Even here where public schools are mostly open, a lot of "in-person" learning is staring at computer screens while supervised by lower-paid teacher's aides. Then they've switched to a 4+1 model where one day per week is all remote. I for one wish that teachers were more committed to their jobs. The salary is quite good.
It would be trivial to make teachers into enthusiastic fans of school reopening. Just cut off the paychecks until they show up. What they want is $ for staying home and not working. That's not sustainable.
I say we stop paying the teachers until they return to school. They've had a year of paid "partial" work/leave. It's time to change up the incentive structure here.
Another travesty is the college students imprisoned in dorm rooms across our country. And the parents paying for that privilege (Zoom University) and especially at the most elite universities (naturally they are the most locked down) for the safety and well being of all. It's fraudulent. It's dangerous. It's so unhealthy. And then there's shaming and snitching on a student just trying to go for a jog alone without a mask. And the silencing of parents who dare to question any of it. Try posting this issue on Grown & Flown or any college parent FB page and watch the attack. And the students are so compliant out of fear - and that concerns me the most.
When I subscribed this morning I had this thought: "If the NYT ever comes to its senses they will rue the day they chased off Bari Weiss." Tonight I learn via Instapundit that the Times is looking for a opinion editor "with a sense of humor and a spine of steel, a confident point of view and an open mind, an appetite for risk and exacting standards for excellence in writing..." O tempora, o mores! And they could have retained a little common sense too!
Am I alone here? Will you all jump on me for saying how I feel? Oh what the hell: have any of you taught maybe preschool in the last 10 months? Interacting with kids, their parents and other faculty? Have you ever tried for months to get vaccinated but you’re only 36 and not a priority and even if you were vaccinated, you have to self quarantine but you have only x amount of sick days left. And even though the rules have been more flexible because you’re mostly teaching face to face, at the end of the day it’s so freaking hard- all for $43,000 a year at a private school- two masters degrees, student loans that will hover forever. All because I love teaching little ones. Please don’t call me mediocre because it hurts so much. Has society lost all heart?
I think this article and the posts are about public school teachers. I pulled my kindergartner out of public school and am hoping for a private school slot (schools are quite selective here).
Doesn't seem to me she's going on pure emotion -- she's talking about the difficulty of implementation of what people are proposing. Being unable to get vaccinated when your job dictates that you should be and then being blamed for not wanting to go to work isn't about emotion. It's about how the f*ck she can get a vaccination. And if that need isn't being addressed, then what we're going on about here is hot air. Science must be followed by tactical implementation. (Said the MS in physics.)
Science tells us there is almost no risk of open schools spreading covid and science also tells us that there is almost zero risk of a young person dying from covid. She is reflecting fear, which is an emotion.
Teachers/union bashers on this thread: you are why America will never have a good education system, because for whatever reason, you don’t believe that tenured teachers are really trying and giving it their all, but from what I can see, it takes incredible credentials, work and passion to be in a classroom with children and attempt to educate them.
I don’t know what gives Joe Public some inherent right to judge the work of teachers from their perch as managers of accounts payable, plumbers or line chefs. Could a random teacher judge YOUR job performance. I didn’t think so. If you’re middle aged, are you better at what you do generally speaking, and deserve to be paid more? Sure you are. Why are teachers different?
I just think this “teachers/teachers Union” nonsense is some reflexive meme conservatives/GOP just trot out because this is some zombie meme false stereotype unsupported by experience that deserves to die but lingers on. But we need to call it out and it needs to stop if we want to attract and keep teachers in our schools and treat them as national treasures instead than a bunch of deadwood and freeloaders.
And as another data point, now that the Postal Service has had a near death experience at the hands of a Trump functionary, I don’t hear so much knee jerk b*tching about the Post Office as there used to be, a conversational prop like the weather. People would love to have next day First Mail delivery again instead of it taking a week.
