Microsoft versus NEA Survey

[JailForBush]

I'm sorely disappointed - no sickened - to see so many "liberals" who claim to be against corporate corruption defend Microsoft and the National Education Association, two of America's most disgusting institutions. I don't understand how people can rally behind Bill Gates' "philanthropy" when they don't even have a clue how it's being spent or what it has accomplished, let alone what strings are attached.

Similarly, it would be interesting to hear what NEA officials have done to hear their pay. Teacher bashing and age discrimination have replaced spouse abuse and child abuse as the invisible scandal de jour. The bloated education bureaucracy continues to swell, with still more money being wasted on high-stakes tests - one of the greatest evils in the history of public education.

You can see the latest NEA "debate" here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1152001&mesg_id=1153727

Notice the striking lack of facts, references or logic; I think I'm the only one who even divulged the identity of my school district and union.

If the National Education Association really cared about education, it would be tearing into Bill Gates, who has cruelly exploited countless schools and was even accused of blackmailing more than 500 schools. The icing on the cake: Bill Gates is now supporting a charter school initiative in Washington State. Will the NEA and its "autonomous affiliates" take a gutsy stand, or will they just offer the same trite tokenism a couple weeks before election day?

I say the NEA and Bill Gates are on the same team, and they're more interested in exploiting children than helping them.

This survey is as brief as it is simple. I'd just like to know which of the following categories describes you:

1. I condemn the NEA and Microsoft.

2. I condemn the NEA but support Microsoft.

3. I condemn Microsoft but support the NEA.

4. I support both Microsoft and the NEA.

I welcome additional comments, but please try and choose the numeral that most closely describes your opinion.

P.S. If you're going to tell me how Bill Gates and/or the NEA helped you or your school district, please include the name of your school district and teachers union. If you cannot or will not do something as simple as that, then why should anyone believe you? (I worked for the Seattle School District, a corrupt branch of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce that's aided by the Seattle Education Association and the Washington Education Association.)

[cmd]

1. I support NEA and am indifferent to Microsoft

I have been an officer - secretary, vice-president and president of my local association. I am now retired. I am sending the name of the association and district to you. If you wonder why I don't post it, consider that you are in a very large district and I taught in a very small one. I wouldn't have as much privacy as you.

I have lived through three strike situations, two by my union and a very long one by the support staff union. NEA and OEA was at my side the entire time. NEA/OEA has stood by teachers in my district who were not getting a fair shake. They helped us negotiate contracts that improved the welfare of the students and staff. I have always received fair and prompt action from both organizations.

I am indifferent to Microsoft. They did nothing to promote or deter technology in my district. My building was a Mac building.

[donco6]

2. More accusations, David?

Certainly not worth my time. It's not like anything anyone could say would ever change your mind about Bill Gates being the AntiChrist, or the NEA being the Mafia. Heck, it's in your tagline.

ZZZZzzzzzzz.

On edit: PS. I would never share any personal info with you. Your paranoia is a bit scary.

[strategery blunder]

3. I condemn both

The NEA has helped to turn teaching into one of the most laughed at professions in the country (the only other profession that would be worse that I can think of is lawyers). It cares about perpetuating itself, not education.

Microsoft's "philanthropy" is tokenism compared to its profits and is done for PR and to cover up its wanton monopolistic behavior only.

Both institutions are evil.

[IrateCitizen]

4. Examples, please!

The NEA has helped to turn teaching into one of the most laughed at professions in the country (the only other profession that would be worse that I can think of is lawyers). It cares about perpetuating itself, not education.

Please provide concrete examples of this based on your own experience. Repeating a theory you heard on a radio or TV show, or a letter-to-the-editor you read in your local paper doesn't count.

[strategery blunder]

6. Example: bad teachers escaping accountability

because they are tenured. For example, as a student, I had a teacher (who will remain nameless) for a communications class, and all she did during a 90 min. class period was to tell us to type such and such pages from a typing exercise. This went on for the entire school year.

Students who asked for a more diverse curriculum had their grades lowered, even if they did so courteously. No one in the class of about 25 got an A. (It was supposed to be communications, not keyboarding, and this teacher hardly communicated at all.)

The tenure provisions in my district made it nearly impossible to address the problem. Who negotiated these tenure rules that made accountability nearly impossible? The NEA.

However, I also had my fair share of good teachers, and quite a few, but not all, of them resented the NEA...

(I am not saying that tenure is inherently a bad thing, but it can be too easily abused by individual teachers who have no business in the classroom.)

And of course, there are those theories about the NEA that contribute to the PUBLIC PERCEPTION (not necessarily mine) that it has diminished the profession of teaching.

[IrateCitizen]

8. You obviously don't understand the concept of "tenure"

As the son of two teachers, husband to another and someone who is studying to move from engineering into the field myself, I think I can speak on the subject of tenure.

All that tenure means is that a teacher cannot be fired WITHOUT PROBABLE CAUSE. That's it. If a district wants to fire a teacher, they are still free to do so -- provided that they produce the documentation supporting their case for dismissal.

When my mother began teaching (around 1963, she's now retired), the entire staff of teachers would be let go at the end of the school year, and rehired at the start of the next year. When summer came around, you never knew if you were going to have a job next year, because if the son or daughter of a school board member needed a job... well, you could be out on your ass. THIS is the reason for tenure, so that THESE kinds of hiring/firing practices can no longer continue.

Want to blame somebody for the problem of bad teachers? Blame the administrators who don't do their jobs in documenting poor performance. Blame the parents who don't do their job of keeping up on what's going on in their children's schools. But blaming the unions is a cop-out.

With your last part about teachers resenting the NEA -- I grew up surrounded by teachers (as most of my parents' friends were also in the profession). I cannot remember one instance of a teacher expressing disdain for the union that represented them. Maybe frustration at times -- which happens for any unionized employee dealing with a large bureaucracy -- but not disdain. And I'm certain that those who remembered "the way things used to be" were more than happy to have the union behind them.

[strategery blunder]

9. I stand corrected

The NEA is not inherently bad. I need to brush up on my post-Taft/Hartley labor history:eyes:

Will this be on the test?

[Bridget Burke]

5. I support the NEA

I've had my reservations about Microsoft but, in this context, I'll support them as well.

It's too bad that you lost your job; you need to move beyond what was obviously a traumatic event.

[ComerPerro]

7. Yes, thank you, I am familiar with your stance on

Microsoft and the NEA by now...