Salt Lake Tribune: John McCain Makes This Teacher Cry

[Hissyspit]

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_10456190

John McCain makes this teacher cry
Virginia Riley
Article Last Updated: 09/13/2008 10:59:37 AM MDT

When, exactly, did I become the enemy? How did I become a failure? After McCain's acceptance speech, I couldn't sleep. I'm still trying to figure out how I turned into the loser in my own story.

McCain, as well as George W. Bush and our own state political leaders, has a perspective on public education that I just don't understand. McCain wants to "put our students first." Like that's a new idea. For 32 years I have taught English in Utah public schools. Excuse me, John, but what exactly do you think I've been doing this whole time? Who do you think I've been putting first? McCain said he was going to answer to parents, not to teacher unions. Who do you think the teacher unions are? People like me, people who have dedicated their lives to putting students first. So are teachers the enemy? Teacher unions are trying to make sure I make a decent living, have health insurance, am safe in my work environment and am treated fairly, ensuring that we continue to have people who will accept the calling to be teachers. Is that wrong?

McCain said he was going to get bad teachers out of the classroom. I certainly agree with that one. The problem is, who are the bad teachers? In 32 years I have only come across one. And she left teaching after two years. I have known teachers I did not want my own children to have, but those same teachers have ardent supporters in other parents. So who gets to decide?

Finally, McCain decries a failing system. Have we really failed? Public schools are doing everything McCain asks of us with inadequate funding, facilities, textbooks and technology. Sitting in public school classrooms are students with autism, Down syndrome, ADHD, dyslexia and a host of physical and mental challenges. There are abused children, drug addicts, pregnant girls, clinically depressed adolescents, gang members and students with myriad social and emotional issues.

There are students from families facing economic hardships, students who are putting in 40-hour workweeks and then falling asleep in high school classrooms, students who are trying to raise younger siblings, students who are undocumented immigrants, students living out of cars and students who don't speak English and don't understand what we are saying to them.

We teach them all.

As our country faces each new crisis, the solution always seems to be to dump that on the public schools. We are now teaching kids to balance their checkbooks, understand interest rates and avoid bankruptcy. We are teaching kids to drive and to fill out job applications. We are teaching them about sexual abstinence (although not how to protect themselves if abstinence is not their choice).

- snip -

You have made me cry, you have given me a headache. After your speech, I tried to get an hour or two of sleep before I showed up in my classroom the next morning, ready once again to put students first.

MORE

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[ColbertWatcher]

2. "We teach them all." Thank you for posting this! n/t

[Bubba Ho Tep]

3. A real voice of sanity.

refreshing to hear the truth like this.

[calimary]

15. Welcome to DU!

It's very important to hear and read this perspective. I don't know ANY teachers anywhere who are falling down on the job. The teachers I've seen and worked with - in my children's schools and elsewhere, are ALL supremely dedicated and don't fit the "enemy" designation mcsame wants to splice onto them. What a bastard.

[YvonneCa]

19. It is refreshing, isn't...

...it? :)

[POAS]

4. K&R and forwarded to my favorite

right wing wacko with a request that he send it along. Any bets he won't even read it?

[Fridays Child]

5. K&R. If you want to send this teacher an email of support, please PM me.

[sarge43]

6. K&R

Next to my parents, I owe my public school teachers everything. The good and not so good open the world for me. Whatever else they were, they were never the enemy nor did they fail me.

[FLyellowdog]

7. I'm a teacher too

McCain just doesn't get it. WORK WORK WORK to stop this man.

[greenbriar]

61. yup 10 year teacher here

spot on

[1monster]

8. As a substitute teacher going into my eighth school year, I have the opportunity

to observe several schools and many teachers in my district.

I have watched the whole education system deteriorate in those years. And it isn't because of the teachers or even (in most cases) the administrtions.

It has been first state legislature micro managing the curriculum with unfunded and underfunded mandates and then the federal government underfunded mandates and impossible standards (even severely mentally handicapped students are expected to meet set standards of improvement the same as students who are not so handicapped. Some of these students are not able to even communicate, with language or gestures).

