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2012-12-12 Home Front: Culture Wars
Only 7% of Detroit Public-School 8th Graders Proficient in Reading
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Posted by Fred 2012-12-12 00:00|| || Front Page|| [336103 views ]  Top

#1 Oddly enough, I astounded my teachers when I could read and write starting school (Thanks Mom) .
Posted by Redneck Jim 2012-12-12 00:52||   2012-12-12 00:52|| Front Page Top

#2 Higher taxes will solve everything.
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-12-12 01:58||   2012-12-12 01:58|| Front Page Top

#3 Under 'No Groceries Left Behind' recognition of only three letters of alphabet are actually necessary, E - B and T. Communication skills and knowledge of simple math are an anti-cultural stigma, and are discouraged.
Posted by Besoeker 2012-12-12 02:06||   2012-12-12 02:06|| Front Page Top

#4 All Detroit public school workers will receive a bonus this year.
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-12-12 02:07||   2012-12-12 02:07|| Front Page Top

#5 At least three school districts in Metro Detroit closed Tuesday after hundreds of teachers called in sick to join union rallies in Lansing against right-to-work legislation passed by lawmakers.
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-12-12 02:11||   2012-12-12 02:11|| Front Page Top

#6 Narcissism is a "sickness". But not one easily cured by a couple of days off.
Posted by Besoeker 2012-12-12 02:20||   2012-12-12 02:20|| Front Page Top

#7 Narcissism hell---they're fighting for their livelihood, Besoeker. Without teachers' union most of them will be on the street---without any skills whatsoever (I know whereon I speak: I taught high school, and I teach private now).
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2012-12-12 02:33||   2012-12-12 02:33|| Front Page Top

#8 You recognized change and as a survivor, made a change and moved to greener pastures. They need to recognize change as well, and move accordingly. Few in American society (the working class anyway) get a gold watch and a free luncheon at age 65. Those days be over. Nothing says bully like a profane, fist swinging, fat 60 year old filmed on the nightly nuus. He might very well have been shot dead in Georgia.
Posted by Besoeker 2012-12-12 02:45||   2012-12-12 02:45|| Front Page Top

#9 I didn't "move out", Besoeker---I was fired after subbing as a chem teacher for 2 months. Apparently, one is not supposed to 'injure students' self-esteem (forcing them to do homework, etc...: these kids operated on the principle that, as long as they show up, they deserve good grades)". Nowadays I tutor students (mostly post obligatory IDF service---wonderful that going through basic can do to definitions of "self-esteem") who were like the above and now want to get into college.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2012-12-12 03:15||   2012-12-12 03:15|| Front Page Top

#10 Great commentary, guys.

AH, your link gives perhaps the best reason to have a glimmer of hope in all of what is happening to our beloved republic. At some point, even with the MSM and NPR and PBS running air cover, it will become readily apparent to everyone that the public unions and indeed nearly all nonmilitary recipients of the magic checks (whether through welfare or public employment, it matters not) are far greedier than the "1%" and far less likely to share in any sacrifice necessary to restore balance and vigor to our country. Indeed, when you get right down to it, they would rather sacrifice the country to get a little more pay. I believe the working term is "twenty-dollar Democrats".

Gromguru, you have identified the truth about the vast bulk of public school teachers. While it is certainly possible for a very smart person to pursue and get an education degree, the reality is that most ed majors aren't very bright and that an ed degree (even an MA) is a degree that a chimp could get at most of the schools which offer the major. In the absence of their teaching or administrative job they have few or no skills and lack the work ethic and attitude required to make anything near what they do as teachers. More importantly, however, they would not have the thing they crave even more than the money itself, which is the complete lack of anxiety about whether or not the income stream will be there in a year or ten or twenty. It is the security of the income as much or more than the income itself that they fight for. Never forget that.

The public work force violated the social contract that was established between public and private sectors slowly but surely over the past eighty years. A good contract is when the things that each party gives up and the things that they receive are of equal value, so that the contract is a fair and equal exchange. The original agreement was that in exchange for perfect income stream security, the public worker would accept an income that was VASTLY less than that of the average private sector worker and would be given a MODEST pension. Like the proverbial frog in the slowly heated pot, over the past few decades the public work force has forced the private sector to pay them MORE than what a private worker gets and has not given up any of the good things they always received in the social contract like the bulletproof job security. They violated the contract, so they are the ones who must remedy the situation.

And teachers really, really need to stop using the line "we have more education than the average private worker so it's not fair to compare us to them, only to people with and MA in education". Spare me, honey. You weren't hired to serve only the kids of people with masters degrees, you were hired to serve the children of all the people in your district. Therefore that is the population to which your pay must be compared.

I would add that with few exceptions the public work force is in the jobs they have for this reason (bulletproof job security and an unalterably increasing pay level) primarily or solely, so you can expect very bad behavior on their part should that be challenged.

Besoeker, hats off to you for recognizing the need to change. I've done a lot of things in my life, mnaul labor jobs, retail, science, small business. No tears shed for any of it. The concepts of work followed by universal retirement and a life of unproductive leisure at an age fairly young in relation to the average lifespan - with everything paid for whether or not enough money was generated during your working years to cover it all - is a social construct of the 1930's. It has failed miserably in EUroland and is teetering on the edge (dare I say cliff?) here in the U.S. now as well. Mead's essays about the failure of the Blue Model are an excellent primer on both the what and why of this change. Good luck, though, getting the union thugs wo are beating up reporters and knocking down tents onto women and old people to read and understand it.
Posted by no mo uro 2012-12-12 06:33||   2012-12-12 06:33|| Front Page Top

#11 Or, as Mickey Kaus once said, 'The deal used to be lower wages relative to others in exchange for job security.'
Posted by Raj 2012-12-12 07:46||   2012-12-12 07:46|| Front Page Top

#12 Bet you they can fill in the forms for their obama phones.
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2012-12-12 07:55||   2012-12-12 07:55|| Front Page Top

#13 I once picked up a Hitch-hiking couple going to Biemingham, a coup;e of Questioning revealed they didn't have Jobs, No skills, and were going to live at a friend's house.I gave them $20 each and let them off at a Major truck stop. not a chance.
Posted by Redneck Jim 2012-12-12 09:16||   2012-12-12 09:16|| Front Page Top

#14 BP, it might be what the democrat election-voter escorts do in the off season.
Posted by swksvolFF 2012-12-12 12:43||   2012-12-12 12:43|| Front Page Top

#15 unfortunately if the escaping crabs (the 7%) are not pulled free, the other crabs will pull them back into the boiling water
Posted by Frank G 2012-12-12 21:36||   2012-12-12 21:36|| Front Page Top

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