When the Teachers are the Bullies, It's Time to Scrap the Plan and Start Over

 "The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience."     - NEA Resolution #B-69

An Indiana grade school teacher was indefinitely suspended and her classroom aide was fired after it was learned that she put a diaper on a five year old student in front of his class because he was "acting like a baby."  The diaper was placed on the outside of his clothes.  You can read the entire story here.

For once, I have to agree with the NEA.  My children will never enjoy the "comprehensive educational experience" of being forced to wear a diaper on the outside of their clothing in an attempt to humiliate them for poor behavior. 

Why Do Some Homeschooling Parents Accept The Unacceptable?

Dr. June Talvite-Siple lost her $92,000-a-year job as the supervisor of a high school math and science program.  The former teacher resigned amid the furor she created after she posted on her Facebook page that the residents of her Cohasset, Massachusetts, community were "arrogant and snobby.”  She went on to state that she was "not looking forward to another year at Cohasset schools."  Apparently, some of her teenaged students understand something that quite a few homeschooling parents do not.  Student Terry MacCormack said, "It's not smart, but if you are in professional position, maybe you shouldn't be putting what you really feel about your job or whatever on Facebook."  You can read the entire story here.

School teacher Christine Rubino faces a similar problem.  As reported here, the day after a 12-year-old girl drowned at a beach while on a class field trip, Ms. Rubino, a fifth grade teacher,   posted on her Facebook page, "After today, I’m thinking the beach is a good trip for my class. I hate their guts." When a Facebook friend asked whether or not Ms. Rubino would “throw a life jacket to little Kwami," one of her students, she replied,  "No, I wouldn’t for a million dollars.”  Ms. Rubino was taken out of her classroom pending a Department of Education hearing. 

It is very easy to become frustrated, angry, resentful, and disillusioned while teaching professionally.   It’s a difficult job.  Teacher attrition rates are staggering.  Half of teachers leave the profession after only five years.  As difficult as the job is, it does not excuse the comments that teachers are making online, neither the comments quoted above nor the ones mentioned in yesterday’s blog.  Whether simply venting frustration or sharing true feelings, posting comments on the internet is inappropriate, unprofessional, and unwise.  Thankfully, there are public school administrators like Ken Blackstone, a Prince William County Schools spokesman, who told the Washington Post, "as public employees, we all understand the importance of living a public life above reproach."  

These teachers are making comments about students.  They are making comments about our children.  And our children are not stupid.  It only takes two clicks of a mouse on the The Apple forums mentioned in yesterday’s post to find each teacher’s name and the city and state in which they teach.   If I can find those comments and the names of the teachers writing them, students more computer savvy than I am can find them.   Once a student locates them and shares them with their friends, the teacher loses all credibility in the classroom.  That directly affects classroom control, as well as the ability to deliver content in a meaningful manner.  What student is going to listen to a teacher who has commented on line that his or her students are stupid?    

I was stunned to read the response to yesterday’s post as discussed by homeschooling parents here.  Disappointed, really.  I was disappointed that anyone would make excuses for the comments I reported.   I am equally afraid to ask the question, “Why?”   I’m not certain that I want to know the answers.  Did someone not think through this situation thoroughly?  Do they not understand how comments such as these affect children? Has our society become so crass that postings such as the ones I’ve documented are now acceptable?  Are homeschooling parents looking past some teacher’s online comments because they agree?  Would they say these things about their own children?  Would they accept having these things written about their child by their child’s teacher if their child was in a public school?    I have a dozen more questions, but for once I am glad that there are very few comments left on this blog.  I really do not want to read the answers.

I was also disappointed that yesterday's post was viewed simply as an attack on teachers.  That’s silly, but apparently I did not write the post as well as I should have.  I know from firsthand experience that the vast majority of teachers do not write derogatory comments about students online.  That wasn’t the point.  The NEA and their supporters believe that public schools are superior to private and home education.  No matter how poorly public schools perform, no matter how many problems are documented in the media, no matter how many crass or vulgar or inappropriate comments are posted online, supporters continue to believe that those public schools are head and shoulders above any other choice.  They will take away your choice to educate your children at home if they have the opportunity to do so.

