Peter Greene says that Bill Bennett’s blast against teachers’ strikes boils down to this: Teachers, Know Your Place!
https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2018/05/bill-benett-teachers-know-your-place.html
Bennett and his co-author complained that teachers were hurting the children, and worse, using their perivileged role for “financial gain.” Oh my, they said, as they clutched their pearls!
Greene responded:
“Yes, it’s the old Think of the Children argument, which plays better than the real argument here, which is that teachers should know their roles and shut their holes. This paragraph also captures the belief in really low expectations for school (just teach ’em readin’ and ‘rithmetic). And the special hypocrisy of charter fans arguing that schools should not use children as a way to make money.
“But see– only such confusion would “drive mass school closures and disruptions right in the midst of a critical time in a school year.” One wonders when a better, unimportant time in the school year might come; one also enjoys the irony of choice fans decrying “disruption,” which is usually one of their favorite things. I thought disruption was supposed to be a good way to break moribund institutions out of their terrible rut.”
Peter Greene really takes the Bennett piece apart and shreds it.
Here is a small sample. I suggest you open the link and read it in its entirety.
“First, abrupt school closures interrupt and damage student progress. “Teaching time does matter, and we should be very reluctant to interrupt it.” Boy, that line makes great reading as I sit here in the middle of Pennsylvania’s two-week testing window, during which my classes are suspended and interrupted so that we can give the BS Test. I might also direct Bennett to the problem of charters that close without warning during the year.
“Bennett and Flak try to hit a quotable line here: “When coal miners strike they lay down their equipment. When teachers strike, they lay down their students’ minds.” So, in this analogy, my students have pickaxes for brains? My students are my tools? No, this is not a winner.
“Second, the old “if you want to be treated like a professional, act like it.” Which is a crappy argument, because you know what professionals do? They set a fee for their services, and if you want to hire them, you pay it. My plumber and my mechanic and my doctor and my lawyer do not charge me based on what I feel like paying them– they set their fees, and if I want my pipes fixed, I fork over the money.
“Bennett will add the old “teachers get summers off” argument for good measure. Fine. If you think we should have year-round school, do that. But don’t diss me and my professional brethren because you’re too cheap to pay for a full year’s worth of services. Yes, teachers can use the summer to “pursue their financial goals or other endeavors,” and I’m not sure what your point is. If you want more money, go get a job at the Tastee-Freeze?
“And also (this second point turns out to be several points that seem to add up to “teachers are a bunch of lazy unprofessional money-grubbers anyway”) Bennett wants to play blunt straight-shooter, saying “let’s be honest” and admit these strikes have been about “pursuing financial ends.” Which is unprofessional and unseemly.
“There is a time, place and manner for these fiscal discussion. Strikes during the school year are not it.
“Oh, bullshit. The teachers of Arizona and West Virginia and Oklahoma and Kentucky and Colorado and North Carolina have had all the discussions so very many times in a wide variety of places in every imaginable manner, and for their trouble they have gotten bupkus. Worse than bupkus– they’ve gotten disrespect and abuse and in the meantime they’ve gone back to their moldy classrooms to do their professional best to work in a crumbling environment without enough resources. Bennett doesn’t list the times and places and manners that would be more appropriate because he knows damn well whatever circumstances he describes, those teachers have already tried.
“Third, Bennett argues that some of these strikes have been about misdirected anger or invalid complaints, but teachers just want to “maneuver a sweeter deal.” Yes, those damn scam artists, striking on a lark just to make a buck.
“I give Bennett credit for just one thing– usually when folks start flinging these arguments around they try to cushion them by saying that teachers by themselves are just swell– it’s those damned unions. But no– Bennett and Flak go straight for the classroom teacher jugular.”
You started the quote with the line that caught my eye: “. . . which is that teachers should know their roles and shut their holes.”
The concept, well stated by Peter, has a nice “Daddy Knows Best” attitude, eh!
“Call Me Daddy….”
Those scamming, lazy teachers. How dare they ask for money & better working conditions. Maybe Bennett thinks teachers should make extra money the same way he does- become a high stakes gambler.
