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Tenacious D
From the Slope of Hope: Many of you probably heard the news yesterday that teachers unions received a nasty (and well-deserved) blow from the Los Angeles Superior Court. I grew up in a fiercely anti-union household, and as a child, if I did a poor job making my bed, my mother would scowl and angrily say, "Union Worker!" I knew at that point I damned well better do the bed properly. Mercifully, as a businessman, I never had to deal with any union issues. I did, however, at one point have to grapple with a salaried employee who, years into her employment, decided to get cute and threaten a state case to retrieve overtime wages based on the idea her job should have been an hourly one. She did not prevail. But it deepened my dislike for any prospective interference of the state into such matters. Back to the topic of school, however, I spent all twelve years of my pre-college education in public schools. For elementary schools, exactly three of the teachers were excellent, and three sucked beyond belief. To this day, I question how much better a thinker I would be if all six of those years were good ones. Subsequent years were also hit-and-miss (and let me be clear, all twelve of these years were in good, solid, middle-class schools; not the utterly crappy schools that so many millions have to attend). Even as a youngster, it galled me that the shitty teachers were paid exactly as much as the excellent ones. Even though my own children attend (very, very expensive) private schools, I help fund local schools with my five-figure property tax bill every year, and as a matter of fairness, it has continued to bother me that tenure in any form exists at ALL. So when I was listening to the radio yesterday, and the reporter was saying that California teachers My view differs somewhat from that of the AFL and NEA. I think that at any point, for any reason, a teacher (or any employee, for that matter) should be able to be dismissed without cause. Period. There's a relationship between employer and employee. The employee is there at the will of the employer. If the employer doesn't like the employees work............or voice.........or hair color........or anything else about them - bang - there's the door. I believe any interference on the government's part on any private matter is offensive. Public schools are a bit blurry, I suppose, since they aren't private enterprises - - - but to my way of thinking, there is still a business relationship going on between the employer (the school district) and the employee (the teacher). The notion that this particular profession is blessed with a special right of some kind is vile to me. Of course, the teachers union headmistress Randy Weingarten (who looks every bit as grotesque as a person in this role should look) puked up her own disgust at the court's ruling, claiming "student achievement" was the focus on her union's strongarm tactics. Teacher's unions are about ONE thing and ONE thing only - - ensuring the most money for their members as possible, irrespective of performance, and, in turn, ensuring high salaries for the union leadership - such as the presumably female Ms. Weingarten. End of story. Their purported concern about students is a cover story that is in reality complete bluster. I am pleased at the court's ruling, and I hope it is just one more nail in the coffin of unions in this country, whose membership has been withering away for decades now. Indeed, it's getting to the point that unions are virtually non-existent in the private sector. They are almost entirely in the realm of the public sector, which is why I can look at the obese bus drivers here in town, driving their almost totally-empty double-length buses, and take comfort that these uneducated, unskilled laborers are each pulling down a six-figure salary (and, no, I'm not kidding). Some folks have already stated the 9th Circuit will overturn this ruling. I guess they might, particularly considering their famous loyalty to the left wing. But if I can cling on to hope that equity markets may function normally again some day, it's easy for me to figure that this ruling has a chance of surviving.
are granted "tenure at eighteen...." I naively assumed the next word was going to be "years." Nope. It was "months." After just eighteen months, these people get what is effectively guaranteed lifetime employment. Even, as in the court's case, the teacher just sleeps at their desk or browses the web.
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Really...
as one that went to the school board pleading that they fail and hold back my son in first, second and third fucking grades because my son hadn't learned to read because his first grade teacher was more interested in teaching halloween was devil worship, christmas was devil worship and easter was devil worship and could barely read her own written words...
To me there is nothing dumber than today's 'Teacher'. They have no cognitive skills, they cannot explain their method, nor can they explain why they teach what they teach.