I reject their claim.  I reject their claim that public education is superior to home education in all instances.  I hold as one example the comments that teachers post online.  I do not speak about my children in the angry manner I have documented teachers writing about their students. I do not know of any homeschooling parents who would.  I did not speak about my students that way when I taught professionally.   I am surprised anyone would find it acceptable for teachers to write about students in the manner some teachers choose to write.   I reject any excuses for them doing so.   I am grateful that there are public school teachers, administrators, and school boards who recognize the unacceptable and take action to stop it.  

Real Thoughts from Real Teachers about Our Children

Bob Tate, a senior policy analyst with the National Education Association (NEA) believes that the interaction between a “trained professional educator” and our children is critical to our children’s “social, emotional and intellectual development.”  Do “trained professional educators” agree?  What do they have to say about their interaction with the children they teach?  If the comments made by teachers at The Apple: Where Teachers Meet and Learn, is any indication, public education is in big trouble.

According to its website, The Apple was started by 2003 Jackson Elementary School (Atlanta, GA) Teacher of the Year, Jill Hare.  The Apple "...brings members of the education community together to support and advance the profession. The Apple provides resources to promote careers in education, while fostering a community with exclusive benefits where information about the education community is provided to the education community by the community itself."  The Apple partnered with careers website Monster.com, whose “vision is to bring people together to advance their lives.”

One of the features of The Apple is a forum for teachers, and one of the forum topics is "10 Things You'd Like to Say...as a Teacher."  With contributions written by trained professional teachers from all across the United States, the following list contains the actual thoughts of educators about the children they teach, as they have written them.  Be warned, this unedited and uncensored list is raw.  As you read it, ask yourself if you would want these people teaching your children. 

• "I am only one person students! If I don't get to you today...there's always tomorrow."
• "Well, then why don't you go home and don't come back!"
• "Shut the f*** up, please..."
• "JUST F*** OFF!”
• "WTF are you doing?"
• "Are you really that stupid?"
• "Yes, I talked to your mom, I see the apple didn't fall very far at all."
• "Why? Because I hope you can graduate and get a job rather than live off of 33% of my wages."
• "No, I don't think your girlfriend/boyfriend is hot, I think that you are 2 dogs in heat."
• "I think your parent is disgusting and you really would be better off in a program, at least they feed you there."
• "How about you not come to school high, there are more fun things to do outside when you are stoned."
• "You cannot be THAT dumb!"
• "I wish I could like your Momma should (beat you)"
• "Meet me in the parking lot at 3:30"
• "I don't know how you made it to the 7th grade."
• "I guess there really is a such thing as a STUPID QUESTION"
• "Shut the ____ up"
• "Please use birth control, I really don't to see your kids here in 12 years."
• "Stop having kids!"
• “Wow, your child is really fat and lazy.”

Presumably, the last two comments are directed at parents.  Mr. Tate, Ms. Hare, and the folks at Monster.com will have to explain to me how this forum brings people together and advances lives.   Are we really expected to believe that teachers who think about their students as these teachers do can adequately mask their feelings and promote healthy “social, emotional and intellectual development?”

So, are you ready to enroll your children in a public school?

Sorry, NEA. Saying it Doesn't Make it So

Faced with growing problems in the public school system (falling test scores, over-crowded classrooms, etc.,) NEA officials continue to gloss over the issues and encourage parents and teachers to "suck it up and deal."  Rather than admitting and working to solve the problems that no one argues actually exist, the NEA just keeps chanting a mantra that goes something like this:

"As bad as the schools are, they're still better than homeschooling."

A recent mydesert.com post, As Class Sizes Rise, So Does Homeschooling, provides a mixed bag of opinions concerning public schools and homeschooling.  The article addresses the problems facing public schools, namely growing class sizes, and suggests that a growing number of parents are choosing to homeschool in order to escape the problems that school officials seem unable to solve.  While generally speaking, the post manages to provide a mostly positive view of homeschooling and homeschoolers, the NEA senior policy analyst that was interviewed for the article makes a typical "head-in-the-sand" statement that reveals the disconnect that exists between public school officials and public school parents' growing dissatisfaction with the status quo.