"but from what I can see, it takes incredible credentials, work and passion to be in a classroom with children and attempt to educate them". You'd be wrong about that. Teaching requires a bachelor's degree. There are many, many fantastic teachers and there are too many lousy ones. When I taught in San Antonio in the barrio in the mid 80s, Ross Perot got some legislation passed that required TABS--Texas Assessment of Basic Skills--a test that all teachers were required to pass regardless of where they taught. It was an 8th grade level test and two of my colleagues failed that test. I have worked alongside some of the most dedicated people but never chose to join a union. That was the beginning of the end for solid teaching. If it required passion, every single teacher would be in a classroom right heeding the science of COVID that it is safe to teach in person as so many are. Funny how you lunge at conservatives when it is the Catholic and other parochial schools who have been in person 100% since last August.
>I don’t know what gives Joe Public some inherent right to judge the work of teachers from their perch as managers of accounts payable, plumbers or line chefs.
Joe Public has kids and even does some home schooling now. Joe sees what a lousy job teachers do because the main focus is on "reducing the achievment gap" and fighting "systemic racism". Who is going to develop new medical cures if high achieving kids are discouraged? Our teachers are a big reason why so many STEM grad students are foreign born.
One thing I might posit is that a lot of people -- myself included -- have had really bad experiences with teachers from our own childhoods. I can tell you stories that would curl your hair of teachers, and every single person I know can do the same. Elementary school teachers unfortunately do not have a lot of goodwill from a lot of people due to our own experiences with them.
That said, I do think that it's not too much to expect to vaccinate teachers at the top of the line to assure them that they can do their jobs safely along with other essential workers. I don't feel that enabling them to do what is a vital job without fear of taking the virus home to their own families is "coddling" or any other GQP buzzword.
Weiss and McWhorter's substacks are becoming places not where principled centrist liberals come together with principle centrist conservatives and figure out how we can row in the same direction, away from the rocks. These substacks are turning into a bunch of crowing GQP-ers who love hearing what they think are liberals saying that liberalism sucks ass and always has.
We are not AGAINST liberalism. We are for it, and we are aghast at how the masks have fallen off what we thought was the same liberal movement and found out that they are as hate-filled, hypocritical, and dangerous as the GQP has revealed itself to be.
So any ultra-righters here, try not to get too smug. It's not exactly an endorsement of your position that many liberals have lost respect for the left wing because we found out that they are a lot more like YOU than first appeared.
People are asking for the bare minimum here: do your job. It's not hard to bash the teachers, many are acting ridiculous and out of line. I'm sure if the unions were less political and idiotic they'd be in school right now and we'd be saying they're heroes like the rest of the workers who are doing what they aren't. You reap what you sow. The unions are selling out the kids. It's insanity. Keep the teachers in schools? They won't go. Create a better school system. It's flat out terrible, America does poorly anyways and is failing their most vulnerable students now - kids who can't afford to get a private school education or any education now. It's an absolute embarrassment, and no one cares because there's no one with political clout for these poor kids. And apparently that's the only way you get things done in this country. What an embarrassment. Past the point of playing nice. If it's more important to play nice about this topic than speak up about the damage that's done to the kids and their futures (in every conceivable way) and who it affects and who it doesn't - then straighten out your priorities. This is why America is screwed up. Just tell the truth.
Yeah, that is because Joe Public is paying teachers salaries and entrusting them with their kids.
It’s kind of a performative profession that requires extemporaneous, interactive skill. It takes more to do well than one might think.
Also, teachers don’t like Joe’s kids. Their are largely ignored, disrespected and sometimes threatened. Parents complaints can derail their career. Expect them to fight to stay away from the actual kids.
LOL, Dooley. I’m not a teacher, arguing from selfish interest (I’m a retired attorney). My thought is based on observation: teachers have a damn hard job, teachers require professional training, teachers are not respected because everyone thinks they’re an expert in education despite them not being knowledgeable about it (and, no, because you or your kid passed through the public school system, that does not make you an expert, any more than observing doctors or nurses during a hospital stay does not make you an expert on hospital administration or medicine).
Your assumption that my comment on the affrontery of folks like you making judgments in area outside your expertise is a complaint about MY job is telling and risible.
