On the Reader

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Déjà vu All Over Again

Great teachers pack up and go somewhere else for the duration of a noxious "silly season"-the era of "teacher bashing," obstructing, and de-funding of public education. It's a radical rightist, pro-profitization agenda that hangs over Michigan like a black cloud of doom.

Hopefully you'll be able to return at a later time, but it will be years before Michigan will be once again ideologically hospitable to "great public school teachers."

Posted earlier in "Great Teachers: Pack-up & Go":
"Great teachers are intelligent, they are caring, and they are insightful. They know that a state legislature such as the TeaPublican radical rabble now in control of Michigan's education funding and legislation (made brazen by a complete majority in all 4 branches of State government) is no friend of theirs. TeaPublicans are highly primed to do harm to public education armed, early on, by the Engler Revolution which seized and destroyed local school control and funding. Militantly marching onward, TeaPublicans have now shown they are bitter and implacable enemies of the mission and goals of a true mentor-teacher of children."
The reality is such that smart college graduates will find a professional life in a more cultured and less-antagonistic and anti-government locale, far away from the provincial taunts hurled in the hostile manner of these Know Nothings of Michigan.

The civic sins of our past are heavy now. The way out and back to what Snyder mocks as the previous "status quo," the healthy normal, is nowhere in sight.

Like Engler, Snyder proudly touts his snide attack on what he derides as the current "status quo"- the peaceful and productive civic order we all depend on.

Now the lesson. What is meant by an attack on the Status Quo? It is an effort to cause trouble, challenge the status quo, disturb the balance, make a stink, upset the apple cart. Further, it is A CONTRIVED EXCUSE TO DO HARM to vital parts of our civic structure and tradition, all for short-term political and ideological gain.

Are these the types of disruptive social attitudes we really need in Michigan at this very critical time? Whatever happened to consensus, co-operation and collaboration between the powers that be and those who teach our children.

Great teachers teach, but perhaps not near so many (will choose to teach) in Michigan, currently under such virulent disrespect and dishonor as displayed by the TeaPublicans now in power in Lansing.

Follow Up: On the program, Hardball, Chris Matthews asked former U.S. Secretary of Education Bill Bennett, a while back, the all important question. What should school teachers earn? BENNETT REPLIED GOOD TEACHERS SHOULD BE PAID $80-85,000.

Final Note: Excerpt from our Previous Posting (11/21/10) "Coming Michigan Teacher Shortages":
"It will not be long and Michigan will again be desperately seeking new teachers to fill jobs that were passed over by bright and cautious graduates who will take up their careers in other states more teacher friendly and more progressive than the retro-Michigan dominated by muckrakers at the Mackinac Center and those who back their political mud runs."
Meanwhile In Meltdown Michissippi
As the reams of news articles begin to come in, reflect on the terrible social and civic sins of this vengeful Governor and his subservient super-majority of wingnuts, the public will be rightfully repulsed and very angry; ready to back recall various efforts.

What a terrible mistake the TeaPublicans have made! They set out to kill public education to please vicious vixens Michelle Rhee and Betsy DeVos-hyper-critics and nascent profit-takers, intent on harvesting millions of dollars from the implosion of public schools-as we, the public, have loved and supported our cherished neighborhood schools for generations.

As Nietzsche warned: "Beware of those whose urge to punish is strong." The nation is beginning to see the deconstructive dirty work of DeVos/Rhee and understand it is top-loaded with "punishment."

Cry too for our communities that surround and depend on the wonderful public school for local economic and social survival.

Alas, it will be too late for an entire generation of school children, just now being thrown to these selfish wolves. Kids are being unpardonably neglected by those TeaPublican ideologues (led about like sheep by powerful national partisan and corporate forces, such as the Brothers Koch), Neo-antichrists, and tax-haters. The Snyder led TeaPublican Super-Majority have become A.L.E.C. cyborgs who would not, could not, collaborate and work cooperatively with educators to make Michigan whole and good again.

This outrage is unacceptable to informed citizens and local business leaders who care about hometowns and historic institutions in a genuinely conservative, Christian manner.


Original Post.

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