I’m right there with you, MP. I taught English to inner-city kids for a year. I loved it. I was good at it. I had the captain of the football team writing poems and the local Latino gang kids writing about the Christ symbolism in Cool Hand Luke.
But like you, I just can’t do it for the dough. I would love to go back to teaching. It’s the only thing I’ve ever found that I like as much as comedy. But if I decided to teach, I’d have to take a second job just to pay the bills.
How sick is it that for the last two years I was making 8 G’s a year MORE than a first year teacher for TESTING VIDEO GAMES? (I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t love that job, though) Point is, that shouldn’t happen in a society that theoretically values education.
Heck, give me 50K a year, plus benefits and summers off, and I’ll teach EVERYBODY’s kids how to read!
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Rev. Tim
P.S. And if we had more people like you willing to do it just on general principle, we’d be a **** sight better off, too. I salute you, sir.
Originally posted by ReverendTim
[B]Okay, you’re right. Technically, I haven’t met every teacher everywhere. So to satisfy the terminally picky amongst you, let me qualify…
There may one or two secret socialist sleeper agents placed carefully in handpicked public schools across the country, lying in wait to make our god-fearing American schoolchildren into ****sexual commie robots that exist solely to further the New World Order’s agenda of one world government so that the antichrist may come as fortold in the book of Revelations…
But the VAST MAJORITY OF THEM are underpaid, overworked, idealists who want your kids to be smarter than they are right now.
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Rev. Tim [/B]
alright. that satisfies my need to be a pain in the ass. lol
but in all candor, I have met quite a few school teachers who have been way, way, waaaaaaay left of center, quite militant in their views, and who do not hesitate to preach in the classroom. One cannot be faulted for one’s views, but when they influence a learning environment, they need at least be tempered and balanced. this would seem (to me) to be a reasonable approach regardless as to one’s political leaning (right, left, nut-job lunatic nader, nut-job lunatic II buchanan, etc). students, particularly younger ones, are impressionable and that necessitates a very careful and reasoned approach to expressing one’s views. too many ‘adults’ in all walks of life are too **** ignorant and self-centered to edit themselves. this isn’t the same type of problem for folks who are not in a position to influence young people. alot of folks who go into education are, as you said, idealistic. more often than not this idealism expresses itself in a predictable political leaning. hence, the popular notion that school teachers are spewing liberal rhetoric all over a captive audience of young people.
you may consider the above a gross generalization based on anecdotal evidence and limited testimony and disregard it at your leisure.
what about…?
If there weren’t a (failed) system of public education, this conversation wouldn’t be happening
Originally posted by ReverendTim
[B]The papers reporting it are total right-wing rags. The only halfway legitimate source I saw linked to the story was the Seattle Times. The rest were nothing but typical online “libertarian” sources that spend all their time quoting each other and pretending that that’s the same as unbiased research.
[/B]
but the left-wing ‘rags’ (hmmm new york times anyone?) are bastions of fairness
but the left-wing ‘rags’ (hmmm new york times anyone?) are bastions of fairness
Don’t put words in my mouth, please. If we’re going to lament the death of the gods of logic and rhetoric, let’s honor them by adhering to their principles.
In this particular case, the particular journals cited are unequivocally rightist and utterly biased. If I’d used the NYT to back up some points, you could rebut me with it. I didn’t, so your argument is irrelevant.
There are plenty of left-wing sites that are just as biased in the same way on the other side of the fence. I agree with you on that. Doesn’t mean I take their journalism with any less of a grain of salt. Please don’t assume I do.
I would put the Freedom 21 Santa Cruz and WND sites on the same level of bias as an alternet.org or some such on the left. I can’t stand them either.
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Rev. Tim
P.S. And I agree that a teacher has a bully pulpit and should use it responsibly. I would wager that I’ve met and know and have SEEN IN THE CLASSROOM more teachers than you, and I think you’re painting with an unfairly broad brush.
Originally posted by ReverendTim
I would wager that I’ve met and know and have SEEN IN THE CLASSROOM more teachers than you, and I think you’re painting with an unfairly broad brush.
I hope you wouldn’t wager more than you could afford to lose.
Note to self: don’t give him satisfaction of taking bait.
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Rev. Tim
Merry,
What is the american way that I’m missing?
Uh oh.
"Shadow, actually, I hate to tell you this, but there is one thing that can be automatic and we don’t have to do much–veto power. We only have to deal with the P5…or not, if we just don’t want to…ace in the hole. Same goes for the other 4 though "
Who else has veto power? Who are the P5?
WHAT??
I must learn about the UN…
NYer–it’s a joke. Did somebody steal your sense of humor in Rome? 
Blackjack, about the first thread post, Be Careful, i hear a lot of touchy huggy hippies wear protective cups with sharp steel spikes in them.