A Day Without Teachers?

Recently immigrants nation wide united for a Day Without Immigrants. Some local businesses actually had to close their doors because the majority of their employees participated in this walk out. ( I won’t go into how it is our own desire for inexpensive products, cheap labor and high dividends that fuel this immigration epidemic, that is for another time.) However, the tactic apparently worked surprisingly well. Law makers including, President Bush, are trying to find ways to continue to supply cheap labor and provide a form of amnesty for the illegals that are already here.

My proposal is for the teachers of Oklahoma to mount a similar campaign. How does a Day Without Teachers sound? What do you think is more cost effective for a parent; sending a child to public school for nine and a half months or sending that same child to daycare for nine and a half months? Possibly a Week Without Teachers would be more effective? Unfortunately, we live in a short-sighted society that is addicted to immediate gratification. The principles that made us a great nation are not being eroded by time as many claim, we are simply giving them away willingly in an effort to save a buck. But then, what do you expect from a state that actually voted in a lottery under the guise of funding education.

The lottery is game of chance, whereby for a small investment one has the chance at great reward. It would appear that Oklahomans have the same attitude towards the education of their students and the salaries of their teachers, hoping to beat the odds and turn a small investment into an exponentially greater return.

I fear another migration epidemic more than the one that has monopolized the news recently, that is the migration of Oklahoma’s highly qualified, under-compensated teachers to any of the adjacent states. Any direction they travel, they will be rewarded with higher salaries. No matter how many immigrant teachers from Oklahoma these states receive, I don’t think they will ask for quotas.

Who ever you pray to, you should be thankful that the majority of Oklahoma teachers are an altruistic lot who feel called to and are committed to their profession.

As always, thanks for listening, R T

PAP

Parents Afraid to Parent or PAP is a new support group forming for the growing number of self-absorbed, egocentric parents who find their children out of control. The goal of PAP is to lessen the amount of guilt and increase the amount denial they feel about their role in their children’s lives.

PAP’s membership is growing exponentially. They are easy to recognize, just look around. That parent ignoring their 5-year old running up and down the isle of the store. Or that parent dropping off their 12-year old at the movies to “hook-up’ with their boy or girl friends because it is a convenient form of babysitting. Or that parent allowing their 15-year old to stay out all night because, they can’t control them. All card carrying members of PAP.

PAP members don’t all neglect and ignore their child for their own selfish convenience, some are just misguided over-indulgers. These are the parents of children with no apparent value systems: monetary, ethical or otherwise. They have been given so much with nothing or little expected in return, it has developed into a sense of entitlement. This sense of entitlement is extremely pervasive and has crept into every aspect of these children’s lives.

PAP members firmly believe that due to the small amount of time they actually spend with their children, it would be illogical to hold them accountable. PAP’s line of reasoning leads to the realization that blame should be placed on whom the children spend the majority of their waking hours with, their teachers. Teachers should be responsible not only for the academic awakening and enlightenment of their students, but also for their character and moral development.

The Parents Afraid to Parent Students Marginalized Emotionally and Academically Revolution or PAP SMEAR is a movement trying to limit the damage teachers are causing their children. The revolution has two fronts. The most damaging one is in the home, implemented by belittling the value of an education and the validity of the teacher. The other attack is on the legislative front deployed by lobbying for ineffective, unsound educational mandates and letting people with little or no educational training or background draft education “reform”.

Whether your view of PAP SMEAR is positive or negative please remember the words of Uncle Milton R. Sapirstein: “Education, like neurosis, begins at home”.

Thanks for listening, R T