Warning: Expect Your Community Teachers to Demand MORE Money...

...to return to school in the fall.

It's gonna get expensive. Well, you wouldn't want these HEROES to suffer any monetary loss, would you?

The AFT is on another Hunt for More Money. This time, they're using the excuse of COVID-19 to argue for it.

So, what are they prepared to GIVE for that money?

Not much, apparently. The Giving is all one-way - in THEIR direction.

Now, I'm not going to write that teachers are all layabouts - most work diligently to teach sometimes fractious and resistant learners. It isn't easy to teach the modern child; they are simultaneously the most indulged and cosseted offspring of all time, and also bereft of hands-on guidance from mature adults.

That's not all of them. Some children, like others in previous times, have effective and caring parents guiding their growth - physical, mental, and emotional. Those parents put honest effort into the task, putting off their immediate wants for their children's needs.

But, frankly, there are some parents who feel most of their job is done once their children have been toilet-trained (if they put the effort in that long). I'm always dismayed to hear of the many children who reach kindergarten without being able to identify colors, count objects to 100, and identify the letters of the alphabet, to name just a few necessary precursors to formal educations. They don't understand classifying objects by similarities - for example, by size or function (used in the kitchen, something a baby would use, cleaning objects, for example). No one has ever had them learn the names of coins, and their value compared to other coins. 

They can't do basic clean-up of their own messes (some see no need, and are generally puzzled by the idea that they should have to clean up the chaos they created). They've not had regular chores for which they are responsible. They don't eat at a table, or as a family. Some have never used silverware.

Behaviors that need to be mastered for school success - ability to be quiet while others are talking, not hitting when angry or annoyed, not breaking into song or dance when moved to do so - have often not been taught by family. Some children have seldom experienced time without electronic entertainment available. They get fidgety when forced to be without it.

This doesn't describe all, or even most of the children. But, the fact that many classrooms have these children in them, and must accommodate their lack of skills and knowledge, makes teaching a challenging occupation.

Most of today's teachers used technology in their classrooms. But, they didn't have to manage teaching solely with its assistance. Most managed, although many complained about having to do so without help from the districts. I would expect this summer to have professional development to work on techniques and use of Zoom and other mediums for transmitting lessons. At this point, few are sure about when, and how, education in person will commence.

But, parents have made changes, too. Some have found that they were able to make progress in home-teaching. Most will eventually use public schools; the problem is, some will not. Just a few families in every school being added to the current population of home-schoolers will mean that district money will decrease.

The real problem with public schools is NOT that the teachers are no good - most do an effective job of teaching their classes, given the constraints put on their performance.

The real problem is that schools are Conformity Factories. They have accepted the ways of the Chinese Brainwashers, who, against those captured troops in the Korean War, unwittingly fell into a Collaboration Trap.

It starts with gentle talking to the subject. They are questioned, and 'nudged' to provide a very mild agreement with a Leftist-framed "truth". After they do so, they are gradually guided to provide VERBAL agreement with other, more detailed and Leftist ideas/phrases/philosophy.

It starts subtly. It builds on that every day, and - eventually - the student is surprised to find himself openly siding with those whose aims, goals, and ideals are completely distant from his own beliefs.

Here's a Twitter thread on how the process works - read it completely to get the full flavor.

Understand me - Teachers are NOT deliberately turning their students into mindless followers of the Left (at least, MOST of them are not). But they are taking the tiny steps that gradually lead to that outcome.

I thank God every day that I was born into a family that believed it their God-given right to think and act contrary to the "Wisdom of the Group". I had a daily example of seeing people act according to THEIR principles, and to Hell with what others thought.