Guest Post by Morbo
School will be back in session soon, which means it’s time to celebrate that unsung hero of American life, the public school teacher.
One of the reasons I like public school teachers so much is that the kook right can’t stand them. I figure teachers must be doing something right to have stirred up so much right-wing wrath.
Get ready for the new school years by savoring these choice comments about public education by prominent leaders of the kook right:
Jerry Falwell: “One day, I hope in the next ten years, I trust that we will have more Christian day schools than there are public schools. I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!” (Falwell wrote this in a book in 1979. He tries to deny it today, but funny, the book has his name all over it.)
D. James Kennedy: “Teachers in many of our public schools have acceded to the policies of the liberal teachers’ unions to make sure that students from kindergarten through high school will be stripped of any sense of moral or ethical absolutes. Right and wrong are non-issues in our public schools.”
Pat Robertson: “It’s time to say we must take back the schools. We’ve got to do something in America and take away the school system from the left-wing labor union and their left-wing cohorts that are destroying the moral fiber of the youth of America.”
Now for a reality check. The Washington Post ran a story recently about teachers preparing to go back into the classroom. It noted that public school teachers routinely spend money from their own pockets for additional supplies. Some spent as much as $1,000. Noted the story:
According to a study last year by the National School Supply and Equipment Association, teachers nationwide spent an average of $458 of their own money on school supplies….”
The Post story included examples of teachers scouring used books stores to stock in-class libraries, recycling old folders and binders and socking away basic supplies such as crayons, notebooks and scissors because some children come from poor homes and arrive at school empty-handed. That’s what these amoral, unethical creeps who have no grasp of right and wrong do.
I’m sure there is some stupid right-winger out there who would argue that this type of behavior by teachers really does destroy the morals of our children. After all, giving kids free supplies only reinforces the “welfare state” mentality of something for nothing.
I take a different view. I believe many teachers are heroes, especially those who teach in our public schools. The teachers I know work long hours during the school year, often for mediocre pay. Some have to put up with a lot of flak from clueless parents. Others must deal with the consequences of indifferent or bad parenting.
Ninety percent of American children attend public schools, and polls show most people think well of their local schools (although not the system overall). Years of right-wing bashing of public education has taken a toll — but it hasn’t persuaded most Americans to withdraw support from the system. Even the Southern Baptists, who are so far to the right they make Falwell look like Che Guevara, have voted down resolutions calling on church members to withdraw their children from the public schools.
So, as kids prepare to go back to school, take a minute to reflect on the teachers who made a difference in your life. (This week the Associated Press reported on a new poll that found that 63 percent of Americans say they remember a teacher who changed their lives.) Then do something more than savor those memories. Slip a gift card for Staples, Office Depot, Target or some other store to your favorite teacher. Pick up the tab for some of those much-needed supplies.
