame those educrats in power at all levels who have corrupted the education system over decades of time, dumbed down our children through weak curriculum and revisionist history, and sought to ensure our children get a free education through compulsory means. Saying you’ll force people to learn or do good doesn’t achieve either in the long run and continually dropping test scores and college enrollments show this to be the case. Teachers who are concerned about their jobs but understand the issues have had hard choices to make while they’re trying to do the right thing for our children and I feel for them. I deeply sorrow for the hard working teachers who would rather just teach our children but instead have to play inane games with educrats looking over their shoulders telling them what the latest study says they need to do. If you’re in this category, you have my very sincere gratitude and thanks. Keep up the good work.
The YES answer: Yes I blame teachers who didn’t have a shred of common sense when the district told them to not teach the times tables anymore and they did it. This is just as wrong as a marine who is told by a commanding officer to do something he knows to be wrong but does it because he’s told to do it. I blame teachers who claim to teach the truth to our children about our constitutional republic but have never studied it, or even worse, they’re socialists at heart and teach our children how to embrace socialism. Yes I blame teachers who put more concern for advancement and doing the will of the district over the welfare of the children in their classrooms. Yes I blame teachers who buy into everything they are told by the district or college professors, and never take the time to validate what they are being told. There are no peer reviewed studies that support Investigations, Connected, and Interactive math regardless of what some district educrat tells you.
If you are a teacher, before you believe what is being said about me, please look at the amount of research I and others have done and then question those who tell you they are the “professional” and they know what’s right. As an accountant, I knew Enron was a disaster for the profession but wasn’t afraid to admit it. It’s time more teachers spoke up and displayed the intellectual honesty about the issues that the education profession faces. If you don’t, the education system will turn into the next Enron and when it goes down, it will be too late for you to speak up just like it was for the auditors of Enron. In fact, if you thought NCLB (No Child Left Behind) was bad for you, wait till we get federalized assessments and training to go with the new Common Core standards Utah just adopted. We’ve sold our souls gambling for a little pocket change. The assault on you continues to advance.
Some questions you might start with:
- Why is Bill Ayers the terrorist so interested in teaching democracy in education? (link)
- What is humanist John Goodlad’s Agenda for Education in a Democracy? (link)
- Did you know these two men are birds of a feather and that Bill Ayers is the keynote speaker at Goodlad’s 2010 NNER conference? (link)
- What kind of beliefs are written in the anti-God Humanist Manifesto? (link)
- Why did BYU just drop their membership in Goodlad’s NNER after being one of the founding members back in 1986? (link)
- Why is the NNER trying to push the homosexual movement into BYU? (link)
- In all of the United States, there are only 30 Goodlad “AED Scholars” (Agenda for Education in a Democracy). Why does Utah have 4 of the 30 at ASD and BYU’s McKay School of Education? (link)
Does any of this trouble you?
5 Responses to “Are Teachers to Blame?”
A teacher complained to me that I did not show respect for the teaching profession. I will have respect when the teaching profession becomes respectable and promotes itself through high standards and excellence in education instead of by collusion with coercive government forces by which it prospers in mediocrity and perversion. You good teachers out there who are trying to do a good job and make a living, I sympathized. However, you cannot escape the fact that you and your efforts are sullied by your association and participation. It has always required faith to break free.
We do have good teachers with good intentions who truly want to help children learn. We also have a lot of educators that are so arrogant. They already know everything therefore they can’t be taught anything. Many doctors fall into this catagory also. The key is to always be teachable and humble enough to recognize when you are wrong and admit it. Many of the teachers have been trained in the way the public school system works from Kindergarten. Most of the parents have also. Even some of the grandparents. So many people think the way the education system is running is the way it is supposed to be. I used to fall into that catagory, until recently. It made me a bit angry when I started learning the truth. I loved school until Jr. High and High school. Most people I know say the same thing. Shouldn’t learning be fun? I felt like school was a waste of my time; and now I realize that it was. (It was also a waste of tax dollars). I finally started to love learning in college (Rick’s College, not the Jr. College I first attended). We have a generation where many know how to do what they are told and function in society, but not how to ask good questions and think for themselves. Our Educators have dumbed down the test scores to make sure everyone can graduate, and even hand out diplomas for “seat time”. Rather than raise the bar, they have lowered it. We need to focus on the basics in teaching. Our children should be learning how to learn, which is a skill they will use forever. When our children are reading in schools, they should be reading about good role models who teach them values. They should not be reading about and laughing at bratty behavior. Let us not be so worried about what our children are going to be when they grow up, let us focus on who they are going to be. It won’t matter if we have academically smart children if they don’t know how to treat each other, work hard, serve others and think.
We all need to start asking why history is going in the direction it is going and what can we do to change it. When I say “we” I mean individually.
Amen ! Long overdue.
Congratulations to any teacher who can overcome his own dumbed-down education to help today’s students wake up and enjoy using their own brains that some people want to manage for them. Socrates was killed for freeing his student’s minds from “robotization.” We note that his name lives on, throughout the ages, leaving his detractors in unmarked graves. But today, who knows history, or even the present?
I think we’re back to “spiritual wickedness in high places,” the same-ole-same-ole human nature that is only conquered by virtue—a Latin word for moral excellence and valor. Take the “t” out of virtue, and in Latin it becomes “virus,” the word for poison.
I think that the “t” in “virtue” stands for “Truth.” It also stands for an honest, skilled and loving Teacher.
Congratulations to any teacher who can overcome his own dumbed-down education to help today’s students wake up and enjoy using their own brains that some people want to manage for them. Socrates was killed for freeing his student’s minds from “robotization.” We note that his name lives on, throughout the ages, leaving his detractors in unmarked graves. But today, who knows history, or even the present?
I think we’re back to “spiritual wickedness in high places,” the same-ole-same-ole human nature that is only conquered by virtue—a Latin word for moral excellence and valor. Take the “t” out of virtue, and in Latin it becomes “virus,” the word for poison.
I think that the “t” in “virtue” stands for “Truth.” It also stands for an honest, skilled and loving Teacher.