Another winner Bari. I can't wait to open your emailed articles. Robby is a treasure. Keep it coming. I'm so sorry for the kids. It'll be interesting to see how the kids feel about this when they grow up. The teachers better hurry back and resume their indoctrination or the kids might form unapproved ideas regarding life and liberty and duty to ones family, country, and profession.
Remember that great 007 opening sequence when “M” orders the agent to take the shot? The train zooming around, through tunnels where we don’t know what Bond is doing until it suddenly emerges and ... she takes the shot.
It amazes me that the teachers unions care so little about the children. I almost guarantee that if their paychecks stop they would be back to work in a hurry. It’s very simple, no work no pay.
Great post! Hard to find anything comparable that is as harmful to closing the racial gap, inequality, and overall low income communities progress as this, and yet the overall left is silent on it. Just goes to show how beholden to unions they all are and how absolutely necessary a viable two party system is needed.
If this pandemic helps us reimagine our disastrous K-12 system it will be a blessing. It’s amusing to me that the same group that espouses choice in terminating a life is aghast that parents should be able to choose the best school situation for their child. The teachers unions are simply evil.
Bari Libertarians do not hold many political offices but somehow our ideas are winning. Drugs in vending machines is a canard. The fact is that the war on drugs has been the most racist policy our government has pursued since Jim Crow and Separate but equal. We were in favor of gay marriage long before Barack Obama. Drug legalization is spreading. qualified immunity and civil asset forfeiture are being challenged in the courts and our relentless advocacy of school choice will some day break the back of the racist teacher's unions.
Anyone else think this is in part to keep parents busy and occupied with schooling and divert their attention from all the CRT related insanity?
Even here where public schools are mostly open, a lot of "in-person" learning is staring at computer screens while supervised by lower-paid teacher's aides. Then they've switched to a 4+1 model where one day per week is all remote. I for one wish that teachers were more committed to their jobs. The salary is quite good.
It would be trivial to make teachers into enthusiastic fans of school reopening. Just cut off the paychecks until they show up. What they want is $ for staying home and not working. That's not sustainable.
Fire them if they won’t do what their employers (taxpayers) tell them to do.
Just like what would happen to those who pay their bills. Taxpayers.
I say we stop paying the teachers until they return to school. They've had a year of paid "partial" work/leave. It's time to change up the incentive structure here.
Another travesty is the college students imprisoned in dorm rooms across our country. And the parents paying for that privilege (Zoom University) and especially at the most elite universities (naturally they are the most locked down) for the safety and well being of all. It's fraudulent. It's dangerous. It's so unhealthy. And then there's shaming and snitching on a student just trying to go for a jog alone without a mask. And the silencing of parents who dare to question any of it. Try posting this issue on Grown & Flown or any college parent FB page and watch the attack. And the students are so compliant out of fear - and that concerns me the most.
When I subscribed this morning I had this thought: "If the NYT ever comes to its senses they will rue the day they chased off Bari Weiss." Tonight I learn via Instapundit that the Times is looking for a opinion editor "with a sense of humor and a spine of steel, a confident point of view and an open mind, an appetite for risk and exacting standards for excellence in writing..." O tempora, o mores! And they could have retained a little common sense too!
Am I alone here? Will you all jump on me for saying how I feel? Oh what the hell: have any of you taught maybe preschool in the last 10 months? Interacting with kids, their parents and other faculty? Have you ever tried for months to get vaccinated but you’re only 36 and not a priority and even if you were vaccinated, you have to self quarantine but you have only x amount of sick days left. And even though the rules have been more flexible because you’re mostly teaching face to face, at the end of the day it’s so freaking hard- all for $43,000 a year at a private school- two masters degrees, student loans that will hover forever. All because I love teaching little ones. Please don’t call me mediocre because it hurts so much. Has society lost all heart?
Tziviarochel
I think this article and the posts are about public school teachers. I pulled my kindergartner out of public school and am hoping for a private school slot (schools are quite selective here).
