A few words about teachers

I'm drawing this information from Dave Lindorf's op-ed in Nation of Change:

Let’s just note that the heroic teachers who died while courageously trying to protect their kids at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, and the others who survived but stayed to protect the kids, were all part of a school system where the employees are members of the American Federation of Teachers. (I'm adding the bold)

Let’s just let that sink in for a moment. Those teachers, who are routinely being accused by our politicians of being drones and selfish, incompetent money grubbers worried more about their pensions than about teaching our children ... stood their ground when confronted with a psychotic assailant armed with semi-automatic pistols and an automatic rifle, and protected their kids.

snip

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Newtown school board, like school boards all over this country, was considering cutting the school’s elementary music program and library program. It should be noted that both the school librarian and the school music teacher, whose jobs were on the line at the school board, stayed with the kids they were teaching when the attack began.

The most powerful part of the op-ed comes from a discussion post written by a local citizen about teacher pay last spring:

You, as a public sector employee, don’t generate ANY revenue. Every penny of the budget of your public sector enterprise is TAKEN from producers. It’s other people’s money versus money your organization EARNED. Your salary is not market based. .... You are insulated from that reality. Your private (sic) sector salary only goes up. How is that fair? Especially in light of the fact that you don’t even generate the revenue that pays for your constantly rising salary?You, as a public sector employee, don’t generate ANY revenue. Every penny of the budget of your public sector enterprise is TAKEN from producers. It’s other people’s money versus money your organization EARNED.

I wonder how that writer feels today, knowing that these "public sector employees" paid the ultimate price protecting the lives of his children or grandchildren? Does he still feel that these brave women are insulated from reality? This is just one more area that we as a nation need to address. We need to respect teachers and their professionalism. Sandy Hook needs to change our dialog in many areas.

Here's the link to the full article:

http://www.nationofchange.org/america-s-teachers-heroes-or-greedy-moochers-public-trough-1355674260

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3 replies	Author	Time	Post
A few words about teachers (Original post)	ladym55	Dec 2012	OP
The Teachers at Newtown	sheshe2	Dec 2012	#1
I dare say that most teachers I have known	Mr.Bill	Dec 2012	#2
I grew up with teachers and I know	liberalhistorian	Dec 2012	#3

Response to ladym55 (Original post)

Mon Dec 17, 2012, 12:30 AM

sheshe2 (78,141 posts)

1. The Teachers at Newtown

Just gave us a whole new meaning of the term Stand Your Ground!

They did that, and saved many innocent lives! In some cases it cost them their very own.

I applaud our teachers who nurture and care for our children!

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Response to sheshe2 (Reply #1)

Mon Dec 17, 2012, 12:42 AM

Mr.Bill (20,178 posts)

2. I dare say that most teachers I have known

take their profession more seriously than any other profession I have known. And I have Doctors, Nurses and Clergy in my family as well as teachers. In a perfect world, they would be paid as much as professional athletes. (Although when I said this to the superintendent of schools he said "Yes but then Dennis Rodman might be teaching school.)

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Response to ladym55 (Original post)

Mon Dec 17, 2012, 01:46 AM

liberalhistorian (20,778 posts)

3. I grew up with teachers and I know

that what the Newtown teachers did, while beyond heroic, was in no way an anomaly or unusual for teachers; the vast majority of all teachers I've ever known would not hesitate to do this, including my own parents and their colleagues. My mother taught at a juvenile reformatory for boys and had some hairy incidents and close calls, where protecting the kids was her first priority. This is par for the course for teachers, which is just one reason among many why it's been so painful these past several years to hear the continuous, vicious, ignorant, mean-spirited attacks on them, the profession, their competence, to watch politicians who have no clue whatsoever what the profession is like or on anything educational at all for that matter, gleefully strip away, or continuously attempt to strip away, their basic rights and benefits and worsen their working conditions, etc. You won't see an investment banker or Wall Street goon or CEO think first of others, and protect others, before their own safety, ever. Yet THEY are the ones glorified and no one minds their ginormous salaries and perks at the expense of their workers and society.

Nicholas Kristof wrote a wonderful column this weekend about gun regulation and our insane culture of gun worship, and he made a poignant point that teachers stood right up to actual gunmen, some even losing their lives in the process, while "feckless, cowardly politicians cower before the likes of the NRA." Damn straight. And damn disgusting and infuriating.

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