8-27-12 EAGnews.org My comment defending teacher unions here.
[Below is the text of the comment I submitted to the www.EAGnews.org website on Monday, August 27, 2012. The post was never approved, far as I can tell, so did not appear on that site. I am posting it here as my first article pertaining to Education Issues. It is clear to me (by what they say and write) that many Republicans are totally misinformed about teachers, education issues and problems, and how to solve them. I post this as what should be an informative corrective to that trend. Jerry]
This website was mentioned favorably last night on the William Cunningham Show on WJR 760 AM radio at 12:50 am, yesterday, Sunday, August 26, 2012.
With all due respect to Mr. Cunningham, whose program I enjoy regularly, and the creators and writers on this website, your point of view regarding education, education problems, and their solution is uninformed and totally misguided. In other words, you do not know what you are talking about.
I do know what I am talking about. I began teaching in Detroit in 1962 and retired in 2001. I taught English at Cass Technical High School (where I also, at the administration’s request, sponsored the Bible Discussion Club), Southeastern High School, and Denby High School.
Charter schools are NOT the way to go. Vouchers are NOT the way to go. On the program last night, Mr. Cunningham and his guest (from this website) were much in favor of vouchers. Mention was made that local Roman Catholic schools could take on 13,000 students were vouchers made available to parents to send their children there. Now I have no gripe against Roman Catholic schools. But believe me, they are not as well equipped to handle student needs as the public schools are. If the most difficult students were all sent to private, charter, and parochial schools, then those schools would find it most difficult to meet the needs of those children. It is unlikely in the extreme that they could do any better with these students than public schools now do.
When I began teaching in Detroit, the students I was teaching at the Neinas Junior High School (before I was asked to teach at Cass) were three to four years behind grade level in their reading. I taught reading and English to the bottom two ability groups for the seventh grade at Neinas. I created my own program to teach English to my students since they did not have a high enough reading level to read the English books I was provided. I let the lowest group use my self-created instructional program; I did not let the next to the bottom group use it. Near the end of the school year I gave the required standardized reading test, the Stanford Achievement Test in reading. My lowest group improved as a class two years in one semester in reading comprehension. Some individual students advanced enough in their reading achievement such that they were as many years ahead of grade level as they had been behind.
The attitude, attendance, and behavior of that bottom class improved immensely. The eighth grade teacher who inherited my lowest group (and had been dreading having to teach them as eighth graders), came to me and said that my class behaved as well, and did their work as well, as her honors classes. She asked me, “What did you do to them?”
I learned very quickly that if I was not able to reach a student, that student became a dropout, and became a drag on society, unable to contribute. I decided I would do all I could do to help my students so no more of them would face such a nightmare in life.
At each level and school I have taught, my students were successful. My students almost never dropped out of school. I had two classes which were “looped,” which means I kept them for all four years of their high school career. Out of those two classes, of the students who were kept in my class, only one student dropped out, and she stayed in school until the final cardmarking of her senior year. But at that school there were 1000 students who entered the ninth grade, but only about 300 were in the senior class four years later. That equates to about a 70% dropout rate school-wide.
On this website I see much written negatively about teachers unions. I was the school union representative for Southeastern High School and for Denby High School for many years. It was at my suggestion that the Detroit Federation of Teachers obtained in the teacher contract the right to binding arbitration while I was still teaching at Cass. That is an important issue. School Administrations and School Boards do all they can to avoid meeting the requirements of the Teacher Contract. As a school union representative, I never lost a grievance. But I have had to put to shame the gross injustice and immorality of administrators who refuse to follow due process procedures.
My father told me years ago, “The only reason we need unions is because of bad management.” He was absolutely correct then, and his observation holds true today.
Unions are necessary to protect the rights of good teachers against the untrained and poor judgment of school administrators who for whatever reason unjustifiably pick on teachers who are not their favorites.
Those who are against teacher unions and the right to collective bargaining are against the right to due process, and therefore are against genuine justice for both teachers and their students. That is a morally wrong position to take. Among the many themes taught in the Bible, justice is a very major issue, and those who are morally unjust will more than reap what they sow. Surely everyone knows that Jesus taught that we are to do unto others what we would have them do unto us (Matthew 7:12).
If you want to see how to make a significant change in the behavior of a population of students, check out what the Appleton, Wisconsin school district did. This is easily googled. Or see the documentary here.
One commentary summarized the change this way:
From the documentary:
A program quite in keeping with what our LORD desires, see Matthew 25:35ff. And think of the money that Appleton saved. Money that can go to other things such as teacher salaries. A much better way to raise money than to take it by force. Jesus also taught – thou shalt not covet. Luke 12:15 And he said to them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. Covetousness, which is idolatry, Colossians 3:5. Acts 20:33 I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel. Why is it so hard to trust the LORD? Luke 12:28 If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Dear A. Way,
You are very correct to point out how proper nutrition impacts student learning, behavior, and general health.
When my students last ate, and what they ate, indeed made a huge difference in how they behaved in my classroom.
After my first semester of teaching, I made a firm request of my administrators that I did not wish to teach students who were behind academically (as in remedial reading) either after the lunch hour, or after gym class.
As I recall, my administrators back then were very sensible. They granted my request. The students learned better first thing in the morning, and were far better behaved.
Schools like those vending machines, and students go for soft drinks and junk food. I had many high school girls, especially, tell me they never drank water, only pop. Then they would on occasion be absent from school and come back with a doctor’s note indicating the reason for absence was a urinary tract infection.