Is this supposed to be about science or emotion? I thought we were supposed to follow the science?
Doesn't seem to me she's going on pure emotion -- she's talking about the difficulty of implementation of what people are proposing. Being unable to get vaccinated when your job dictates that you should be and then being blamed for not wanting to go to work isn't about emotion. It's about how the f*ck she can get a vaccination. And if that need isn't being addressed, then what we're going on about here is hot air. Science must be followed by tactical implementation. (Said the MS in physics.)
Science tells us there is almost no risk of open schools spreading covid and science also tells us that there is almost zero risk of a young person dying from covid. She is reflecting fear, which is an emotion.
Teachers/union bashers on this thread: you are why America will never have a good education system, because for whatever reason, you don’t believe that tenured teachers are really trying and giving it their all, but from what I can see, it takes incredible credentials, work and passion to be in a classroom with children and attempt to educate them.
I don’t know what gives Joe Public some inherent right to judge the work of teachers from their perch as managers of accounts payable, plumbers or line chefs. Could a random teacher judge YOUR job performance. I didn’t think so. If you’re middle aged, are you better at what you do generally speaking, and deserve to be paid more? Sure you are. Why are teachers different?
I just think this “teachers/teachers Union” nonsense is some reflexive meme conservatives/GOP just trot out because this is some zombie meme false stereotype unsupported by experience that deserves to die but lingers on. But we need to call it out and it needs to stop if we want to attract and keep teachers in our schools and treat them as national treasures instead than a bunch of deadwood and freeloaders.
And as another data point, now that the Postal Service has had a near death experience at the hands of a Trump functionary, I don’t hear so much knee jerk b*tching about the Post Office as there used to be, a conversational prop like the weather. People would love to have next day First Mail delivery again instead of it taking a week.
"but from what I can see, it takes incredible credentials, work and passion to be in a classroom with children and attempt to educate them". You'd be wrong about that. Teaching requires a bachelor's degree. There are many, many fantastic teachers and there are too many lousy ones. When I taught in San Antonio in the barrio in the mid 80s, Ross Perot got some legislation passed that required TABS--Texas Assessment of Basic Skills--a test that all teachers were required to pass regardless of where they taught. It was an 8th grade level test and two of my colleagues failed that test. I have worked alongside some of the most dedicated people but never chose to join a union. That was the beginning of the end for solid teaching. If it required passion, every single teacher would be in a classroom right heeding the science of COVID that it is safe to teach in person as so many are. Funny how you lunge at conservatives when it is the Catholic and other parochial schools who have been in person 100% since last August.
>I don’t know what gives Joe Public some inherent right to judge the work of teachers from their perch as managers of accounts payable, plumbers or line chefs.
Joe Public has kids and even does some home schooling now. Joe sees what a lousy job teachers do because the main focus is on "reducing the achievment gap" and fighting "systemic racism". Who is going to develop new medical cures if high achieving kids are discouraged? Our teachers are a big reason why so many STEM grad students are foreign born.
One thing I might posit is that a lot of people -- myself included -- have had really bad experiences with teachers from our own childhoods. I can tell you stories that would curl your hair of teachers, and every single person I know can do the same. Elementary school teachers unfortunately do not have a lot of goodwill from a lot of people due to our own experiences with them.
That said, I do think that it's not too much to expect to vaccinate teachers at the top of the line to assure them that they can do their jobs safely along with other essential workers. I don't feel that enabling them to do what is a vital job without fear of taking the virus home to their own families is "coddling" or any other GQP buzzword.
Weiss and McWhorter's substacks are becoming places not where principled centrist liberals come together with principle centrist conservatives and figure out how we can row in the same direction, away from the rocks. These substacks are turning into a bunch of crowing GQP-ers who love hearing what they think are liberals saying that liberalism sucks ass and always has.
We are not AGAINST liberalism. We are for it, and we are aghast at how the masks have fallen off what we thought was the same liberal movement and found out that they are as hate-filled, hypocritical, and dangerous as the GQP has revealed itself to be.
