|
|
|
Jewish World Review Oct. 25, 2010/ 17 Mar-Cheshvan, 5771 Shock, but more importantly, action: De-Unionize Public Schools now By Arnold Ahlert
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
When I was in my early twenties, I worked for an organization called Reading Volunteers of America. Their mission was to reach out to high school drop-outs and other folks who couldn't read. I bring this up because the national tragedy known as public school education reminds me of some the historical reports regarding the Holocaust: people "sort of knew" what was going on, but it took years to understand the horrific scope of a Nazi movement which consumed the lives of six million Jews. No doubt comparing our public school system to the Holocaust will shock some people. I sincerely hope it does.
Since I was young and cocky, I asked RVA to send me some of their tougher cases. Whether they actually obliged me, I can't say. What I can say is they sent me two black youths in their early twenties. Both were shy, polite and seemingly determined to address their reading deficiencies. Both kids were high school drop-outs--but both had stayed in school until they reached the tenth grade before doing so.
How deficient were these boys? Totally, unambiguously, shockingly deficient. Where was I forced to begin their re-education?
With the alphabet.
That's right. Neither of these kids knew their ABCs, despite sitting in classrooms until they were fifteen years old. Nor did either of them have the slightest clue about money. They couldn't distinguish the difference between a one dollar bill or a ten dollar bill. "How do you know you're not getting ripped off when you go shopping?" I asked one. "I bring my girlfriend with me," he replied.
Although all of us lived in Brooklyn at the time, one of them held a job cleaning the floors of office buildings in Manhattan at night. Since he was totally illiterate, I asked him how he knew which stop to get off the subway. "When the train goes through the tunnel (the subway train runs underneath the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan) my ears pop," he said. "After my ears pop, I count three stops and get off." I needled him: "If you ever get a head cold, you might be on that train 'til the end of the line."
Like I said, these were good kids. Good enough to realize that illiteracy was a permanent game-changer in their lives and they had to do something about it. Yet the one thing I was least successful in getting them to do was show up. And I made it clear in no uncertain terms that I was not a father figure, or any other entity interested in "punishing" them for their truancy. "I don't care if you call me and say 'I can't make it today, Mr. Ahlert, because I'm shooting smack on a street corner,' just call me and let me know you're not showing up, soI don't show up and waste my time."
I was working as a clerk in a neighborhood liquor store at the time. In Brooklyn, that means you eventually get to know just about everyone in the neighborhood. Taking advantage of that, I took both boys to the local hardware store to see if I could get them local jobs. I introduced both of them to the store owner. Both of them stared straight at the floor, never looking up once. The owner handed one of the boys a tape measure and asked him to measure 32 inches on a piece of wood. The kid looked at the tape measure, looked at me, handed it back to the owner and walked out the door. When we were alone outside, I found out why:
He didn't know what an inch was.
Last week, the United Federation of Teachers went to court to block a Freedom of Information request by the NY Post. The union is attempting to prevent the release of ratings they have given to the 12,000 teachers who work in the city's public school system. UFT President Michael Mulgrew:
"The United Federation of Teachers today announced it would seek an injunction in the New York State Supreme Court to prevent the city's Department of Education from publicizing Teacher Data Reports, which are based on student scores on state tests. The union said the Reports, in addition to relying on tests the state itself has disavowed, are characterized by missing and erroneous information, and rely on a methodology which national experts consider unproven."
Translation: we will not be held unaccountable to parents or their children--period.
Mulgrew followed up that statement with this gem: releasing the grades, he offered, would allow for "misuse by untrained members of the public."
Translation number two: parents are too stupid to understand the ratings.
According the the Post, taxpayers have spent $21 billion on city schools in the past year. For that they've gotten a 54% passing rate of third through eight graders on state math tests--and 42% on reading tests. In other words, they're in the process of turning out more and more kids exactly like the two I dealt with more than thirty years ago.
That, my fellow Americans, is an educational Holocaust.
And it is a Holocaust for which there is only one genuine remedy: de-unionization. It's long past time to bust up these arrogant, unaccountable monopolies and the unconscionable policies which accompany them. It is time to free America's children from the educational ghettos which have virtually institutionalized the "soft bigotry of low expectations." It is time to end the odious policy of tenure, and a seniority system based on nothing more than time served, rather than quality of service.
It is also time to remember that this contemptuous system would be impossible to maintain were it not for the unholy alliance between these unions and their protectors in the Democrat party. Once again: for the past eleven years, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have forked over $56 million dollars in campaign donations almost exclusively--as in 90% and 98%, respectively--to the Democrat party.
And it's about time those donations were characterized for what they truly are: protection money.
In every major category, but especially in math and science, American students have become an international embarrassment. As I said in a previous column, China turns out more English-speaking engineers than America does. And as I'm asking right now, how many more kids like the two I worked with--kids who managed to learn absolutely nothing, even as they were shuffled from grade to grade--will be churned through a system that has become utterly corrupt?
Teachers are white-collar, four-year college graduates. If such people cannot function without union protection, something is seriously wrong. If Americans don't snap out of their torpor and demand an end to this nonsense, we've got nowhere to go but down.
And teachers, save yourself some trouble: don't send me letters blaming everyone else, offering the same tired excuses about needing protection from principals, lousy parents, and why you can't function like every other American forced to perform his or her job or face the possibility of getting fired. I've heard 'em all, and they're not flying. For example, not once have I heard teachers demand the expulsion of unruly students, proper dress codes or better school security as a make-or-break part of their contract negotiations. Why not? A union going to court to prevent its teachers from held publicly accountable has no qualms about resorting to hardball tactics when it suits their interests. Why aren't safe, orderly schools at the top of the list?
I'm old enough to remember when the American public school system was the envy of the world. I'm also old enough to remember the constant contract negotiations in which common sense has been incrementally replaced with unionist self-interest and unaccountability.
I have no idea what happened to the two boys I attempted to help all those years ago. A year after they both gave up, I got a phone call from one asking if we could get started again. I tried calling him back several times, but never got an answer. I hope either or both of them learned to read--but I wouldn't bet on it. It is worth remembering that these were boys who made the effort to undo the neglect to which they were subjected.
How many thousands of others never bother?
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on JWR Contributor Arnold Ahlert's column, by clicking here.
© 2010, Arnold Ahlert |
Columnists
Toons
Lifestyles | |||||||||||||