My son was administrively placed into succeeding grades in Elementary School until he hit fourth grade, then I moved us all back to California because I remembered the education system as so much better than Florida's. (Florida initiated a Teacher's Standard Exam...initially it was told that those teachers that couldn't pass wouldn't be teachers. Then they took the test and 90% failed, so that fucking state lowered the standard passing score. That's a Fucking FACT, 1980's)
So we get to California. We get a phone call that our child did not show up for class, by nine o'clock each day that he was sick. My dipshit son doesn't tun in his homeowrk and gets straight F's in High School...not one fucking call. We finally get report card and go to school office and are told that we weren't called because most parent's don't care.
I have absolutely NO esteem for teachers. To me, you have no god-damned defense for those parasites.
My son got sent home with a letter warning me that he would be facing possible suspension if he did not cease correcting his teachers spelling, grammar and factual errors on her worksheets and causing her embarrassment that was disrespectful and caused divisivness and derision in class.
I told the Priciple that perhaps we should discuss before the school board the culpability of persons entrusted to hire competent teachers and maybe finding someone more suitable for the task. Please come to the next meeting and you can be part of the discussion I most certainly will be having with them.
She was gone.
Yeah, I know, the kids IS a bit of a wiseass. That was part of his job in high school.
Bit of a broad brush. Not all public school teachers suck, though some do. And while some kids have parents that teach them to respect adults and send them to school with a good night of sleep and a solid breakfast not all do.
Happen to have personally known some good teachers. One retired as soon as possible because in her experience the kids had just gotten terrible to deal with. One still working, teaches AP high school classes and puts in more than 40 hours a week.
If you want to take a chance on buying residential real estate right now look for good school districts. Top priority for any of us that can't afford private school. Our daughter is in the talented and gifted program in a highly rated school district.
Real estate here is tight. Less than 30 properties available for rent right now, cheapest are $1200 for a one bedroom. There are 3 places listed with 3 bedrooms...$1550 to $1650 a month. Houses are selling quick with multiple offers and 60% cash sales.
" Power. Hundreds of Millions of Dollars. "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwxiRXqH_hQ
Unions are the scurge of the earth. Well, Federal Reserve Banks and government are the scourges of the earth, unions follow close behind.
And banks, and Wall Street, and the Corporatocracy.
Government employee unions are the root of all evil. The private sector can look after itself.
BULLSHIT!!
GOVERNMENTS ARE THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR ' CANNOT ' LOOK AFTER ITSELF AS SHOWN BY TBTF. WHICH PLANET YOU LIVING ON DUDE?
Um, that's not the private sector. If it were, then there would be no such thing as TBTF. Rather, the banks are the leading edge of a thoroughly crony-capitalist (fascist) system that makes a mockery of a private sector (free market) under a rule of law based on (and limited to) the protection of life, liberty, and property (which a free market is perfectly capable of providing).
Article summary if you're in a hurry.
Public School baaaaad.
Union double plus baaaaaad.
Randy Weingarten is grotesque (she is!)
Uneducated, unskilled workes should be unable to earn six figures - they should live 6 to a mud hovel, eat dirt, and piss their loincloths if the author scowls at them.
His mother hated unions. Odd. Perhaps a Union Dingo ate her baby?
I wonder how the author would feel about an employee deciding they didn't like his hair and quitting ON THE SPOT. No two weeks notice. All projects in limbo until the employee is replaced.
You'd probably be shocked to discover that this happens all the time. There is no requirement to give notice or have a good reason to quit any job, anytime. Even tenured teachers can do this.
When I was teaching, a woman in our department simply did not show up one day. She had ran off with a man she'd met recently and never came back. She was 42 and a long term employee.
Your lack of experience in the real world is showing.
And not to your credit.
She was 42. How old was the boy?
Your insult at the end of your comment was not warranted. I have been employed in food service, engineering, management, and more. I am now self-employed. I will admit to never being a government employee, however.
I've noted that there are a few folks on ZH who feel it their duty to insult as their motus operendi. Not sure why they do it, but I see it frequently. Makes them feel superior somehow?