Be Nice to Teachers

I recently attended a conference sponsored by NEA at which the keynote speaker was University of Oregon professor Dr. Yong Zhao. He talked about how American politicians are not happy unless the U.S. is in first place, and they compare the U.S. (in an unhealthy manner that we urge children not to use) to any other country who IS in first place, regardless of context. As part of his amazingly compelling speech, he made a joke about how teachers caused the Wall Street crash and the mortgage crisis and the latest political scandals and global warming and the bird flu epidemic. There was a room-wide laugh, followed by a weird sort of collective sigh as each teacher at the conference realized that there truly are people out there who hate public educators. Meanwhile, I spend my weekends grading papers and scoring essays and taking classes to make sure I’m good at helping kids learn... *sigh*

On the bright side, Dr. Zhao also talked about creativity as the element of American education that is lacking in many other countries. He showed data from the U.S. Patent Office that was fascinating. Apparently, the U.S. issues more patents per year than all of Asia combined. Now, I certainly have no need for us to be in first place, so I'm going to brag on another country right now and say that I don’t think the Chinese need to worry. In our study of China in 7th grade social studies, we learned that the Chinese were the most inventive of the medieval people, responsible for everything from fireworks to playing cards to sliced bread. (Okay, I made that last one up.)

With politics invading public education all over the country, it can be depressing to work in schools these days. To show your support of public education, please wear RED on Tuesdays.