The Chicago teachers are on the street striking against the idea that in return for their 16% pay increase over the next four years that they might have to accept performance-based job reviews. The Travesty! Of course the rest of the society might be scratching their heads as to why a group that is failing in all measures of success and is already running a deficit in the hundreds of millions of dollars are entitled to a raise of any sort.
All around this country the average person has had to cut back and face having their savings and jobs disappear during the past few years. They have had to deal with these problems alone, no union or government bailouts find their way to them. Despite all the hardships the nation has faced, everyone agrees that the education of our children should be the top priority and sacrifices are needed during these hard times. This makes the stance of the Chicago Teachers Union even harder to believe. Not only are they fighting to keep teachers from being laid off to try and make up budget issues, they are insisting that they deserve raises… and less accountability.
Teachers that are making over 70K a year and Administrators that make 120K a year will have a hard time convincing the Average Joe that they are being bullied by Rahm Emanuel.
The teachers have said they are fighting for the very soul of public education, and if they give in, there will be drastic changes to the educational system in Chicago. I have to say, I’ve heard more frightening declarations from Dora the Explorer. According to the US Department of Education, nearly 80% of 8th graders are not proficient in reading and 80% are not grade-level proficient in math. Unless the drastic change includes torture chambers, I don’t think it could get much worse.
Does anyone else find it odd that we constantly hear about how the teachers should be treated, but not how the students should be? I thought the purpose of schools was to educate children, not provide jobs for teachers. Nearly every single person agrees on the importance of education, we have all heard about how children are the leaders of tomorrow. But none of the focus is actually on these children, instead we are talking about deficits, salaries and union rights. What kind of education are these children receiving if they see teachers who are providing a substandard level of service continue to receive raises and don’t face censure?
The biggest political figure in Illinois history is Abraham Lincoln, who had only the barest minimum of schooling yet left his mark on the pages of history. I can’t suggest that if not going to school worked for Lincoln, we should all do it, but I think it strikes at the most important point. In the end, the education of a person is not about test scores and attendance, but the nurturing of the desire to learn. Even a young man born in the rough frontier can become among the most respected men of history, because he burned with the desire to better himself through education, by his own hand if there was no other option.
So let’s do away with the test scores and proficiency levels and ask ourselves the most important question. Do our public schools nurture the desire to learn?
I have to believe the answer is no.
Our students are grouped up together and marginalized as individuals. Group activities take precedence over individual success. Scarily enough it seems that the teachers themselves are the leaders of promoting the idea of The Group over individual thinking. They wouldn’t be on the street protesting for higher wages for all 40K employees of the school district if they were secure in their own abilities. If they were they would only be lobbying for compensation for their own individual skills.
Students who excel are held back by students who struggle and the students who struggle are only taught enough to get them past the test needed to make the teacher look good. That is not education, it is numbers manipulation.
The willingness to work hard and face up to responsibility are the most important lessons a child needs to learn. Learning to face hard work goes hand in hand with education. Even if you are lacking in formal instruction or natural talents, the drive to succeed can take you much farther than seemingly possible.
I’ve heard an adage that children who become famous have a tendency to be stuck in the mentality of however old they were when they became famous, because after that they never had to learn to face the world the way most of us do.
I believe the same can be said for how our schools operate. They continue to treat all children like children and never teach what is expected of an adult during those younger years. Students are faced with a very difficult task once they graduate and are expected to survive in a world were they have no experience and a poor education.
The children of today are the leaders of tomorrow. The world of tomorrow deserves a better chance than the one we are giving it with the poor level of education being provided to so many of the future generation. If the teacher unions decide to put having jobs over doing their job, then we need to have a solution that doesn’t involve them.
Inroads have been made in many places to offer our children a better chance at the future by using voucher systems and other innovative ideas. The teacher unions continue to throw their weight against such plans. We need to start calling them out for what their actions are: narrow-minded, self-serving and destructive.
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