I fully support improved school nutrition and the elimination of foods with high sugar content.
Teacher union contracts can include support for better nutrition at school and the elimination of vending machines. That makes for better teaching conditions and a more healthy student population.
In Detroit, the vending machines were supposedly used to pay for things that would benefit the school. Sometimes the income from a particular machine was earmarked for a particular school department, like the English department. As an English teacher, I saw very little evidence of money coming into the English department from “our” machine. Yet the machine was reloaded at least once a day. It was clear to me that the income was going elsewhere. Though the Union Contract required that the school principal post an accounting of these special funds monthly, he never did. One of the assistant principals boasted that he had just bought a new Cadillac Escalade. I don’t know anything about cars unless they are a VW or a Honda. But I think the assistant principal must have bought a quite expensive car, and the private boast was it came from the vending machine money. I knew that there was dishonesty going on, and reported it when the State of Michigan Auditor came to our school. But since I knew I would be retiring at the end of that semester, I left the task of pursuing a grievance to the next elected Union Representative who would take my place. My principal was promoted to a position in the Region Office, in charge of teaching new principals how to do their job. Apparently my principal was demoted because it was discovered that there were some financial irregularities discovered by the State Auditor, if I recall correctly, at my school.
Speaking of teaching … I was told if a pastor did not teach/preach expositorially they were not of God or that church is not viable. I understand this is the same as systematic teaching and this is usually out of the Reformed theology cementaries. How many acceptable ways are there to preach or teach the bible according to God verses man’s methods?
Thanks,
Brad Heath
Dear Brad,
Personally, I would prefer to hear expository preaching. It would be fine with me if preaching were eliminated if it were to be replaced by teaching. People need to be taught from the Bible itself. They really ought to be taught how to get more out of their own Bible reading. Part of that could be teaching the people how to study the Bible.
People need to be taught how to discern truth from error. Bishop Horsley was certainly correct to say that the humblest Christian with only a Bible and a source of good cross references could learn all that is needed for salvation and the Christian life or walk. He emphasized that such self-taught Christians would be immune to any false teaching that they encountered thereafter, for they would know what they had learned from the Bible itself did not match the false doctrine proffered to them by others.
Amen! I could not agree more. I praise God for your work. I truely hope Nelson puts the NCRG in ekectronic form so I can use it. I did bless a brother with the NCGR and he now has, as he puts it, had his life in Christ and the bible opened up. We study everyday by phone. Thank you Jerry for your time.
I am using your verse-by-verse study of Romans 15.7 to see if I can see a pattern. It is part 5 so I am sure I am missing very important parts of your method. Is parts 1-4 on the site too?
Thanks so much,
Brad
Fascinating – so much for what is Caesars is Caesars and what is God’s is God’s. It amazes me how the scriptures can be used to twist and turn to accommodate any opinion. The fact is good teachers are good teachers – whether union or not. Perhaps we should give THEM credit, as opposed to the political philosophy or religious scripture. Unions are a socialization of labor, it is based on a political/ economical philosophy of social justice distributed collectively by MAN. Once man is the method for achieving social justice, why have a God? My recommendation – KEEP IT OUT OF CHURCHES, or churches will disappear.
Dear Keith,
Thank you for submitting a comment here! I hope you will read more on this site and feel free to contribute more comments as you wish. I would be interested to learn how you discovered my Real Bible Study website.
It is my experience being a teacher in the public school system of Detroit, Michigan, that union representation is a very necessary thing to preserve the DUE PROCESS RIGHTS of teachers. Administrators quite often fail to follow due process, but are vindictive and adversarial. The teacher union serves to see to it that teachers are treated fairly rather than arbitrarily and unfairly.
I served as the union representative at the schools where I last taught for several years. I, therefore, can speak from personal, direct experience.
Everyone at my school–whether teacher, student, or administrator–knew exactly where I stood, and knew I stood firm on the Bible!
I taught long enough to experience what it was like to teach before the union had gained the right to represent the teachers, before the union gained the right to have binding arbitration (and it was my suggestion that was followed that got that provision into the teacher contract).
Collective bargaining is necessary for teachers. If you have not been a teacher in a large city school system yourself, you cannot speak from first-hand knowledge as I can.
As for the Biblical position it is proper to take, you cannot refute the position from the Bible itself that I have taken or expressed.
Luke 10:7 is a good place to start. Malachi 3:5 is another. Psalm 15:4 is yet another. Luke 10:7 is quoted in 1 Timothy 5:18. School districts and employers generally flagrantly disobey Jeremiah 22:13.
It is also against the Word of God to bear false witness against thy neighbor (or anyone else), as by slandering the teaching profession based on the negative propaganda and hearsay spread by mainstream media against teachers and unions on a regular basis. The claim that unions protect bad teachers is nonsense. The union works very hard to secure professional assistance for teachers who are having trouble. The union provided workshops to help teachers teach better, and provided professional publications to that end. The unions work hard at securing provisions to be sure teachers and students have the supplies and equipment to do what they are there to do. The union worked to be sure teachers had textbooks for their classrooms, for example, on time at the beginning of the school year instead of weeks, even months, or never. The union prevented the administration from overcrowding classrooms with too many students by insisting that class size be limited in accordance with the contract provisions.
It would seem to me that the union was more in line with what the Bible teaches (as Colossians 4:1 and Ephesians 6:9) than the school administration ever was!