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teach your children well

teach your children well

The California Federation of Teachers have voted to support a resolution to oppose the war in Iraq.

Whereas, this administration is using the so-called War on Terrorism to distract the American people from the vital issues they confront, Therefore, be it resolved that the California Federation of Teachers goes on record as strenuously opposing the Bush administration's march toward war with Iraq,

And be it further resolved that the California Federation of Teachers urge its members and affiliates to get involved with organizations working toward stopping the Bush administration's march toward war with Iraq.

Can they do this? It seems just a bit wrong to me. What business does a teacher's union have coming out for or against the war, going as far as to make a resolution stating their cause.

I don't say this because their views are opposite mine. I would be questioning this no matter which side of the issue they were on.

The delegates voted to support the resolution, but are the delegates really repsresenting all of their members? I wonder how the teachers who voted against the proposal feel.

In an age when student test scores are down, our schools are in dissaray and the public school system in general is going steadily downhill, this is what the teachers are spending their time doing?

I like how they urge their members to get involved. In other words, take our stance.

The tenets within the declaration can be refuted on every point. In fact, Kimberly Swygert has already done so and I suggest you go read her take on it.

My main point of conention is this; if these teachers feel so strongly about this issue, strong enough to vote on a resolution proclaiming their anti-war stance, I wonder how many of them are talking about it in the classrooms. School is no place for politicking. If my child came home and said either "my teacher said we should get out there and take a stance against the war," or "my teacher said we should get out their and support the war," I would be marching up to that school in a New York minute, especially if they were using the wording of that declaration to make their views known.

So they want to throw their support to a tyrannical dictator who kills his own people, flaunts his disregard for UN resolutions and thinks democracy is coercing his citizens to vote for him? Great. Great for them. Do it on their own time. Don't do it under the guise of being a teacher.

Comments

interesting though...

100 years ago a child comes home in a midwestern state and says, "My teacher thinks women should have the right to vote."

50 years ago a child comes home in the south and says, "My teacher thinks I should be able to go to school with black children."

30 years ago a child comes home to a republican household and says, "My teacher doesn't like Nixon."

5 years ago a child comes home to a democratic household and says, "My teacher doesn't like Clinton."

Today a child comes home to an Italian household and says, "My teacher doesn't think we should celebrate Columbus Day."

Today a child comes home to a hetero household and says, "My teacher thinks a man and a man or a woman and a woman should be able to get married."

Today a child comes home and says, "My teacher doesn't think we should go to war with Iraq."

I would want a teacher who challenges my child to think, to find out for themselves, to ask questions, to encourage dialogue just as much as they teach my child the readin' writin' and 'rithmetic.

A great elementary school teacher helped me to find out my parent's politics by holding a mock election in our classroom and asking "why did you vote for Reagan? Why did you vote for Dukakis?" when most of responded "because our parents did." He then asked, "Why did they vote for their candidate? Do you agree with their reasons?"

Probably the first time my parents and I watched the news together and the first time we talked about government and how they saw it.

Teaching them to think for themselves is great. Teaching them what to think is not.

How would they go about teaching someone what to think?

And if a certain political opinion sounds "right" to a child but it's opposed to their parent's beliefs and they learned that opinion in school, who bears the responsibility? Is there responsibility to bear?

Does the issue matter? the age?

If my household believes that gays shouldn't marry and my 8 year old disagrees with me because of something a teacher said, is that wrong?

What if I'm a progressive couple that gays should be legally able to marry and my child disagrees based on something a teacher said, is that wrong?

What subjects should a teacher not be able to discuss?

Is there no issue that a teacher's teaching should be able to challenge a parent?

Unions of all sorts take positions on a wide range of issues that are seemingly outside their direct purview, but have some important meaning to its members. This vote is not at all unusual in that respect.

And working in schools as much as I do, I can say that most teachers, or at least the good ones, are doing as Jason says. They are giving their students the information, and teaching them how to analyze, theorize, and conclude, for themselves. Teachers know that's their job.

Did you know that the teachers union probably endorses candidates for public office? They do. But that does not mean that teachers tell their students to vote for those candidates. Not even when I wish they would.

