Friday, September 23, 2005

What Are Your Kids REALLY Learning In School

In the last year, the area in which I live (Northeastern PA) has been getting hit hard by public school teacher strikes. It seems that no matter which school district residents may live in, at some point in the last three years the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA ... teachers union) has had a strike. The sticking points in almost all of the cases are health care and salary. The local newspaper at one point published the pay for these educators and it became abundantly clear to me after that, teaching is not about shaping the future by educating our children ... it's about big business. $42,000 dollars a year with 180 work days, equates to $233.33 a day. And as all of us know, teachers do not work an eight hour work day. A good teacher is worth all the money in the world. But unfortunately, the one or two good apples in the bunch are forced to the bottom by the grappling hands of greed. One more observation, I thought when a union or organization was on strike the standard was to walk the picket line. Around here, that only happens when the weather is nice and between the hours of 6-11 a.m. (just enough time for the news to come and take some footage) I have nothing against anyone wanting to make a good salary. But if big paychecks are your ambition teachers, go into private industry. There is no need to do it on the taxpayer's backs.

3 Comments:

Blogger brandi said...

Hopefully, they are learning how to spell your and when not to use the contraction of "you are".

September 23, 2005 8:39 PM  
Blogger JK said...

I guess you can tell where I went to school. Thanks for reading.

September 24, 2005 10:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe they're even learning proper use of quotation marks, the rocker mommy. Imagine that! Sheesh!

Nitpicks aside, I have to say that I agree with the author's disgust concerning the behavior and demands of the teachers and their union.

I don't think it's possible in most cases to earn that kind of living holding only a baccalaureate degree. An hourly salary of more than $200. - cushy benefits aside - is quite a return on that investment. Frankly, I don't respect the attitude of the striking teachers, and I make no bones about it. Entitlement, in any form, gets my goat.

I did my time with the Elementary Education degree, and later decided that teaching wasn't for me. I'll admit that it's an important job, but I find it disturbing that those who choose a career in education behave so much like spoiled children themselves.

September 29, 2005 8:29 AM  

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