In the meantime, our school district's budget was cut by fifteen million dollars already this year, with expected further cuts of four to five million more before the school year ends. Nearly two hundred teachers have already been cut form the roles even though we have more students than ever before. (Some of those were excellent teachers, btw.) My kid started out this year with more than 40 kids in one class and my neighbor's child had fifty in her health sciences class.

Make no mistake, the Republicans have targeted public education for extinction. Teachers are just collateral expenditures.

[wolfgangmo]

11. The ongoing feeling of a target on my back ...

... is one of the reasons I stopped teaching. Despite my 10 years of experience I was essentially fired every year and had to reapply and interview for the same position every year. Luckily for any freeper who reads this that meant that I never got a raise and was limited in my benefits . I've moved on.

I would not recommend teaching to anyone looking for a professional career anymore. It isn't worth it despite the wonderful students. If you become a teacher either marry well or be prepared to starve.

[YvonneCa]

18. I am sorry for your obviously upsetting experience. Mine...

...has been similar (target list by superintendent) and devastating after a 20+ year career. I am also moving on...but I believe something has been broken. And it is very sad.

[YvonneCa]

16. "Make no mistake, the Republicans have targeted public education for extinction"...

...Teachers are just collateral expenditures." I agree completely, sad to say.

[senseandsensibility]

9. I am a longtime teacher

The biggest challenge in my area is children who are non English speaking. More than half of my students do not speak English, and yet our school will be penalized if these students do not perform as well as other districts with one hundred percent fluent English speakers. That does not make sense and sets my
students up for failure.

[YvonneCa]

17. My district is the same. I was forced to retire as a result...

...in what I call scapegoating. Shameful.

[quiet.american]

10. Powerful. Just powerful. nt

[Ikonoklast]

12. If we spent 1/10 the amount on schools as we do on war

We would have an educational system that would be the envy of the world.
As it is, the Pukes want public education to fail.
They need the uneducated unskilled, and unemployable to be wage slaves and fodder for the war machine.
They need public money diverted to religious schools to make more Jeebus warriors.
They want higher education to be the bailiwick of the 'ruling class'; dog forbid one of their precious snowflakes falls in love with a plumbers' son while away at university.
They don't want to have to deal with an educated electorate; informed people vote Democratic.

The first thing that needs to be done in this country is revamp public education, top to bottom, and make it work for everyone, everywhere, no matter how poor the district is.

These children are the ones that will be working, paying taxes, and running the country one day. I want them to be the best educated generation that ever existed.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Amen

I have taught 29 years and have known maybe TWO teachers who were truly incompetent. One was diagnosed with a crippling mental illness right after she quit teaching. The other was a convicted felon the district decided to give a break. He ended up BACK in prison after a few years in the classroom. And thanks to new state laws, he will never teach again.

Good piece, Hissy. Thanks!!

[YvonneCa]

14. Bless you for saying this in a public way. I am a teacher who...

...retired in June. I feel the same way.

I was forced to retire, due to illness caused by stress. Not the stress that comes with the job of teaching...I love working with kids and their parents. The stress that made me ill was NCLB and being judged by factors I had little control over...like test score... and harassment by administrators.

Most teachers I know dedicate their lives to helping their students reach for the future. The last eight years of describing teachers' unions as 'terrorist organizations' and making teachers the enemy of education is taking a HUGE toll on teachers.

I hope...whoever our new president is...that he understands this.

[dana_b]

21. Bless YOU for doing what you do in the face of all of this

adversity and view that the teacher's are "bad" or not doing their jobs. It's absolutely ridiculous and unrealistic. I sent this article to my sister-in-law who is a special needs teacher for eighth graders in a public school. That woman is so dedicated and works hours and hours beyond the school days. She too feels under attack and it's sinful in my mind.

[YvonneCa]

37. I really appreciate your kind words. As sad and awful as it is...

...to see this happening, there is a small comfort in not being the only person dealing with it.

