Klarinet Archive - Posting 000963.txt from 2004/03

From: Jeremy A Schiffer <schiffer@------.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] not just the music department
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 15:50:12 -0500

On Wed, 17 Mar 2004, Gene Nibbelin wrote:

> To add to your message, the critics of the Education Bill (apparently from
> the President Bush critics) should keep in mind that this was called
> bi-partisan legislation and, in fact, was mainly written by ultra-liberal
> Teddy (Chappaquiddick) Kennedy. So the liberal critics of the Education
> Bill should be careful not to poop on one of their "saints".

As usual, your partisan blinders far outstrip your grasp of the facts in
question. Kennedy was one of four principal authors of the bill. The other
three were Republicans, so proper apportioning of the blame would only
give 25% to the Democratic side. Nevermind that Kennedy's main goal on the
committee was to see that the initiative was properly funded, and since
the day it was signed into law, he's been a stern critic of the way the
Bush administration was cynically underfunded their own signature bill.

> I am sure that there are many on the List who can cite examples of the
> nation's educational system being run primarily for the benefit of the
> teachers and administrators, and to Hell with the students.

Funny, even though I attended inner-city public schools in an impoverished
area (Tucson, AZ), the teachers were always firmly dedicated to doing
whatever they could to help their students. Sure, the administrations were
often cluelessly inept, but some of the most respectable people I have
ever met in my life were the teachers at my high school, who often paid
for school supplies for students out of their own pockets, despite their
salaries being embarassingly low (20 years experience and a masters gets
you less than $50,000 a year in parts of AZ - less money than a first year
computer programmer with an associate's degree).

> I am so glad
> that I graduated from high school in 1945 when we still had professional and
> skilled teachers to learn from.

Of course, in 1945, a teacher made enough money to buy a house and raise a
family. Nowadays, many public teachers are paid so low that a one-income
family is impossible. Until three years ago, New York City teachers
started at $32,000, which isn't enough money to live in a studio apartment
in the city as a single person. In 2000, the average starting salary
nationwide was under $28,000
(http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/2001/fyi/teachers.ednews/05/17/teacher.salaries/).
Nevermind that teachers are required to continue their education, but (in
many places) receive no compensation for the additional degrees and
certifications required.

If people actually showed some respect to those who dedicate their lives
to teaching, it would go a long way towards improving the situation in the
schools. If we want a good public educational system, lets start by not
having an education secretary who refers to the largest teaching union as
'terrorists.'

> Personally, I don't think that the Federal Government has any business
> interfering with and regulating our schools. We wouldn't have the mess that
> the school systems are in now if their management had been left to the local
> authorities.

If it weren't for federal funding, many schools would have boarded their
windows and closed their doors years ago. In Arizona, funding is so poor
that (to bring this back to music), my freshman year in high school, when
a funding override was voted down, sports participation cost students $100
per sport and the arts (band, orchestra, chorus, drama, etc.) were $50 per
group per student. That meant that for me, to be on the swim and tennis
teams, and play in the band, my family had to pay $250. At my high school,
well over 50% of students were from families with such low incomes that
they received free breakfast and lunch from the schools, and couldn't
afford to pay the participation fees.

After the failure of that override, the "Tucson High Marching 100" failed
to field 30 people in the band. It was two years before we could scrape up
enough people to go back onto the field, and even then, it was primarily
as a show band. While the concert band continued to compete, it was almost
a decade before they started competing in marching competitions again.

> Just eliminating all the Federal reports would add millions of
> man-hours that could be used to do some actual teaching of the students.
> (What a novel idea!! Actually teaching - it's blasphemy in the eyes of the
> teacher's union.)

Please stop slandering teachers. Of the few people I have met in my life
that could truly be called role models, nearly all were public school
teachers. They face hurdles to success you cannot begin to imagine,
pressures from the administration, from students, from teachers and from
the larger community, all with meager salaries and few classroom supplies.

I'm sorry the world isn't (in your eyes) as nice a place it was when you
were young, but let's not forget that schools were still SEGREGATED when
you attended. It's a different world, and you can't look back longingly at
a time that never really existed to provide a model for the realities of
today.

-jeremy

---------------------------------------------------------------------
klarinet-digest-unsubscribe@------.org if you get the digest.
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.------.org

   
     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact charette@woodwind.org