So any ultra-righters here, try not to get too smug. It's not exactly an endorsement of your position that many liberals have lost respect for the left wing because we found out that they are a lot more like YOU than first appeared.
People are asking for the bare minimum here: do your job. It's not hard to bash the teachers, many are acting ridiculous and out of line. I'm sure if the unions were less political and idiotic they'd be in school right now and we'd be saying they're heroes like the rest of the workers who are doing what they aren't. You reap what you sow. The unions are selling out the kids. It's insanity. Keep the teachers in schools? They won't go. Create a better school system. It's flat out terrible, America does poorly anyways and is failing their most vulnerable students now - kids who can't afford to get a private school education or any education now. It's an absolute embarrassment, and no one cares because there's no one with political clout for these poor kids. And apparently that's the only way you get things done in this country. What an embarrassment. Past the point of playing nice. If it's more important to play nice about this topic than speak up about the damage that's done to the kids and their futures (in every conceivable way) and who it affects and who it doesn't - then straighten out your priorities. This is why America is screwed up. Just tell the truth.
Yeah, that is because Joe Public is paying teachers salaries and entrusting them with their kids.
It’s kind of a performative profession that requires extemporaneous, interactive skill. It takes more to do well than one might think.
Also, teachers don’t like Joe’s kids. Their are largely ignored, disrespected and sometimes threatened. Parents complaints can derail their career. Expect them to fight to stay away from the actual kids.
LOL, Dooley. I’m not a teacher, arguing from selfish interest (I’m a retired attorney). My thought is based on observation: teachers have a damn hard job, teachers require professional training, teachers are not respected because everyone thinks they’re an expert in education despite them not being knowledgeable about it (and, no, because you or your kid passed through the public school system, that does not make you an expert, any more than observing doctors or nurses during a hospital stay does not make you an expert on hospital administration or medicine).
Your assumption that my comment on the affrontery of folks like you making judgments in area outside your expertise is a complaint about MY job is telling and risible.
Another winner Bari. I can't wait to open your emailed articles. Robby is a treasure. Keep it coming. I'm so sorry for the kids. It'll be interesting to see how the kids feel about this when they grow up. The teachers better hurry back and resume their indoctrination or the kids might form unapproved ideas regarding life and liberty and duty to ones family, country, and profession.
Let’s just get it over with and surrender to China right now
Remember that great 007 opening sequence when “M” orders the agent to take the shot? The train zooming around, through tunnels where we don’t know what Bond is doing until it suddenly emerges and ... she takes the shot.
Haha. All is not mediocre and lost.
Buck up and give it another thought
It amazes me that the teachers unions care so little about the children. I almost guarantee that if their paychecks stop they would be back to work in a hurry. It’s very simple, no work no pay.
Great post! Hard to find anything comparable that is as harmful to closing the racial gap, inequality, and overall low income communities progress as this, and yet the overall left is silent on it. Just goes to show how beholden to unions they all are and how absolutely necessary a viable two party system is needed.
If this pandemic helps us reimagine our disastrous K-12 system it will be a blessing. It’s amusing to me that the same group that espouses choice in terminating a life is aghast that parents should be able to choose the best school situation for their child. The teachers unions are simply evil.
Bari Libertarians do not hold many political offices but somehow our ideas are winning. Drugs in vending machines is a canard. The fact is that the war on drugs has been the most racist policy our government has pursued since Jim Crow and Separate but equal. We were in favor of gay marriage long before Barack Obama. Drug legalization is spreading. qualified immunity and civil asset forfeiture are being challenged in the courts and our relentless advocacy of school choice will some day break the back of the racist teacher's unions.
Libertarians oppose the welfare state. The welfare state is relentlessly expanding. License is expanding. That is not libertarianism.
Civil Asset Forfeiture will become a standard practice if Dems consolidate control. That the SCOTUS has not struck it down is unconscionable.
Regarding your last few columns — and the ones before that, going back to day 1 — they were and are good enough to pay for. So I have just subscribed.
#metoo...just today. Need to support independent quality journalism