Here is an elaboration on the misstatements by both sides, courtesy of my beloved source, politifact.com, covering 233 items comprised of 41 stories, 178 statements, and 14 promise updates.
(Sheesh, they've been busy!)
I would suggest readers who would like to follow the factchecking might want to start with this one about the Governor's relationship to the budget deficit.
As is usually the case, there are truthful and utterly false statements on both sides, and plenty more that fall somewhere in between true and false. The devil is in the details; and boy oh boy! are there details AND devils aplenty to go around on this!!!!
Enjoy!
Obviously, both sides need to make concessions.
ReplyDeleteWhat I object to is this "public employees don't work hard" and "public employees are not living in the real world of private industry" attitude that I see popping-up everywhere.
I am a teacher who holds one Bachelor's degree, two Master's degrees, and a teaching certification. Due to staff cuts I now find that I require yet another teaching certification (at the cost of several thousands of dollars) in a related area of study simply in order to retain my full-time job teaching classes of 40 students (in a small classroom built to hold 25 students) who sit in desks that are falling apart and read from textbooks that are falling apart.
(One of the desks crumbled while a student was sitting in it this week. The student weighs less than a hundred pounds. He and his fellow classmates had a good laugh about it, but it is a worrying trend.)
I also teach extended-day classes on weekday evenings and summer school classes in order to make ends meet.
I say this not to beat my chest, but to prove to those who work in private industry that I truly do understand their difficulties, because as a public employee I'm going through them, too. I'm willing to go through them because I love teaching and because I realize that these are tough times for everyone. My colleagues feel the same way.
The hick attitudes that are embraced by those who demonize us are an utter embarrassment to our country. So, too, are the knee-jerk anti-union attitudes that are driven more by emotion than anything else. Whatever else he is doing, the governor of Wisconsin is tapping into this juvenile bile-spewing nonsense. This needs to end now.
I thank those in the private sector who appreciate what we do, and I assure them that those with whom I work appreciate what they do every day.
Hass, always good to hear from you on Penigma. You have my sympathy for your teaching obstacles, and you're not in an inner city school district - you're in a fairly affluent suburb, if I recall correctly? I'd love it if you could elaborate on how the teacher student ratio correlates to educational success.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think it is tragic that we are so far behind other nations rankings in education. One of the things I would like to see us do to correct that is to go to year-round school. The current arrangement of summer vacation dates back to when we were a far more agriculturally based economy and society, and children were essential to farming. They are no doubt still useful for family farms, but I doubt that any significant percentage of children anywhere are essential to the extent that they are more important than their education.
Would that make your professional life easier....or harder Hass? And do you think it would benefit our educational competitiveness?
Stay tuned, btw, as I'm in mid-research on a follow up post addressing the demonizing by the right of unions, and the misrepresentations of what union wages actually are in common perception.
ReplyDeleteDog Gone,
ReplyDeleteMy district has a large population but is mid-range in average personal income. It has become somewhat urbanized and very multi-cultural over the past few decades, as many of the more homogenous population have moved further out from Minneapolis/Saint Paul. (I guess what I'm saying is that one-third of our students are not white.)
This makes it a fun place to teach, because I see students interacting with people from different backgrounds (and often different countries) all the time. It strikes me as being a very "real world" place in that sense, but it does present challenges, financial and otherwise. Then again, presently affluent districts also have challenges, usually dealing with cultural myopia...which can manifest themselves in ugly ways once people enter the work world down the line. At any rate, most districts (even fairly affluent ones) are cash-strapped right now.
Personally, I'm all for a more year-round educational system, though I do believe in a certain amount of what one might call "extended vacation." When I taught in Britain, I liked their 6 week summer vacation--from roughly July 20 to the first few days in September. Their academic school year started when ours does in Minnesota.
This set-up allowed for a few more short breaks during the actual school year (as opposed to our present stretch in Minnesota of something like 13 weeks of school in a row), while still adding more total school days per year for students. It's a far better idea than our agricultural-based set-up, but it would mean that schools in the steamy American summer would have to be cooled often...at great expense. (This is not a problem in cooler, less humid Britain.) So that's something worth considering....
I do not suggest that the system in Britain is perfect. In fact, it is far from perfect. Discipline in particular is, in general, considerably worse there than it is here, except in the elite schools that get all of the film world's attention....
However, I'm all for cherry-picking, and I'd switch to their school calendar in an instant if I were given the authority to do so, while retaining our somewhat more traditional sense of classroom discipline. (Again, I'm generalizing.)
Regarding class sizes, there is a world of difference between 25 students per class and 40. In fact, there is a world of difference between 30 students per class and 40. I've found that the "tipping point" into lower achievement levels is around 31 or 32 students per class. After that, it's impossible to help everyone to the extent that a teacher would like to. And given that staff cuts have extended to E.A.s (who used to be called "teacher's aids"), the most vulnerable students are falling further and further behind.
Those, at any rate, are my thoughts today.
Thanks for the comment Hass...if you ever feel the urge to write something of your own as a contributing author on this topic (and I DO anticipate there will be more posts in the near future on the topic) then please know how much we would like to host your thoughts and experiences. Yours too, Leslie!
ReplyDeleteSince both of you charming and erudite gentlement are on the front lines as it were of Minnesota education, dealing with the challenges, I think you could both offer insights that my best efforts at research could not provide.