Sunday, February 27, 2011

Very Bad Examples for Public School Children


The difference between school and life? In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.
~Tom Bodett

I usually do not comment about current events in my sanctuary, because when I come here my world is a smaller, more peaceful place. My sanctuary is a place for those who are very close to me (or becoming so) and my Lord. I write about things that are just interesting to me or that are in my heart, but every now and then things from the outside come in with me, things I cannot leave behind and that I would talk over with my Lord, things that trouble me greatly, and I have many such things on my heart of late.

One of those things is how elected representatives in other states have shamefully abandoned their posts to undermine the voting process in their states because their opposition, voted in greater numbers in the last election, will win. I am not loyal to a party, but to an idealism that our Constitution was meant to restrain government, however even if my favored state representative did this I would be equally displeased... actually, more so.

But, that is not the worse of it....

Teachers of a union in Wisconsin, who have agreements that they will not strike, have abandoned their jobs feigning sickness while they openly protest at the state capitol. Some schools have had to close completely and a few doctors even came to the protest to write them fake sick notes! These are the people who are teaching children! How can they report a child as truant when they are showing them just how to play hooky and they get by doing it too?

All this, they say, because a bill will pass into law that will do away with collective bargaining, basically weakening the power of the teachers' union. Is there anyone collectively bargaining for the children they are suppose to be teaching? Hmmm.

I suppose they do not see that they just armed their students with permission to stage a major walk out of their classes and I believe if they do that the parents should stand up for them all if even one teacher dare to write them up! Did they think this chaos they chose to encourage would not infiltrate their classrooms too?

I have mentioned a few times on my blog how easy it is for me to see hypocrisy and this is it...with so many so angles in glaring arrogance that I cannot believe the blatant ignorance of it all! These teachers have collectively agreed not to even honor a no-strike agreement that they made...collectively! Basically, their "collective" is just mob rule and their mob decides what is the rule at the time?

It is laughable to me now that I used to drive a school bus and I got very upset with some other bus drivers because of how they drive. Give 35 feet of vehicle packed with children and some drivers act as if they own the road—pity the driver of a car who would dare hit a school bus loaded with children! I have seen buses blow through stop signs, not just a one-time mistake, but daily while carrying future drivers. (Even bus drivers are teachers of young minds...think about it!)

That is nothing compared to this mass debacle! If these teachers were students, the police could round them up and take them to school where they are supposed to be, however compulsory attendance laws are only for students. Personally, I would not want any one of those teachers teaching any children, especially not mine. I am not even going to explore the fact that only one third of Wisconsin 8th grade students can read or that Wisconsin teachers are well-paid collectively. (Apparently so is their union...?)

I am so thankful I homeschool, so that my child can never be used as a pawn in the political wars between teachers' unions and government or government and taxpayers. My sanctuary is not in placing my daughter hostage in a government-run institution at the hands of union employees, who constantly complain about why children do not do well in school is because of the parents—parents whose taxes pay their salaries so they can pay union dues, of which part will be used to fund political campaigns for pro-union representatives with whose politics I strongly disagree! (Taking a breath....)

Home education for my child is apart from the world but still in it, part of my peaceful sanctuary, a place to honor my Lord, a place where learning is a natural progression of life, encouraged and enjoyed.

~ My Lord, thank you so very much that I can educate my daughter a home. It seems that that world is coming apart at the seams politically and even financially, but I have placed my trust in You. Thank you for the peace You have given me. ~