Disregarding Teachers

I truly don’t know how our teachers of today (2022) survive the parents and politicians of today. Both the parents and the politicians of today think they should control the classroom because they know more than teachers. Why is the ignorance of parents and the arrogance of politicians…

1. Allowed to dictate what books can be read, and which can’t… dictates from unenlightened parents and blustering politicians who see “sex” as an intrinsically dangerous concept, while the real danger lies in ignoring the subject of sex education in our schools.

2. Allowed to dictate what History can be taught, and what History can’t be taught… dictates based on “Woke-ism.” How dare you bring up Slavery, and make my White kid feel guilty ??? while the real offense to our kids is graduating them from High School without a good grasp of History, Government, Social Science and Political Science.

Parents, by and (mostly) large, are not teachers. Politicians, by and (mostly) large, are not teachers. Many parents are uneducated, undereducated, or (worse yet) educated by Fox entertainment. Ditto for politicians. So how much “influence” and say… do we really need to give parents and politicians in the “day to day” teaching of our kids ??? As a former teacher (Hamtramck High School, University of Detroit Law School and Detroit Police Academy), I say… very, very little to none (except for serious learning disabilities for the alternative students where teachers and parents must work as teammates, in close alliance with one another).

If parents want to take over the education of their children, there is a “home school” option for them… although I am dubious that parents who home school their kids are truly educating them. Way too often, it’s a parent(s) without the broad teaching skills necessary to educate… trying to do a job that’s over their heads. How do home schoolers really learn both the general propositions and the subtleties of Math, Chemistry, Physics, English Grammar, English Literature, History, Government/Political Science and a Foreign Language from parents… who are not up to date on the subjects, and not experienced in the “art” of education ??? The short answer is they don’t. There are reasons why would-be Teachers go through, at least, four years of College and Student Teaching before even beginning to take over a classroom (where they generally specialize in a subject or two). There is a reason why “experienced” teachers are the “good” teachers (as “experience” in any and all professions generally separates the good from the poor.

And, even if the home schooling parents are up to the task, how do home schoolers learn the necessary social skills to be successful in life. It takes no great insight to see that home-schooled kids are behind the eight ball, socially, when they are staying home everyday and hanging out with and getting educated by their Mother (or their Father). Ugg !!! I am not condemning every home schooling situation, but home schooling can quickly turn into a recipe for the disaster with no education or a second rate education for many, many kids who will then fall by the wayside in life. As my dear Father (who greatly supplemented my formal education) would say, “No thank you, very much.”

Obviously, all parents have a stake in Public Education, but me too. I have been paying taxes for public school education for 60 years (and my Father before me), and I have never had any of my three children in the public school system (nor has my Father had any of his three children in the public school system). I am a big supporter of Pubic School Education… both financially and educationally. I have never complained about 60 years of my property taxes, funding public school education… while I get nothing for my kids. Never.

How can I complain ??? It’s my choice to educate my kids in the private school system. So, as I say, I have never once complained. I am happy to contribute each and every year to Public School Education. And, I don’t want school vouchers for private schools either because, they who pay the voucher tab (the State) will exert their control… and the whole purpose of private-school autonomy is lost.

Let’s Support our local Teachers. Let’s empower them by getting off their backs, and emotionally freeing them up to truly educate without constantly putting them under the attack of parents playing “Monday morning quarterbacks”… before the entire profession dries up, and home schooling is all that is left for the next generation.