“The Washington Monthly said on its Web site that ”over the last decade Bennett has made dozens of trips to casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, where he is a ‘preferred customer’ at several of them, and sources and documents provided to The Washington Monthly put his total losses at more than $8 million.”
In an article that depends on much the same reporting, the online version of Newsweek said that 40 pages of internal casino documents show that Mr. Bennett received treatment typical of high-stakes gamblers, including limousines and ”tens of thousands of dollars in complimentary hotel rooms and other amenities.”
Mr. Bennett, who has served Republican presidents as education secretary and drug czar, declined to be interviewed today by The New York Times, with a spokesman saying that he needed to digest the articles before responding.”
I find William Bennett one of the more disgusting people on this planet. Who is someone who can waste $8 million and not feel the pain complain about teachers wanting enough money to survive, and wanting materials and schools that aren’t falling apart.
I can see why he ‘inclined to be interviewed today by the New York Times”. He is a disgrace but fits in just fine with Tumpet and DeVos.
He’s so stupid and arrogant.
Opps. he ‘declined to be interviewed today by the New York Times”.
“They set a fee for their services, and if you want to hire them, you pay it. ”
Y ou might also add that these professional fees are set by professional organizations so that small time undercutting of fees is about nonexistent. Try getting a tooth pulled for five bucks this day in time.
THEY wanted teachers to stop bargaining for their pay and conditions. They are got it and now are unhappy that the only way teachers can bargain is by having their voices heard collectively by walking out across the state.
“If you think we should have year-round school, do that. ”
I do not think so. Instead, give those two summer months for everybody. The country can afford it, and we all need it to remind ourselves that “pursue of happiness” is not about working, and we all need recharging, learn new things.
Let’s not forget, technological advances were developed to free us from doing repetitive, boring work, hence give us more free time to pursue happiness, and not to automate money rolling into the 1%’s bank accounts.
Let’s not give any slack to the 1% and their creepy servants, because they will not miss any opportunity to make us devote more of our lives to work for them.
Estoy de acuerdo totalmente. Bien dicho.
Let us NOT give in to summer school.
Pediatrician Greg Plemmons’ study published in the journal Pediatrics finds that more than twice the number of school-age children are being hospitalized for suicide attempts or thoughts, compared to a decade ago. The heaviest periods, he finds, are during the school year.
http://nashvillepublicradio.org/post/vanderbilt-study-teen-suicides-advises-extra-caution-when-summer-break-ends#stream/0
The late Gerald Bracey had lots to say about Bill Bennett, besides the fact that he’s dishonest, a blowhard, a braggart, and often – though he says he’s a “smart” man – utterly clueless.
From Bracey, nearly two decades ago:
“If Bennett were a former secretary of defense rather than a former secretary of education, and had disparaged the military the way he has deprecated public schools, he would have been charged with treason and summarily shot. As it is, the author of The Book of Virtues has now arranged his own sense of virtues in a strange priority order.”
“In March, 2000, Bennett addressed a Heritage Foundation audience on the 25th anniversary of Heritage’s existence. Speaking on ‘The State, and Future, of American Education,’ he could well have won the Most Cliches in the Shortest Time award, but one statement stands out above his hackneyed and often erroneous banalities. Turning to standards and testing, Bennett said, ‘In this regard, I must say I am alarmed and worried about the reaction of many parents to the new standards movement; many are retreating. A recent survey showed that when parents are choosing a school for their child high test scores are one of the least important factors in their decision. The most important factor in their decision: the child’s happiness…Armed with public opinion, we can wear down the unions. But if the parents go soft, we are done.’ ”
“Imagine that, parents valuing happiness over high test scores. How dare they!”
Yeah, And how dare they impinge on Bennett’s efforts to make money off of public education.
Thanks, democracy. What a reading Bracey is! http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1244
And thanks for the links, Máté!
More links to Bracey’s writings https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/gerald-bracey
Good one democracy! Thanks.
“Yeah, And how dare they impinge on Bennett’s efforts to make money off of public education.”
Gotta satisfy that gambler’s itch somehow. Calamine doesn’t work on it.