Teacher Resignation Video: Ellie Rubenstein Explains 'Everything I Love About Teaching Is Extinct':
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Sunday, May 26, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Note to Union Teachers: If You Want to be Treated Like Professionals, Act Like It - Kyle Olson - [page]
Note to Union Teachers: If You Want to be Treated Like Professionals, Act Like It - Kyle Olson - [page]:
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MARCH 14, 2013
Note to Union Teachers: If You Want to be Treated Like Professionals, Act Like It
By Kyle Olson
3/14/2013
I was deeply troubled when video surfaced last week of striking Strongsville, Ohio teachers heckling substitute teachers who were applying to be their temporary replacements.
Over 300 teachers are on strike because the school board is refusing to give them automatic raises, and the school board undercut their mass temper tantrum by hiring substitutes to keep schools open.
The substitutes, complete with police escorts, had to endure heckling and jeering by the strikers. The unionists often followed alongside the substitutes, berating them and yelling in their faces as they headed to the local police department for mandatory background checks.
The entire scene had that 1957 Little Rock/school integration “walk of shame” feel to it.
Ironically, one striker yelled at a black substitute, “Rosa Parks would be ashamed!” (See the videohere.)
Perhaps, but her shame probably would have been aimed at the obnoxious striker.
It marked a bottom-of-the-barrel moment for me as a five-year education reform activist. Are these people on the picket lines steel workers or degreed professionals? The irony of the American Federation of Teachers’ slogan – “A Union of Professionals” – could not be more profound.
Sadly, many of today’s public school teachers have embraced a hard-core mentality and defiant attitude toward anyone who disagrees with their demands or tactics. They have the influence of their union leaders to blame for that.
The unions carefully arrange adversarial environments, pitting teachers against administrators. They constantly remind everyone that teacher “morale is low,” and complain that realistic salary offers from cash-strapped school boards are a sign that teachers aren’t “valued.”
That often leads to childish behavior, like having “votes of no-confidence” on a superintendent or school board, picketing outside board members’ homes and workplaces, or wearing all black clothing to school to display their displeasure.
Grow up. Let the kids be the kids. You be the adults.
Sadly, unionized teachers throughout the nation have made sure the debate over public schools is centered on their desires rather than student needs. Does anyone really think the striking Strongsville teachers were yelling at the substitutes on behalf of the students?
Collective bullying
But asking the adults to act like adults may be too much. The examples of teacher union pettiness and intimidation – dare I say bullying – are all too frequent.
In 2012, in the midst of a fight with the Chicago Board of Education over a plan to close failing schools, Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey held a bullhorn in front of the TV cameras and declared his union would “expose” the billionaires pushing for school reform in the city, then told school board members, “We’re coming after you!”
Earlier that year, teachers in the Eagle Point, Oregon school district went on strike and heckled replacement teachers. The protesters did their best to disrupt classes by shouting from the nearby sidewalk.
In the fall of 2011, CTU President Karen Lewis gave a speech to a group of “social justice” teachers in which she mocked –in a bullying fashion – U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s lisp. She was forced to apologize.
That same year, members of the Michigan Education Association protested outside the insurance business of then-State Rep. Marty Knollenberg because he supported Gov. Rick Snyder’s education reform agenda.
Three months ago in Lansing, Michigan, a group of union members at the state capitol protesting Snyder’s “right to work” legislation violently tore down the tent of an organization that supports right-to-work, trapping some people inside.
At a California “Tax the Rich” protest, a teacher said she thought the home addresses of billionaires should be made public. She didn’t say why, but presumably it wasn’t to add them to her “holiday card” list.
Earlier this week in Strongsville, a teacher was arrested after allegedly swerving his vehicle at another vehicle filled with replacement teachers. Fliers were also passed out in the neighborhoods of replacement teachers, asking residents if they knew that a “scab” lived among them.
And let’s not forget the ugliest mass temper tantrum of all, which occurred in Madison, Wisconsin two years ago this month. Union protesters banged drums, issued death threats, tried to tip over buses full of legislative staffers and climbed through the state capitol windows, all in an effort to preserve union power.