Being under attack is awful. Teaching is such a demanding job as it is...the very idea that a mere human can teach while defending oneself from administrative harassment is just crazy. I am very hopeful that teachers will be more respected once Bush (and McCain) are gone. Sometimes, though, health issues get in the way of 'hanging on'. :)

Tell your sister-in-law to hang in there...hopefully she will make it. :patriot:

[PerpetuallyDazed]

20. That convention was Anti-American

and I say that in all the sincerity and neutrality I can muster. After watching Bill Moyers' latest on "ring-wing hate" (http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09122008/watch.html), I fear I may start hesitating to label myself as "liberal" in public discourse anymore. :grr:

[Stuart G]

22. Powerfull....Let this one get national coverage...please..

[YvonneCa]

39. Wouldn't that be something...

... ? ;)

[SammyWinstonJack]

23. K&R!

:applause:

[CaptJasHook]

24. As a fellow teacher, I agree with your point of view, just not your emotion.

It usually just pisses me off and gives me added energy in my classroom to combat these ignorant Corporate hacks.

[The Woodpecker]

26. McCain considers additional funds for education to be PORK

Living in Arizona with McCain as a Senator has been miserable. He has no desire to help the citizens of his own state. He denies them the most basic rights for funding for needed projects that only Washington can provide. He calls everything pork and unneeded earmarks, even if they are much needed to make differences in peoples lives.

McCain could care less about his own citizens in Arizona. He has not done one things as a powerful long standing Senator for our state. He could care less if his own citizens have to leave the state to get basic social services they qualify for.

McCain has been bad for Arizona. He will be worse for America. He will only be good for people making five million per year and who own 9 homes. That's the truth.

[DrZeeLit]

25. Thank you. I'm a teacher, too. You solidified many great ideas! Bravo!

[Alexander]

27. K&R

[Hekate]

28. I come from 5 generations of schoolmarms, one of whom taught in a sod hut in Nebraska

I didn't follow in their footsteps, but I honor teachers and their profession.

It is beyond me how the NeoCons and wingnuts have made it their business to destroy public education in this country. Oh, I have finally figured out why (something to do with creating a permanent underclass of pious illiterate serfs) but it is still beyond my comprehension.

One of the most moving personal things Michelle Obama has said is "I am a product of public education!" She was campaigning in one of those small settings a number of months ago, and that was in response to curiosity about her "elite" higher education. She gets it. You can't get there from here without a solid foundation K-12. And public schools (K through university) don't flourish without a willing tax base and support from communities and government. It's not possible.

Mr. H and I are also products of public education, back when this country thought it was worth something. Both of us are sickened by what has happened, especially as we have slowly figured out how deliberate this destruction has been. Mr. H. teaches in community college, so our perspective is up close and personal. It's heartbreaking.

Virginia Riley's letter made me cry too. To all the teachers out there :grouphug:

Hekate

[YvonneCa]

40. Thank you...

....and a hug back. :grouphug:

[La Coliniere]

29. K and R

It's positively disgusting and immoral in how only lip service is payed to really improving public education in this country. The Republican agenda is to destroy those schools that critically need an incredible financial and professional shot in the arm to improve (but you can't just throw money at the problem is ALWAYS the Republican meme). That is nonsense. The teacher unions are not the problem. Lack of a coherent and just education reform movement, not the wretched NCLB, is. I have teacher friends in Europe who find it hard to believe how little importance education is given in this country, vis a vis money alloted in the federal budget and of the contempt so many people, particularly on the right, have for the teaching profession. The day that education is NOT funded by property taxes, but entirely paid for by federal and state general funding will be the day when teachers in this country will finally stop being scapegoated and given the respect they are most certainly due.

[childslibrarian]

30. I am a teacher/librarian

Thanks for your post.

[MichiganVote]

31. Hear! Hear! Well stated.

[RoccoR5955]

32. Not just teacher unions, but ALL unions are McCain's enemy.

Historically, the Repugs have NOT been the party of organized unions. Remember Raygun, and the air traffic controllers? Unions are not corporations, they often times oppose corporations, and thus are the logical enemy of McBushco, Inc. (notice the new name. Same corporation, new moniker)

[Fire1]

36. You are sooooooooo RIGHT!!!!

and believe it or not there are repukes who are IN UNIONS, KNOW THIS AND DON'T CARE!!!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!;(

[Canuckistanian]

33. McCain has ZERO experience with the public school system

Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he's led a privileged life of boarding schools and financial advantages FAR beyond those of us mere mortals.