As jadedju says, unions have always endorsed candidates and supported political positions. Just because the teachers' union is doing it doesn't mean the individual teachers are brainwashing their pupils. And while it would be great if teachers would teach children to think for themselves, I don't think the average educational system is really set up to do this in a big way, not in the United States and not in a lot of other countries. This is why I admire parents, such as yourself, who take the time to teach their own kids to think for themselves, rather than just indoctrinate them. And besides, if the parent does this successfully, then no child is going to buy, unquestioned, any political views a teacher tries to foist on them.

How about "My President thinks that reading us The Very Hungry Catterpillar helps us learn... the dumb bastard"

Just because you're indoctrinating children in something you think goes against "the mainstream" or "their background" doesn't mean you're teaching them to think for themselves. It's still indoctrination, plain and simple.

Teachers need to keep their opinions and their unions' opinions out of the classroom. They never do, of course. I grew up being told in school that John Engler was The Great Satan. I think you're biased if you think teachers, encouraged to speak their minds, would be as progressive as you suggest, Jason. My teachers on the whole have been racists and zealots. "My teacher said the Japanese are bad, bad people..."

I never suggested that teacher's were progressive. What I am suggesting is that it's impractical to suggest that teachers remove opinion from their lessons. In fact, I think it's impossible.

Children are impressionable but they also aren't lemmings. Education is a mixture of what kids learn at school tempered with the values and lessons they learn at home and in the world. If Teaching children was in a vacuum in which a teacher's words were the only thing a child got their information from, I'd agree. I'd say, "Wow, better start home schoolin'" but that's not the case.

When you start suggesting that teacher's need to censor themselves so as not to offend a parent's sensibilities is when you start to see what we do see now: a limit on the types of books teachers can teach from, the altering of texts in standardized tests because someone finds the use of the word "black" or "asian" offensive because the character isn't the hero, the horrid lack of history taught in schools because history is always subjective.

I just know that the best teachers I ever had challenged me to think, made me angry, made me want to talk about something. My parents may have hated my challenging them to think but the controversial teachers are the ones I learned the most from.

Michele, how does taking a stand against the war equal "throw(ing) their support to a tyrannical dictator who kills his own people, flaunts his disregard for UN resolutions and thinks democracy is coercing his citizens to vote for him"? I know a lot of anti-war people. I have yet to meet a single pro-Saddam person.

Please note that these are College professors in California who voted this way. How else did you expect this vote to go? This is also a big reason why I don't like Unions. If I wanted somebody to look for causes to campaign for and politicians to endorse, I'd willingly join that group. So many shops (education especially) require you to join the Union, or not work. How many teachers actually voted on this Iraq thing? Why do all the rest have to be dragged along?

The really funny thing about this whole anti-war debate is that no one ever considers Iraq as part of the equation. It's all about the U.S. "invading" a sovereign nation, rather than whether that nation deserves being bombed. This isn't Switzerland, this is Iraq. I'm not necessarily saying they dserve to be invaded (and I don't think the President is saying that either), but shouldn't that enter the debate at all?

I just think teachers should stick to teaching the subjects they're supposed to be teaching (reading, writing, math, science) and not use their position of unquestioned authority to push any agenda...

Hrm, can we take this overboard. This is no different than the labor union voicing there opinion. It doesn't mean they do their labor in a prejudiced way or stop doing their labor.

This is a group of people in a specific job saying hey, George is using the war to ignore things and fucking us up the ass in the process.

If this was the senior association of america, or courthouse workers united would it be out of bounds? probably not.

But since these people teach our children their opinions should be kept to them self. Well thats true in a way. they should be kept to themselves IF they are in a class room. But, they have EVERY right to voice their opinion in a political forum as they did.

This country is based on freedom of speach people. I would hope that the people teaching our kids have good enough sence to exercise these rights. I would hope that you would support them in doing so as long as its not being taught or pushed in the classroom.

Hrm, can we take this overboard. This is no different than the labor union voicing there opinion. It doesn't mean they do their labor in a prejudiced way or stop doing their labor.

This is a group of people in a specific job saying hey, George is using the war to ignore things and fucking us up the ass in the process.

If this was the senior association of america, or courthouse workers united would it be out of bounds? probably not.

But since these people teach our children their opinions should be kept to them self. Well thats true in a way. they should be kept to themselves IF they are in a class room. But, they have EVERY right to voice their opinion in a political forum as they did.

This country is based on freedom of speach people. I would hope that the people teaching our kids have good enough sence to exercise these rights. I would hope that you would support them in doing so as long as its not being taught or pushed in the classroom.