We should be able to expect more
The late author and activist Saul Alinsky always insisted that the ends justify the means.
If protesting outside a board member’s house, and frightening his children in the process, means securing a bigger raise, then do it. If scoring better contract terms means tracking board members to their health clubs – to make them “feel the same stresses we have” – then what are you waiting for?
Ethics be damned; bring on the victory. Decency is for suckers.
The sick part is that our nation’s largest teachers unions have been embracing Alinsky and his temper-tantrum approach for years.
The National Education Association has Alinsky’s books on its “recommended reading” page. Union groups teach his tactics and put them into practice virtually every day.
The tactics are frequently effective, but they don’t impress anyone. Do union leaders ever worry about public relations? Do they realize that their tactics often leave taxpayers and parents shaking their heads in disgust? Do they really think making public fools of themselves will strengthen the labor movement in the long-term?
But somehow that type of logical thinking never occurs to them. Like a spoiled child in a grocery store, they throw themselves on the floor and kick and scream until their humiliated parents buy the candy bar. Mission accomplished. That’s all that matters.
But pride should come into play at some point. Why would self-described “professionals” conduct themselves in such an unprofessional manner? And what are their actions teaching their students?
The situation is undoubtedly worsened by school boards across the nation that routinely give in to the labor tantrums. That means the unions can be counted on to apply the same tactics when their new contracts expire.
I’m the parent of three young children. Like many parents, I know that rewarding a child’s temper tantrum or other bad behavior is sending a very bad message.
The worst thing anyone can do is reward the behavior. It’s reinforcing the idea that continued application of the obnoxious behavior will lead to the desired outcome for the child.
This isn’t some complicated psychological study – it’s common sense.
Maybe I am expecting too much from the union “professionals” who are contracted to deliver services in our schools. After all, they organize themselves in industrial-style unions, just like blue-collar workers. The irony is that many blue-collar union workers conduct themselves with more dignity, even when they’re on strike.
But I still can’t shake the nagging feeling that we, as taxpayers, should be able to expect something more from people who earn their living from tax dollars and have so much influence over our children every day.
Kyle Olson
Kyle is Founder and CEO of Education Action Group Foundation, a non-partisan non-profit organization with the goal of promoting sensible education reform and exposing those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.'via Blog this'
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Abraham Maslow - hierarchy of needs
Abraham Maslow - hierarchy of needs
Biography of Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
He proposed that every child and adult has overlapping needs
that fall into naturally-ranked levels or priorities:
Level 1)
We usually attend current physical comforts first: hunger,
thirst, pain, air, temperature, smells, balance, noise, light, and rest (sleep). When those
are satisfied enough now ...
Level 2)
We try to fill our
need to feel safe enough in the near future. Safety comes from trusting that
our level-one needs and protection from local dangers will be reliably met in
the coming days and weeks (our safety zone). In our society, that translates
into believing that we'll have a dependable source of money to buy those
securities. The safety zone is short for some people, longer for fear-based (wounded)
others.
Maslow
suggested that when we feel comfortable and safe enough, we then try to fill
...
Level 3)
our need for companionship: our primitive need to feel
accepted by, and part of, a group of other people. We need to feel we belong to
(are accepted by) a family, tribe, group, or clan. The alternative is feeling
we're alone in the world, which is not only lonely, but less safe. For infants,
being alone too long means dying. People abandoned emotionally or physically
too often as infants unconsciously grow personality subselves who remain terrified of abandonment
in adulthood. Alternatively, their subselves protect them from (another)
devastating abandonment by (unconsciously) never bonding with anyone.
The terror of
rejection and abandonment is one root of relationship enmeshment and
addiction, or codependence. The other root is excessive shame. Unacknowledged codependence and it's
underlying false-self wounds often cause adults to unconsciously pick the wrong
mates over and over again, until they choose to heal. Personal recovery can
partially heal each root of co-dependence, over time. These ideas gained
acceptance after (1980+) Maslow proposed this hierarchy of needs.
