Klarinet Archive - Posting 000974.txt from 2004/03

From: Jeremy A Schiffer <schiffer@------.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] not just the music department
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 16:24:27 -0500


my apologies if this makes it to the list twice. i sent it half an hour
ago and haven't seen it yet.

On Wed, 17 Mar 2004, Jeremy A Schiffer wrote:

> 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
>

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