Public School Professionals
by Groff Schroeder
Quick! What is the product of seven times eight?
What is the square root of forty-nine? Who delivered the Gettysburg
Address? Where is Mount Everest? How do you spell blueberries? What
equation defines the area of a circle? What is an adjective - a noun?
Who was the third President of the United States? What is the capital
of Oregon - of France? The list is endless. |
Chances are you know the answers to these questions
and countless others because of public education and professional
educators. For most Americans, property taxes paid by the People of
your state provided you with free educational services for 13 long
years (longer in California). Story problems, the once-dreaded nemesis
now comprising virtually every calculation in the real world of adulthood,
were probably first solved by your developing brain in the public
schools, courtesy of one of America's dedicated public school teachers.
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Chronically underpaid (a few years ago starting garbage
collectors in New York City were paid about the same as starting public
school professionals), often maligned and even hated, public school
teachers, administrators and staff provide a safe haven and rich educational
experiences for millions of American schoolchildren every day. Like
physicians and lawyers, public school teachers are true professionals,
holding both bachelors and graduate degrees, passing an examination
for certification, facing penalties for ethical misconduct and participating
in continuing education. Many complete specialized educational curricula,
and most spend their own money supplying their classrooms and students
in an environment of chronically sheared budgets. Public schools provide
the best meal of the day to many children. |
Well fed and independently funded, powerful federal
politicians openly disregard Constitutional restrictions and federal
law, punishing mediocre performance in the public schools with counterproductive
testing requirements and other unfunded mandates. Expecting the highway
department to improve highways by cutting funding for repairs and
improvements would be laughable to them, but somehow they think this
will work (as opposed to investing in infrastructure, personnel and
new technologies) with troubled local public schools. Repeated local
attempts at emulating international educational successes with extended
school days or years usually ignites great opposition and resentment,
often from the very people whose children would benefit most from
longer school days, extended school years and increased afternoon
supervision. |
For the most part, Americans love their local public
school and their kid's teachers, but somehow appear to dislike public
school teachers in general and public education as a whole. Some complain
about paying taxes to educate other people's children - even though
taxpayers of generations passed funded their education. Others may
oppose aspects of the science curriculum, like the foundation of modern
biology, evolution. While one parent, religious or political group
advocates teaching their religious beliefs in public schools and works
to exclude other beliefs and even possible contradictions, yet another
may prefer the teaching of a different religious doctrine. Often,
a neutral position excluding all systems requiring faith and focusing
instead upon the verifiable, repeatable methods of science founding
modern technological society, pleases neither. |
In the middle, local public schools and professional
educators soldier on, doing the best they can with minimalist budgets
and what they provide for themselves and their students. While some
citizens may dislike public schools and their teachers, without them
America would be a very different place, and we all owe them professional
respect, and a great deal more. |
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Or write to us at:
Freethinkers of Colorado Springs
P.O. Box 62946
Colorado Springs, CO 80962-2946
Phone: 719-594-4506
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