If we feel our
level 1, 2, and 3 needs are satisfied enough, then we're free to work at
filling ...
Level 4)
our need to be recognized as special and valuable by our
group. We need to be more than just a featureless face in the crowd, we need to
be known and appreciated. Survivors of low-nurturance childhoods who were
shamed too often as young children often
endlessly search for the specialness and praise that they never got.
Paradoxically, their false self discounts praise when it's offered ("I
really don't deserve it..."). Until recovery releases them from this
endless quest, such burdened, unaware people are never really free to
achieve...
Level 5)
- being "self actualized." A key reason people
still mull Maslow's ideas is the universal longing to be fully ourselves. That
implies we each have unique talents and abilities that we long to develop and
use to benefit the world if all our other need-levels are filled well enough,
often enough. Then we can become creative, energized, centered, focused, and
productive and live "at our highest personal potential."
Monday, January 14, 2013
Teacher Forced to Remove Reagan Quote, Bible Verses | FOX News & Commentary: Todd Starnes
Teacher Forced to Remove Reagan Quote, Bible Verses | FOX News & Commentary: Todd Starnes:
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A New York public school teacher who advised a school Bible Study club has filed a civil rights lawsuit against her school district after she was forced to remove all religious content from her classroom — including a quote from former President Ronald Reagan.
Joelle Silver, a veteran teacher in the Cheektowaga Central School Districtin western New York, said she received a “counseling letter” signed by her superintendent that ordered her to remove all religious-themed items from her classroom or else she could be fired.
The eight-page letter informed the teacher that “your rights to free speech and expression are not as broad as if your were simply a private citizen.”
Among the items that had to be removed were a poster with an inspirational Bible verse superimposed over an American flag and inspirational messages she had written on sticky notes kept on her desk, according to court documents obtained by Fox News.
The school district also ordered her to remove a quote from former President Ronald Reagan which read in part — “If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under.”
The teacher, who advises the school’s Bible Study club, was told she had to remove a “prayer request box” that was displayed by student members of the group.
Robert Muise is the co-founder of the American Freedom Law Center and Silver’s attorney. He told Fox News he’s never seen such an egregious example of religious hostility in a public school.
“It’s like they’re treating those posters and inspirational sticky notes like its some sort of pornography,” he told Fox News. “I find that offensive.”
He said the sole reason they are attacking his client is because she is a devout Christian.
“When they launched the investigation, the literally went through her classroom with a fine-tooth comb and removed anything that had anything to do with Christianity,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like that. Ms. Silver does not cease being a Christian nor does she shed her constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
Muise filed the lawsuit in federal court. He said his client received a letter saying that if she failed to comply with the school district’s religious cleansing she would face “serious disciplinary consequences, including the termination of her employment.
The Cheektowaga Central School District told television station WIVB they had received a complaint from the Freedom From Religion organization on behalf of a student. The group threatened to sue unless the teacher’s classroom was cleansed of any religious material.
“In this case, you have two interest groups that are diametrically opposed to each other and you have to make certain decisions,” Supt. Dennis Kane told the television station. “And if one side doesn’t sue you, the other side probably will.”
Silver, who is a devout Christian, was also told that if she needed to look at inspirational messages for her personal use she would have to “keep such material in a discreet folder” that only she would have access to. She was also instructed to never disclose the contents of the folder to parents or students.
Muise said the district also forbade her from any form of communication with students “that would conflict with your duty to show complete neutrality toward religion and to refrain from promoting religion or entangling yourself in religious matters.”
The AFLC found it ironic that the district allows teachers to promote non-Christian displays in their classrooms – including one teacher who promotes gay rights.
“Our nation was founded to promote religious liberty,” AFLC co-founder David Yerushalmi said. “Yet, for years our public schools have been bastions of religious hostility.”
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Sunday, January 13, 2013
Saturday, October 6, 2012
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