Author Topic: Teacher's Unions  (Read 1260 times)

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Offline Eupher

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Teacher's Unions
« on: April 11, 2011, 01:19:25 PM »
I play tuba and bass trombone in a brass quintet named Harmonium Brass. We had a gig yesterday in Marshall, MO (TVDOC and his wife came by and said hello, btw, which was very nice of him).

Three of us had traveled together and the other two guys are semi-retired music teachers. I say "semi-retired" because they're both retired from the public school system -- one after 33 years and another after 31 years -- but continue to teach either in a parochial school or as adjunct faculty in a small Christian college.

The conversation turned toward the recent events in WI.

I should point out that one guy is a certified, card-carrying moonbat, though he is not rabid about it. He has to keep his politics somewhat under wraps because where he lives. The other guy is not quite as politically oriented, but still laments about what happened up in WI with the "collective bargaining" aspect of what changed up there.

Well, we had time the time and I was driving, so I talked.  :-)

A couple of questions that neither of these two guys could answer:

"Where is it written that TENURE is a constitutional guarantee?"

"What makes the teaching profession 'more speshull' than say, an IT professional, or perhaps a quality assurance (which is what I do) professional? Why should teachers be "protected" under the law versus other professions?"

The rather quiet moonbat said that public teachers are protected because of the potential for political fallout. For example, if a teacher is razzed because she teaches sex education, the 'tenure policy' kicks in and protects that teacher from being shitcanned for teaching a hot-button (no bun intended, btw) topic.

He had no response when I mentioned that thing called "permission slips".

So I'm just curious.

When you're confronted by moonbat liberalism, or even semi-clueless folks who are a victim of their own profession and jump on the same bandwagon as the rest, what's your approach?

Do you just jump in there with both feet and let 'er rip? Or do you carefully consider your audience/target, cull the calf from the herd, and plant a red-hot branding iron right on her ass?

Or do you just shut up and drive?

 :-)
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Offline TVDOC

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Re: Teacher's Unions
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2011, 03:20:13 PM »
Over the years I've learned that the last option is likely the wisest choice......... :-)

My early adult life spent in academia, I was largely surrounded by uber liberals, but one must consider that Vietnam was going on, and that was the "fashionable" thing to do in a university environment.  Further, tenure in primary and secondary education was unknown, as were teacher's unions, at that time.  Therefore, it was not until I was well in to a business/scientific/commercial (for profit) environment that all of the unionization of teachers came to be........and with it the politics.

Tenure amongst university professors was largely devised to prevent "poaching" of talented teachers by competing schools.....offering them enhanced job security and status, in exchange for what was then pretty much lousy salaries.......generally free housing and other perks went along with it.

I really can't buy "tenure" as a protection device for secondary education teachers, as the hiring decisions are left to the local school board, and certainly the politics of that will vary, but one would beg the question of why a "controversial subject" would be taught at all, without the advance approval of the board.......doesn't wash to me.

My general M.O. has always been to keep my mouth shut about politics, unless someone becomes really assertive about it, and then, I usually dodge the question if one is asked, unless I know the person well enough to know that offense will not be taken by an aggressive response (those occasions are few).  I've allways been a "low profile" guy.......when it comes to this type of subject..

As an aside......about the concert.  For the rest of the members, we have a really talented member with Eupher.  His groups' performance was a joy to witness, and we are eagerly looking forward  to the next opportunity.  As I mentioned to him privately their accompaniment of a youth voice ensamble playing Bach's Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring, brought tears to the eyes......

doc
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Offline FreeBorn

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Re: Teacher's Unions
« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2011, 04:27:28 PM »
My whole take on unions is that they are basically a group of people who seek to carve out a niche for themselves where they are beyond the law as it applies to everyone else. Tenure being very similar.
I'm sure the mafia would revel in such an arrangement.
Also, doesn't the typical wiseguy enjoy tenure? Once you're in the mob you're in for life.
They have collective bargaining too, don't they? Isn't that when two or more wiseguys show up and make you an offer you can't refuse?


"How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin; And how do you tell an anti-communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin." ~Ronald Reagan

Offline zeitgeist

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Re: Teacher's Unions
« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2011, 04:58:02 PM »
My whole take on unions is that they are basically a group of people who seek to carve out a niche for themselves where they are beyond the law as it applies to everyone else. Tenure being very similar.
I'm sure the mafia would revel in such an arrangement.
Also, doesn't the typical wiseguy enjoy tenure? Once you're in the mob you're in for life.
They have collective bargaining too, don't they? Isn't that when two or more wiseguys show up and make you an offer you can't refuse?

I remember the new teacher who showed up on the back of her boyfriend's motorcycle.  That was strike one.  A couple more strikes and she was gone for a violaton of the moral turpitude clause.  Today she would be suing the pants off the principal and school board.

And yeah, the modern union makes a mobster green with envy.  They run a legally santioned monopoly complete with public shakedown unit.  The small state of NH was responsible for putting over 6.5 million into their "dues" till in 2008.  Not a bad take.  The dems receive about 96 % of the NEA's political money.  They too make the mob blush.
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Offline CG6468

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Re: Teacher's Unions
« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2011, 04:58:32 PM »
Good analogy, Free Born!  :cheersmate:
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