When Trump Met with the Teachers of the Year

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1. Teacher111 says:

   April 30, 2017 at 3:13 pm

   Unfortunately, it looks like this article is behind a paywall.

   Reply
2. Della says:

   April 30, 2017 at 3:46 pm

   And who is surprised?

   Reply
3. Jack says:

   April 30, 2017 at 3:46 pm

   “A parent of one of the (Teachers of the Year) said in an email:

   “ ‘There was no planning, no care, no water in the hot rooms, and no respect for the families…. One state coordinator who had been working on her job since 1999 said it was a disgrace and the most terrible thing she had witnessed.’ ”

   Here’s more of the article in question:

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   VALERIE STRAUSS of Washington Post:

   “It’s a time-honored tradition: U.S. presidents, every year, take some time to meet the 2017 state Teachers of the Year and single out the national winner. But things went a little differently Wednesday when President Trump welcomed this year’s winners to the White House.

   “Usually, the National Teacher of the Year speaks. This year, that didn’t happen.

   “Usually, the president spends some time talking with the teachers, giving many of them individual attention. That barely happened Wednesday, according to several participants who agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity because they said they fear Trump addressing them on Twitter or press secretary Sean Spicer bringing them up at a daily briefing.

   “Usually family members join the winners to meet the president. This time few were allowed — and relatives of the teachers, some who had traveled at their own expense for many hours to attend, were left to wait in a building near the White House, with, as one said, ‘no water in the hot rooms.’

   …

   “Meanwhile, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next door to the White House, were family members of the teachers, most of whom were not allowed into the ceremony, participants said. Chaffee’s husband and young daughter were kept waiting in a hallway before being allowed to enter the Oval Office, according to participants.

   “A state school superintendent had flown to Washington to support the winner of his state, but he wasn’t allowed in either.

   “DeVos met with the family members, some of whom were upset, for pictures, according to several participants.

   “A parent of one of the teachers said in an email:

   “ ‘There was no planning, no care, no water in the hot rooms, and no respect for the families…. One state coordinator who had been working on her job since 1999 said it was a disgrace and the most terrible thing \she had witnessed.’

   “The event was obviously different from those put on in recent years by other presidents.

   “Last year, President Barack Obama hosted a ceremony for the 2016 Teacher of the Year, Jahana Hayes from Waterbury, Conn., in the historic East Room of the White House. Pop-music artist Nate Ruess sang some songs; Hayes stood at the podium with Obama and was tasked with introducing him to the crowd; the president then gave a speech praising the teachers and calling for more federal funding for public education.

   “Obama then listened to Hayes, a veteran high school history teacher at a high-poverty school, give a speech. She described how her experience as a teen mom who grew up in the projects surrounded by poverty, drugs and violence fueled her passion for teaching.

   PHOTO:
   [Obama honors teachers at the White House]

   “Obama had significant ceremonies for the Teachers of the Years during his tenure, and Vice-President Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, sometimes hosted the teachers in their residence before the White House event.

   “President George W. Bush spent time with the winning teachers too. In 2004, for example, he hosted the Teachers of the Year at a seated ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, where first lady Laura Bush spoke first and then the president gave a speech, noting:

   ” ‘Every President since Harry Truman has presented this award — Teacher of the Year Award. And there’s a good reason for that. When you’re in the company of some of the nation’s finest citizens, our greatest teachers, you’re in the company of people who give their hearts and their careers to improving the lives of children. You’re in the company of the best of our country.’

   “Bush recognized Teacher of the Year Kathy Mellor from Rhode Island, who then spoke while the two Bushes and the rest of the crowd listened.

   “This year, Trump angered many teachers by proposing a 14 percent budget cut to the Education Department. Many also are skeptical of his education secretary, DeVos, a longtime advocate of private school vouchers. During his inaugural address in January, Trump characterized public education as a ‘system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge.’

   “This system, he said, was part of an ‘American carnage’ that he pledged to stop.”

   Reply
4. marynwill says:

   April 30, 2017 at 4:14 pm

   What other professionals would anyone ask to sing Happy Birthday to his wife. I wish they had all walked out or just never gone in.

   Reply
5. retired teacher says:

   April 30, 2017 at 4:15 pm

   As far as Trump is concerned, teachers are a prop for his photo op. He is not concerned with their accomplishments or their stories. Earlier, Trump did the same thing with a group of black leaders who were posed around the “sun king” in order to present an image of caring about social justice. Trump is more interested in appearances than substance. As we know, actions count more than words. We clearly know where he stands.

