When Education Secretary Rod Paige called the NEA a "terrorist organization," I enjoyed a secret glee. http://www.drudgereport.com/flash1.htm True - it was wrong and insensitive. If he had called it a monopoly org that kidnaps and indoctrinates children until 16 - that would have been perfect! I learned far more from our own teenaged organization: the local astronomical society, student section (which I founded). And there I devoted most of my time. Let's see how we've done. One astrophysicist (PhD Minnesota/Carleton College prof) One PhD, Industrial Materials (UCLA) One Physicist (Univ. of Washington), IBM One journalist/computer entreprenuer (MA Geography drop out) One biometrician (MS, Univ of Washington) One housewife (three children/widow/2nd husband) One Wildlife Photographer/photo processor (art school drop out/ now world's best connected outdoor photographer agent) ... One could keep going down the list of more peripherally connected members, but I believe the point has been made: what does the NEA do but protect its union members, giving them the most money to "teach" in the world but always rate towards the bottom in outcomes? The NEA needs abolishing! The teaching schools need abolishing ! Long live vouchers! (We could have used them back then.) --Orson
Yes, teachers are terrorists, and they should be treated as such. They should be arrested immediately. They should be held without charges against them, and they should be denied the right to an attorney. They should immediately lose all rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. That's how we treat people accused of terrorism, and these people weren't accused by just anyone -- they were accused of terrorism by a cabinet official. If you can't trust members of the Bush Cabinet, who can you trust? This is a war, afterall. Have you forgotten what these terrorists did to us?
Jeff, I believe that you missed the point of the original post. I don’t think anybody is accusing a teacher of being a terrorist. I think that the point is that the NEA is counterproductive in its protectionist attitude. They ferociously fight ANY change to the status quo and do advance a rather liberal agenda. I find that I constantly have to un-teach the things that my second and third graders are being taught. If you read their textbooks, they are negative in their view of America and preach mediocrity as the end all goal. As Orson said, it’s unbelievable the amount of money that the US spends on education to achieve the horrid results that we see. As long as the NEA is allowed to dictate the US education model, we are going to continue to see massive failures in our public education system. If a private corporation continually had the same results as or public education system, it would be bankrupt in just a few seconds.
What was your most productive age in school? Educationally, my most productive years were up to the age of five. Why? I was then forced into the government schools.
The only thing that my high school diploma shows is that I was institutionalized for 12 years of my life. Cy
Me too, decimon. Actually, I've been coasting downhill--on an oxcart with a glass of tuica clutched in each fist--since about age three.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/02/24/nea.bush.paige.ap/index.html Apparently the NEA didn't like Education Secretary Rod Paige's comments.
Dr Paige came from the Houston Independent School District. He was the superintendent there. I realize that the NEA has problems...but the terrorist comment was a bit out of line. My mom and grandma had serious problems with them( they were teachers..as am I..no, I am not a member),but I never heard my mother say things like that.
So now any organization that lobbies for its members is a terrorist organization. We have a long list of terrorist organizations in the US: National Association of Manufacturers, American Medical Association, American Bar Association etc. We have a lot of elected school boards in this country - 26 in my own county. The kidnapping arrests need to start at the top - round up those board members. This is an election year - Paige got his script from the White House. He needs this job because he can't go back to Houston - the "Houston Miracle" has been exposed as a hoax.
The NEA, and all other unions are the scourge of this nation. The unions had a time and place, but the time has gone and this is not the place for them. The NEA has ruined public education in this country. Of all my friends with children, even the poor ones, they send or will send their children to private or parochial schools. Of course I met almost all of my friends during my 12 years of Catholic school. Unions serve only to increase the cost of whatever it is they do by enriching often illegally the union officals.