“The NEA believes home- schooling lacks regular interaction with caring, trained professional educators, which we believe greatly aids a child's social, emotional and intellectual development,” said Bob Tate, a senior policy analyst with the NEA. “(Home-schooling) provides no assurance of regular face-to-face interaction with peers in the structured setting of a school, which we believe is an important part of a child's development that cannot be fully realized through online or informal neighborhood interactions,” he added.

The assertions of public school officials that interaction with "trained professionals" is more important for a child's social, emotional, and intellectual development than interaction with his own parents is downright insulting.  And their continual insistence on the necessity of school-based socialization is laughable.  Their constant harping on these two factors in light of growing evidence to the contrary (see studies in linked article,) proves both their unwillingness to address the real issues that face their schools and a complete lack of concern for the needs of the students and families they are paid to serve.

There is an adage that expresses the belief that "blowing out someone else's candle won't make your candle burn brighter."  The NEA and many local unions and school administrators have long relied on the practice of attempting to blow out the shining candle of homeschooling in an attempt to brighten the glow of their own fading light.  Unfortunately, it doesn't work.  Parents aren't being fooled and increasingly, they are giving up on the schools.  They can see beyond the illusion.  As a growing chasm develops between the success of schools and the success of their homeschool counterparts, parents are waking up to the reality that the mantra doesn't ring true...simply chanting it doesn't make it so. 

Parents are beginning to demand solutions from our nation's school administrators and from the unions that control the money.  And until the self-proclaimed experts of "the system" stop ranting about the supposed short-comings of the competition and begin to own up to their own significant problems AND offer real solutions, the defection will continue.

Guest Column #1: A Flashback

Several years ago, we tossed our oldest into our local school system, the Apathy School District, after tensions at home rose to unprecedented levels.  General Mayhem lasted for four tumultuous months at Apathy Middle School.  While he was there, this “A” math student saw his grades, and his skills, drop to “C/D” levels.  He asked to be returned to homeschooling that summer, and it has taken us from the end of his sixth grade year to the middle of his eighth grade year to repair the academic damage and get him caught up to where he should be in the school year.  To celebrate that accomplishment, I share with you a post I wrote in May of 2009 concerning his time at AMS.  It remains at #6 on the top ten list of most frequently read posts at Bedlam.

In light of Arby's computer having committed virtual Hari Kari, today’s entry was written by retired teacher and local 46 shop steward, Mr. Iggy Noramus.

Alright you heathens. You uneducated slobs. You know who you are. You’re members of the great unwashed masses of homeschoolers who have not received your diplomas or your state certificates or your blessing from the local chapter of the NEA, but you still have the audacity to think that you are qualified to teach your own children. Except for Kelliann, of course. She taught. And Kathleen. She taught. And then there’s Arby. He has six or seven years in the classroom. I cannot forget Linda. She started teaching back before chalk was invented and her oldest just graduated with a 4.0 from Northern Illinois University. But the rest of you, and you know who you are, you’d better listen up! You think you know what you’re doing with your Apologia Science and you’re A Beka history and your Saxon Mathematics or your Alpha and Omega stuff.  (You've got to keep an eye on those Alpha and Omega saleswomen. There's a dodgy lot.)  You uppity johnny-come-latelys. I bet you even resort to using one of those gimmicky, prefabricated worksheets that you can buy in a book at Walmart or download from some website like edhelpers.com. I’m here to tell you that teachers, real teachers, teachers with a pedigree and a license and a local 46 union card would never resort to such material. Well, unless they teach Math at Apathy Middle School. Then an edhelper.com worksheet is just fine. Sometimes teachers, real teachers, are so busy with taking attendance and handling discipline and distributing condoms that they don’t have the time to create a worksheet for math review. Then an edhelper worksheet is just fine.

