Teachers Dirty Looks - Strange Ducks #9
A look back at a few outstanding miseducators from my past.
As the close of another school year fast approaches, it would behoove us to think about the Department of Education. This department was signed into law in 1979 by President Carter. Counter to what the Republicans would have you believe, since the DOE’s creation it had transformed education in the country for the better.
Which may explain why the Republicans have been trying to kill it ever since its inception. No matter how positive its effects were on improving education in this country they tried to repeatedly ruin it. One can only surmise from these attempts, that Republicans prefer to keep their voters as ignorant as possible while also destroying Teacher’s unions.
Now that Trump and his ignominious Republicans have finally succeeded in their goal to destroy the DOE, I thought it would be useful to remind people about the consequences of poor educational standards.
One way to demonstrate this is by looking at the past, or more specifically, my past, and to the kind of teachers I had when growing up in the 1960s and 1970s—before there were educational improvements implemented by the DOE.
Pretty frightening, eh?
Don’t let this sampling of weirdos mislead you. In my various schools there were also great teachers. Theses were folks who worked hard to motivate kids. They instilled a sense of pride in getting a diploma and pursuing a higher education. To those rare educators at that time, I will be forever grateful.
Unfortunately, it’s the oddballs and the horrible teachers that make for better humor.
But when our country makes the decision to return to the days where these screwball aberrations are the norm in the halls of education, we should be damn concerned.
I’ll leave you with this:
"Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army."
– Edward Everett
Ciao,
Ed
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IMHO, the DOE's problem was promoting the top heavy administrative order of school districts. Of course, making public school equally efficient and standardized in their curricula seems to be impossible. I would think (and perhaps it's just me) that PUBLIC schools would all hold to a standard of excellence measured across the country in every community. Local cultural aspects can be taught and practiced outside the school room (church, sports teams, community picnics/event, parental/family dynamics and histories) What we've got since the one-room schoolhouse was abandoned for the PUBLIC school is a mishmash according to how much money buys what quality of teacher, bossed around by whatever bat-sh*t-crazy school board/PTA is available. Maybe getting rid of the present DOE and starting all over again will help ... maybe. Personally, I vote for homeschool. Rough-and-tumble, nuts and bolts, parental input, non-schooling John Holt homeschools. FIE! Let the chaos begin.
Excellent! My high school had a few similar oddities. The most memorable was the Civics teacher who was an ex-boxer with a cauliflower ear and (presumably) a TBI. The boys caught on early that if they asked him a question about boxing, the rest of the class would be devoted to his reminiscences, so we could all zone out