For People Who Haven’t Been In School For A While: Teachers’ Unions

Teachers’ Unions, the argument: Teachers formed unions so they wouldn’t have to work so much, and they’d get paid more for doing less. They get lavish pensions and benefits (even summers off!), while people in the private sector are seeing their salaries and benefits cut. Because of unions, teachers can get tenured, which means they […]

For People Who Haven’t Been In School In A While: Standardized Testing

Test scores, the argument: News media says American education compares poorly to other countries on standardized tests. People want someone held responsible. Standardized tests measure students’ learning. Teachers are the ones who are responsible for that lack of learning. Let’s use standardized tests to fire teachers whose students get bad tests scores, and then hire […]

Commandments

I make my students recite the Ten Commandments. In public school. You see, there’s this part in The Crucible where the main characters are interrogated about their Christian credentials, and naming the commandments is one of the tests. Some classes get eight commandments. One only got six. We’ve never gotten all ten. So I tell […]

On Offense

There are two kinds of teachers: conservative ones who valiantly sacrifice themselves to maintain our nation’s greatness, and teachers who won’t shut up and do as they’re told. As you may know, I’m the second kind. Both kinds of teachers can have self-esteem issues. In a capitalist consumerist country, no matter how many times people […]