Now, the rest of you, you snobitty snobs who think you’re so high and mighty because you actually look over your children’s papers and check them for accuracy and errors, you need to accept some facts. Professional teachers, real teachers, are busy people. They have lots of responsibilities. Deadlines to meet, state assessments to assess. Sometimes these real teachers just don’t have the time to collect and grade every student’s paper. Sometimes we put the answers on the overhead projector, making the students self-correct their papers, and then quiz them on those self-corrected problems by having them copy the problem from their homework sheet onto the test. Don’t look at the fact that students aren’t being required to demonstrate mathematical mastery by calculating a full set of equations. This method of instruction and testing is perfectly sound, rooted in pedagogy, and should not be attempted at home by amateurs. Leave this to the professionals.

Any evidence that Mr. Arby might have seen, or that the oh-I’m-so-smart-because-I-have-an-engineering-MS-degree-wife of his claims to have seen of a dramatic drop in General Mayhem's math scores since entering public school is coincidental. One or two more years of Apathy Middle School instruction should clearly demonstrate consistent “C” level work, a far better indication of the General’s ability than one of those Iowa tests. Can’t trust those results. Arby might have given him the answers.

You just need to accept that an education provided by a certified, card carrying union represented professional teacher is far superior to anything you can do at home, thank you very much.

Harrumph!

A "You've Got To Be Kidding Me!" Moment

Linda sent me a note with the following video attached.  She wrote: This was a definite "you've got to be kidding me" moment!  Since Linda is in Greenville this weekend, she asked me to post the following Youtube clip of retired NEA General Counsel Bob Chanin.  After viewing this clip, there is very little that needs to be said about the NEA’s priorities, except that it is definitely not children!

Just Say No To MOOSE

After reading Linda’s last post, I did some investigating into the UN, the NEA, and their educational concerns that she highlighted.  I’ve come to the conclusion that I must not be very bright.  I’m probably one of those people Ron Schiller was thinking of when the NPR executive commented that “liberals today might be more educated, fair and balanced than conservatives.”   So, I am calling on any liberal readers of this blog, or liberal friends of readers of this blog, to come to my aid and explain something to me.    I thought I was a fairly well educated person.  I thought that I knew about certain facts of life, those facts that in a kinder and gentler age were referred to as “the birds and the bees,” but are now referred to as standard MTV programming.  I know what masturbation is.  I know what an orgasm is.  I know what oral sex is.  I honestly do not know how masturbation, orgasm, and oral sex education (MOOSE) for sixth graders is going to help the United Nations achieve their Millennium Development Goals, but according to a panel at the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), teaching MOOSE to middle and high school students is “key” to solving many of the world’s ills.

The 2010 Millennium Goals are impressive.  The UN would like to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development.  These aren’t bad ideas.  I just don’t see the connection between teaching a sixth grader about MOOSE and achieving universal primary education.  If a teacher explains the big M to a group of children in Japan, will that help a six-year-old learn to read in Bulgaria?  If your sixth grade daughter learns about MOOSE, how will that combat the spread of malaria?  Wouldn’t DDT be more effective?  Will MOOSE develop a global partnership for development?  Only in the early fall, and only in northern North America, Europe and Asia.  Certainly not globally. 

I do know that MOOSE over-population will affect environmental sustainability, but for some reason I don’t think either the UN or Diane Schneider of the National Education Association (NEA) agree.  She spoke at the CSW about expanding sex education for middle and high school students to include comprehensive teachings about MOOSE.  She made a point of mentioning that abstinence-only education was not a good idea, and that children should not be able to opt-out of MOOSE.  It seems to me that if you want to guarantee a decrease in child mortality rates, improve maternal health, and combat HIV/AIDS, then abstinence would be a central theme in MOOSE instruction.   You don’t have to pay if you don’t play.   Unfortunately, learning about MOOSE will encourage naturally curious youth to want to try MOOSE activities, activities which do lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Those diseases will make environmental sustainability unachievable.  We need look no further than Africa to see that.