So it's not surprising he's fallen in with the "evil Teacher's Union" hating crowd.

But I think McCain's placing blame on the wrong culprit here.

Among the G8 countries, the US spends the most with respect to GDP per capita (>7%)than any of the other countries.


http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/international/IntlIndicators/index.asp?SectionNumber=1&SubSectionNumber=3&IndicatorNumber=101

Why is this?

If Italy, Germany, France, Japan and the UK all spend LESS but maintain HIGHER academic standards, then where's all that money going?

Is it a matter of culture? Or teaching methods? Or is there something else going on here?

One thing's for sure. It ain't the teacher's unions that are causing damage to American education.

Every other country in the G8 has them.

[Chulanowa]

50. It goes to football

I have nothing resembling evidence of this, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised. All that extra money goes to football.

[Canuckistanian]

51. Wouldn't be surprised

You Americans have an unhealthy obsession with that sport.

You should just relax with a nice, calming game of hockey.

[YvonneCa]

63. Isn't that where those 'hockey-moms' hang...

...out? :scared:

[Imagevision]

34. face it, McCain is a bunch of power hungry crap

[ThatsMyBarack]

35. To this, McCan't would probably just say....

"So?"

[LWolf]

38. Almost all polilticians in positions of leadership make THIS teacher, well,

perhaps not cry. More like pissed off, alienated, and defiant.

Politicians that support me and my profession are very few and far between, and they tend not to carry any weight with their colleagues.

The best part of Joe Biden, imo, may be what he's said recently about public education. I can only hope he can influence Obama.

[YvonneCa]

41. He is very much for public...

...schools, PreK through Grade 16. No, that's not a typo...he means college. :7

[LWolf]

42. I'm not sure which "he" you mean.

If it's Obama, he and I have different visions and different agendas. He has publicly admitted that his views on public education "get him in trouble with teachers." He supports right-wing and republican tools: charter schools and merit pay. I've heard all the tortuous, twisting spin many of his supporters have used to defend those positions. They don't fly with me.

Last time I read his education page, he was talking about programs to help fund some college; not automatic, universal public pre-school through college, which would do away with the class/socio-economic barriers to higher education.

He may not be as bad as McCain, but he still does not give me nor my profession the support I want from my government.

Biden? He at least "gets" the current destructive public ed debacle known as NCLB. Perhaps that comes from 30 years of living with Jill. ;)

I hope he influences Obama.

[YvonneCa]

43. Sorry. I wasn't very clear...

...was I ? :) I meant Joe Biden. And, yes, I also hope he will influence Obama.

[LWolf]

46. That's the "hope" I'm holding onto, lol.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[senseandsensibility]

44. Yes Jill will keep Biden and I hope Obama on the

straight and narrow. We must get them elected!

[roody]

45. I just came from school on a Sunday afternoon.

I saw five teachers working, because they want the best for the students. I guess McSame has not dropped by a school on a weekend to see what public teachers do.

[tilsammans]

47. Am e-mailing this to all the teachers I know

Thanks for posting it!

:kick:

[leagel_leagel]

48. of course... he was a democrat...

"The great melting-pot of America, the place where we are all made Americans of, is the public school, where men of every race, and of every origin, and of every station of life send their children, or ought to send their children, and where, being mixed together, they are all infused with the American spirit and developed into the American man and the American woman."

-Woodrow Wilson

[yellerpup]

49. K&R!

I cry for her. The best people in my life were teachers. Who the hell is McInsane to insult this fine woman? :kick:

[DallasNE]

52. Powerful Stuff

Now if only George W. Bush and John S. McCain could write that movingly and well. The key passage is the following.

