Wednesday, July 16, 2008

May 2008 California Educator Magazine

I've held on to this so long because it pains me to have to read the complete and total crap it contains. But I want to get it off my desk so I have to address the points. Perhaps I'll just offer minimal commentary and let their paranoia and idiocy speak for themselves.

The entire issue is focused on "The Value of Public Education". Conjure up the worst scaremongering that public schools are going to be sold off to Wal*Mart, and that's what you get in this issue.

Page 12, in an article called "Ways to boost awareness of the value of education": "Repeat simple, effective, positive messages about public education." Of course! Trite sayings will trump anything truthful or intellectual any day.

How about this suggestion: "Become a pro-education blogger." That's me. I'm pro-education. I want people to be smart enough to see beyond the trite sayings of the CTA's minions and sheeple.

"Don't refer to schools as 'failing,' or if you must, use quotation marks or refer to them as 'so-called failing schools.'" In other words, don't admit for a moment that there are government education centers where children don't learn.

What these fools refuse to understand is that while universal public education is sacred, public schools are not. Trite sayings and word games which protect a system in which too many kids aren't learning--if they really cared about kids they would fix the problems and not play games with them.

Starting on page 20 we get a story called "Conference warns against dismantling of public ed". Who's doing this, the Democrats who run both the Congress and the Capitol in Sacramento? Fools. I loved this part, though: "There are also 'grassroots' organizations... So-called 'professional educator' associations make it appear as if teachers support school choice, NCLB and vouchers, while opposing teacher unions. But these are bogus groups that do not represent the vast majority of teachers...." CTEN and the "so-called" Association of American Educators! I'm a proud member of both (and I'm just as capable of using the "so-called" tactic as CTA is). Apparently some teachers support school choice, et al, and there's no reason here to discuss why CTA has the advantage of representing the "vast majority of teachers". Just call those groups, and the teachers who join them, bogus. Coming from an organization that must compel dues payment with the force of law, that's rich!

On page 30 we read about something that I probably agree with, but will enjoy CTA's hypocrisy: "CTA and the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) have defeated a well-intentioned but overly restrictive measure that would have jeopardized the pension board's ability to fulfill its duties to its members... (It) would have prohibited CalSTRS and the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) from placing public funds in investment companies fully or partly owned by investors from foreign nations that have not fully complied with certain international treaties." Like Kyoto? =)

That's enough, as that was just the idiocy I could tolerate reading and commenting on. Have your TUMS nearby, because the next post is on the June issue.