The truth behind the educational claims made by the NEA is that MOOSE has absolutely nothing to do with attaining UN Millennial Goals.  Through a simple internet search using the terms “NEA” and “homosexuality,” you will find that the NEA is a secular, pro-homosexual organization.  Choice is fine if you are choosing to end a life through abortion, but as Ms. Schneider made clear through her comments, it ends if you are a parent choosing to have your children opt-out of MOOSE studies.   I have to agree with Linda’s comments in her last post. The NEA + the UN = wolves in wolves’ clothing,  and I am not going to feed my children to the wolves. 

NEA + UN = Wolves in Wolves' Clothing

You can't make stuff like this up.

I'm actually not going to provide much commentary on this article. It would force me to type words that I really don't want to type. And think thoughts that I really don't want to think. Suffice it to say that the NEA has a dark and scary agenda for our children that is so outrageous it's almost unbelievable. And it's this agenda that is one of my top reasons for keeping my children at home and out of the very determined clutches of the NEA. And just in case there was any wiggle-room in my commitment to homeschool, this article removed the wiggle.  For good.  Why stuff like this doesn't convince every American parent to homeschool is absolutely beyond me.

At the UN's recent "Commission on the Status of Women," Diane Schneider, a representative of the NEA had much to say.  Here's a snippet.

Comprehensive sex education is “the only way to combat heterosexism and gender conformity,” Schneider proclaimed, “and we must make these issues a part of every middle and high-school student’s agenda.”  “Gender identity expression and sexual orientation are a spectrum,” she explained, and said that those opposed to homosexuality “are stuck in a binary box that religion and family create.” (emphasis mine)

Wow.

If you think you can stand it, you can read more about the NEA's recommendations for your children's education on the website of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute*.

And then pop over to The All American Blogger* to read a great commentary on the article.

And then give your children great big hugs and promise them that you'll never feed them to the wolves.

I don't know about you, but the view from our "binary box" is just fine.


(*Please note that both articles linked above contain content that is not suitable for children.)

Educational Bias Is Everywhere

According to the National Education Association, homeschooling programs “based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience.”  If the NEA wrote it, that seems to be good enough for ESPN action sports writer Matt Higgins.  In his article titled, “Home is where the school is,” he went on to opine that “homeschool students are not required to take standardized tests under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Therefore, direct comparisons between student performance at traditional schooling versus homeschool are difficult to make.”  Fortunately for homeschoolers, we know better.  Unfortunately for homeschoolers, Matt Higgins does not. 

The popularity of professional sports gives sports writers a large forum in which to expound their views.  Few are larger than ESPN, a network devoted entirely to sports.  It is in this forum that Mr. Higgins demonstrated both his educational bias as well as his professional sloth.   It would have taken one minute on Google with the words “homeschool” and “test scores” to locate an HSLDA’a article that states “In 1997, a study of 5,402 homeschool students from 1,657 families was released. It was entitled, "Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers Across America." The study demonstrated that homeschoolers, on the average, out-performed their counterparts in the public schools by 30 to 37 percentile points in all subjects.”  Further research on the HSLDA website would have shown Mr. Higgins that his premise was incorrect.  There is plenty of evidence that direct comparisons are not difficult o make.  In those comparisons, homeschoolers come out on top.

So, what’s his beef?

There are parents of rising young stars who compete in surfing, skateboarding, BMX and motocross racing, and snowboarding, that are allowing their children to give up traditional public and private school education in order to spend more time in practice and competition.  There are huge pay checks available to young professional athletes.  These parents want to give their children the opportunity to grab the financial golden ring early in life.  One manner of creating more time for their children to practice and compete is to homeschool their children.  Mr. Higgins’ complaint is that he doesn’t believe that these young people are well educated.  In his narrow analysis, the culprit must be homeschooling.