   Reply
6. Jennifer says:

   April 30, 2017 at 5:19 pm

   45 has shown nothing but disdain for former presidents and the rituals and celebrations of the White House. I’m sure if he even knew what former presidents planned for this ceremony, he would reject it and do it his way as he always does. Crowding those teachers in around him while he sat on his throne, not even bothering to stand for a minute, was disrespectful. If you’re honoring people, there are ways to show it. Sitting on your ass babbling a few words about them just doesn’t cut it in my opinion.

   Reply
7. Judith Conte says:

   April 30, 2017 at 6:14 pm

   Did they all fall passive? Sometimes teachers are not bellicose enough. This would have been the perfect time to engage him, respectfully, in discourse regarding his agenda for educating ALL American children.

   Reply
8. Joe Prichard says:

   April 30, 2017 at 7:34 pm

   One more clue…..democrats should make public education the centerpiece of what the party stands for…..and it will mean talking about and confronting the negative effect perpetrated by charter schools. Start making lists of who is aware……and who is not. No other issue is as important.

   Reply
   • retired teacher says:

     May 1, 2017 at 8:19 am

     I agree, but the Democrats have not learned their lesson. The neoliberals are still running the party, and many of them are still free market fools. Maybe if they see Kucinich take Ohio they will get the message?

     Reply
   • Joel Herman (@jwherman11) says:

     May 1, 2017 at 10:57 am

     I have to disagree, education has several functions. First should be creating a critically thinking member of a vibrant democratic society.,that is no longer the case.
     Another would be training future workers in that society .

     Democrats have for many years focused on the second as if the worker drones were adequately trained , they would be able to create an economy that employed them . When not dedicated to segregation and destroying unions the reform movement has had this as their goal. Straight out of the Business Roundtable push for a common core standard in the late eighties. Charters an outgrowth of this vision of education . Vouchers the embodiment of the segregationist movement. .
     Thus we now have college graduates drowning in debt living in mama’s attic, well into their thirties ,competing with HS drop outs for a job at Walmart. Perhaps a bit of an exaggeration ,but you get my point .
     The economy we create is the determinant . Economics is simply defined as “who gets what” . Part of that equation is education. Education is not the determining factor . So I will just throw this out there . Let us say we had real tax reform the blue print of which would be returning the country to 1980 prior to Reagan , regulatory reform that also reined in Wall Street, again reversing the neo-liberal policies of the Reagan era. Policy that we have lived with since 1981, regardless of whether Republicans or Democrats were in office . Finance should be a means to an end, not an end in itself , finance is a tax on growth .

     Raising taxes back to 70% , Cutting Wall Street back from a 20% tax on society to the 10% it represented prior to Reagan. Would do a hell of a lot more for children ,teachers, education and the middle class, than trying to create a better worker drone .
     The problem is income inequality education is not the cause nor is it the solution. Except if it returns to what I said should be its first function which it can not do on its own.

     Reply
9. Will Dix says:

   May 1, 2017 at 11:06 am

   Although we can’t assume what the political leanings of every teacher are, and while being invited to the White House and honored as a teacher of the year is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, I wonder if more people in situations like this should turn down invitations when they’re really just ways for the president to burnish himself and his family. How can teachers be seen with him when he plans to decimate the education budget and his hired goon, DeVos, is hostile to public education? It might be a small kind of resistance, but it’s something…

   Reply
   • dianeravitch says:

     May 1, 2017 at 12:26 pm

     I wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to visit the Oval Office but I would come prepared with a statement of protest, allied with others in the group, about the impact of budget cuts on children, whom Trump says he cares about. He and DeVos should have heard this from the teachers of the year.

     Reply
10. Reading Diva says:

    May 1, 2017 at 11:33 am

    Trump characterized public education as a “system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge.” This system, he said, was part of an “American carnage” that he pledged to stop.
    I can’t believe he would even say that! Wait, yes I can. As someone who is completely unprepared and unqualified for the office of president, it shouldn’t come as a surprise. He has probably never even been in a public school! He is making a mockery of the presidency and so is DeVos, Trump is only for now though!

    Reply
11. Robert Phillips says:

    May 1, 2017 at 9:14 pm

    What a jackass!!!!

    Reply