I have known teachers I did not want my own children to have, but those same teachers have ardent supporters in other parents. So who gets to decide?

It is all about power and who gets to decide. Republicans want to pack the teachers ranks just like they have packed the judicary system. Do we really want the likes of "Brownie" teaching our kids any more than we wanted him heading FEMA? No thanks.

[YvonneCa]

57. And what criteria will be used...

...to judge the teacher? Test scores, growth, commitment, hours worked, innovation, credentialing, cost to the district, years on the job...on and on.

[DallasNE]

62. It Will Be Subjective

With lip service to the objective measurements. Performance evaluations always put more weight on the intangible than the tangible. That is how the good old boy network is maintained.

[trickyguy]

53. McLame and Pailin want to get rid of public schools. All part of the

evergrowing Dominionist movement here in America.

Our current President is a prime example of what these religious extremists

are hoping for. A government that is dominated by their religious perspective.

It's not your fault that the system is failing. It's theirs.

[ulysses]

54. good letter.

I'm not crying, though.

[Hulk]

55. Just another sign of ignorance.....

It's what the right wing and bat shit public have been doing as long as I can remember. Blame the schools for not putting out the brightest, best mentally, physically and emotionally stable students with diplomas and credentials that will assure success. How absurd.

Load them up with society's short comings and disabilities, and expect a purse from a sow's ear. Typically over simplification of a problem. It's what they do so well. Don't like Saddam??....kill his ass and dig us into a shit hole so deep we will suffer for the rest of OUR LIVES.

What pigs!! I feel for this teacher, but it's what they do so well.....criticize is what they offer. Nothing more.

[YvonneCa]

58. But no one used to give them credibility. Now...

...they do. Scary.

[gtar100]

56. Absolutely right to the point.

But will republicans dismiss this too? Probably. "Public Schools" and the students that attend them are nothing but statistics to these reprobates. Inexcusable the level of coldness in their hearts and their unwillingness to contribute to our society. They play up "school choice" when in reality they want to hold onto their tax dollars. They don't want to help out unless they personally benefit.

If they had their own country, they'd be using children for slave labor.

[YvonneCa]

59. Teaching is a very misunderstood job. n/t

[tdog8]

60. This works for many fields....

No Child Left Behind: The Football Version


1. All teams must make the state playoffs, and all will win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable.

2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time and in the same conditions. No exceptions will be made for interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities. ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL.

3. Talented players will be asked to work out on their own without instructions. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren’t interested in football, have limited athletic ability or whose parents don’t like football.

4. Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th and 11th games.

5. This will create a New Age of sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimal goals.

If no child gets ahead, then no child will be left behind.

[tdog8]

64. Here's another one....

Real teachers grade papers in the car, during commercials,
In faculty lounges and have been seen grading in church.
Real teachers cheer when they hear April 1 does not fall on a school day.
Real teachers drive older cars owned by credit unions.
Real teachers clutch a pencil while thinking and make notes in the margins of books.
Real teachers can't walk past a crowd of kids without straightening up the line.
Real teachers have disjointed necks from writing on boards without turning their backs on the class.
Real teachers are written up in medical journals for size and elasticity of kidneys and bladders.
Real teachers have been timed gulping down a full lunch in 2 minutes, 18 seconds. Master teachers can eat faster than that.
Real teachers can predict exactly which parents will show up at Open House.
Real teachers never teach the conjugations of lie and lay to eighth graders.
Real teachers know it is better to seek forgiveness than to ask permission.
Real teachers know the shortest distance and the length of travel time from their classroom to the office.
Real teachers can "sense" gum.
Real teachers know the difference among what must be graded, what ought to be graded, and what probably should never again see the light of day.
Real teachers are solely responsible for the destruction of the rain forest.
Real teachers have their best conferences in the parking lot.
Real teachers buy Excedrin and Advil in bulk.
Real teachers will eat anything that is put in the workroom/teacher's lounge.
Real teachers know secretaries and custodians run the school.

Real teachers hear the heartbeats of crisis; always have time to listen; know they teach students, not subjects; and they are absolutely non-expendable.