I don’t know.  Mr. Higgins may be correct in his assertion that these particular athletes are not well educated.  They might be as dumb as a box of rocks.  Condemning homeschooling as the culprit is like condemning cars after a couple of people get into automobile accidents.  The fault isn’t in homeschooling.  The fault, if there is any to be assigned, lies with the parents and their level of commitment to the homeschooling lifestyle.   Experienced homeschoolers know the dedication it takes to educate a child at home.  The rise of poorly educated young athletes is not a cause to condemn the hard work of dedicated homeschoolers.   That clarity of thought escaped Mr. Higgins.  And that is the type of bias that homeschoolers face every day in this country. 

Why NOT Public School?

A couple of years ago, while engaged in a conversation with a fellow homeschooler, I made a fairly extreme declaration:

"I would never send my children to public school."

A day or two later, this fellow homeschooler called me and challenged my statement.

"Why would you say something so extreme? You don't really mean that, do you?"

In fact, I do mean it.

I acknowledge that this position is extreme. Parents decide to teach their children at home for a multitude of reasons. Many of these are more proactive than defensive. While I agree with many of the proactive reasons, for me they are all secondary. The main reason I homeschool my own children is defensive…I don’t want them in public school. I am a certified teacher and my arguments against public schools are based on experience and observations from more than 20 years of association with and involvement in public schools. I began to recognize many of these issues early on in my teaching career…some even before I graduated from college! And the problems I began to observe more than 20 years ago have only gotten worse in the years since.

So, the question remains: Why would I say something so extreme?

• Schools are institutions designed to educate the masses. They are not designed to meet either the emotional or academic needs of the individual. As such, they will most effectively reach "the average" student, often missing the needs of the lowest and highest performing children.

• Schools are places where values such as tolerance, acceptance, self-esteem, diversity, and relativism are esteemed more highly than academic excellence. Ironically, the tolerance and acceptance so tenaciously advocated is often not objectively practiced by its most vocal proponents.

• Schools are places where a dangerous brand of socialization is valued. This brand of socialization insists that children are capable of preparing each other to be meaningful, productive members of society. This brand of socialization argues that being bullied, ostracized, and laughed at is a necessary part of the socialization process. (How else will your children learn to get along in the world?) This brand of socialization exalts rudeness and vulgarity over civility and decency. It values disorder and chaos over discipline and self-control. This brand of socialization favors the popular, the attractive, and the likable, creating a social hierarchy which diminishes the value of those who don’t “measure up”. Ironically, in a place intended for learning, this brand of socialization often values academic mediocrity over academic excellence. In other words, in school it’s often considered "not cool" to be smart.

• Schools are places where government bureaucracy and union mentality prevent good teachers from being rewarded for being good teachers.[1] This same system keeps bad teachers from being penalized for being bad teachers and could even prevent dangerous teachers from being removed from the classroom.[2] And to add insult to injury, schools are places where parents often have no say in who teaches their children. The NEA (and the politicians whom they control) stubbornly refuse to create a system which would provide parents with their choice of schools—a system which would inevitably result in improvements to our schools and a better education for all our children.[3][4]

• Schools are places where curriculum rich in revisionist history, humanism, environmental indoctrination, multiculturalism, and liberalism is often taught by teachers who share a similar agenda. Current “feel-good” teaching methods often stress self-esteem over academic excellence.[5]  In much of today’s curriculum, activities which promote “teamwork” and “cooperation” are more highly esteemed than activities which encourage a strong academic foundation.

• Schools are places where creativity and independent learning are stifled in exchange for "teaching-to-the-test". Performance is judged by standardization rather than by the presence of inquisitiveness, curiosity and wonder.

I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point.

It was 1985. I was a newly married college graduate, recently certified and looking for a teaching job. I was reading a book, Child Abuse in the Classroom, by Phyllis Schlafly, which presented startling evidence of the existence of many of the issues which I have just addressed. I looked at my husband of just a few months and said,  

"I will never send my children to public school."

And I haven’t.

---

[1] http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-2_22_06_JS.html
[2] http://teachersunionexposed.com/protecting.cfm
[3] http://www.mackinac.org/3298
[4] http://www.teachersunionexposed.com/blocking.cfm
[5] http://www.unc.edu/cr/features/books/stout-the-feel-good-curriculum.html