So Predictable

[chasfm11]

I try never to bash anyone, LEOs, teachers, etc. But I'm finding it harder and harder not to with some teachers.

I recently discovered that one of the women in our church congregation is on our local school board. Being an activist, I have a variety of issues that I wanted question her about from Common Core to having concealed handguns in our local schools. Today, I had a opportunity to initiate that conversation. Since I didn't know the school board member's politics, I was treading very lightly. My goal is to keep an open dialogue with her and perhaps to give her a different perspective on some of these matters.

I was just talking about the roughly 25 other school districts in Texas that are modifying their CHL stance. In some cases, it is nothing more than altering their policy to allow CHLs to keep their guns in their cars while others are actually allowing CC in the buildings. I was trying to sound her out because one of her fellow board members is recorded in the print media as opposing guns in general and cited the fact that the police chiefs of the major towns covered by the district also oppose any changes to the school district policy on guns.

Just then, another congregation member who is a teacher injected herself into the conversation, stating her opposition to guns. She is clearly a flaming Lib and it took less than 30 seconds for me to expect - and get - the standard Lib "blood will run in the streets" rhetoric. She had tried shooting guns once and had her kids along. She managed to scare them to death about guns and would take every gun from every citizen if she could. She talked about how some of her students had expressed concerns about safety after Sandy Hook which she dismissed saying "she had their back." Never ever would she allow a gun in her classroom. While I asked her some questions and provided her with some facts, my audience was not her but the school board member and I knew that the teacher was a lost cause. Afterward, I asked others about her and she seems to have already identified herself as a dictatorial ideologue who overtly tells everyone else how to think.

Pardon me but she and everyone like her needs to be out of the class room tomorrow. One of her arguments against teachers carrying guns was "if you knew how many of us were on anti-depressants, you never would even suggest it." Really? If that many teachers need anti-depresants to do their jobs, we have a whole lot more housecleaning of the profession to do. I'm not saying this because she opposes guns but because she is into the whole Liberal philosophy which champions things like Common Core.

Fortunately, I was able to get the conversation back to the school board member where I let her know that my wife and I both hold permanent teaching certifications so I'm not a stranger to the environment. I also told her that I value the individual school approach to education and not the one size fits all approach that our Lib "friend" had offered. I was pleased to get a sense that school board member was listening to me. She has offered to put me in touch with the new head of security that the district has hired. I'm going to take her up on it. I might be fighting an uphill battle but I'm going to try to at least get them to wave the current no guns in parked cars restriction.

It is no wonder that our schools are as low performing as many of them are. There is not a single pathway to learning and that seems to be the mantra of too many of the Lib teachers. I hope that I will be able to get the school board member to see that viewpoint. The district has undertaken some interesting and selective technology initiatives and is under fire for them. To me, allowing individual schools to innovate is far better than forcing Common Core on them. The school board member told me that there is a lot of pressure from outside that the teachers will only teach what is tested. I believe that comes from the same Liberal crock of you know what that the gun hatred does.

[RoyGBiv]

Sometimes it's OK to tilt at windmills.
Change, real change, can be a slow process.
Persistence and calm, rational action will prevail.

[chasfm11]

Sometimes it's OK to tilt at windmills.
Change, real change, can be a slow process.
Persistence and calm, rational action will prevail.

That was exactly my approach. I'm not going to have any influence if I try the hard sell. But to be interrupted in the middle with a blatant, unrequested intervention was not useful. The important part to me was that the teacher was not at all interested in anything that I had to say. She was pontificating. She knows what is best for the schools and noone else is entitled to an idea or an opinion that differs from hers.

[Blindref757]

Its hard to be a teacher and a conservative!

[jmra]

Its hard to be a teacher and a conservative!

Easy to be conservative at the school where I work. Of course it is a charter school.

[MotherBear]

Its hard to be a teacher and a conservative!

That's why I'm self-employed. ;)

Seriously, hats off to teachers who stay in the system without caving to the insanity. Y'all aren't the ones I'm trying to keep my kids away from; it's all the others.

[JALLEN]

Sometimes it's OK to tilt at windmills.
Change, real change, can be a slow process.
Persistence and calm, rational action will prevail.

Provided the persistent, calm rational action is in the right direction.

I say close the public schools, close them all, and give parents vouchers to spend as they like, on the countless parochial schools already in existence and on the private organizations that will doubtless spring into existence, offering all sorts of educational experiences from Rhodes Scholar prep to shelf-stocking. This will prevent the shelf-stockers from the frustration of untold days of irrelevant babble and avoid the distraction to the Rhodes Scholar wannabee of the shelf stockers complaining and moaning and disrupting and slowing things down.

I started school more than 60 years ago, one of the oldest baby-boomers. From that day to this, the country has poured more and more money into the educational system with evermore appalling results. We have long passed the point of correcting the details. A new approach is plainly needed. The school system we now use originated in a completely different society, mostly agrarian, which is why school is in session only 9 months. Use the facilities all year around, for crying out loud. Pay good teachers appropriately, don't pay bad ones at all.

Locally we are going to the polls next week to vote still more hundreds of millions in bonds. School costs are out of control, yet teachers still do not make what many consider reasonable salaries, and it is claimed there are not enough of them. Why is that?

[The Annoyed Man]

Locally we are going to the polls next week to vote still more hundreds of millions in bonds. School costs are out of control, yet teachers still do not make what many consider reasonable salaries, and it is claimed there are not enough of them. Why is that?

JALLEN, we had the same issue in Pasadena, California. Here's my take. . . . . It is never about hiring more teachers, or paying teachers better. It is about power. Money = power, and the more money the district has, the more power it has to influence local policy in the direction it wants to drag the rest of us along. Secondarily, when it does actually trickle down into the teachers' paychecks, it means that the unions get a bigger cut of the public financial pie, that = more power, and the unions will use that power to influence local policy in the direction it wants to drag the rest of us along. Thirdly, on the odd chance that the bonds actually translate into more teachers, getting paid more money, money = power, and the more money the larger pool of teachers has, the more power it has to influence local policy in the direction they want to drag the rest of us along.

Follow the money. If it REALLY were about funding better schools, all that extra bond money would predictably result in better schools, n'est pas? And yet it doesn't. ∴ it isn't about better schools; it is about power.

[chasfm11]

JALLEN,

I am not attempting to suggest that a solution to the school problem that has been created as you suggested be solved as a result of what I'm trying to do. But I do believe that if each of us with strong Conservative convictions started to interact with the school's administrative bodies, changes could be made. At a minimum, I'd like to see teachers who hold CHLs in our district be allowed to have their guns in their parked vehicles. It is only a baby step but if it could be accomplished, it might convince the Lib teachers like the one who horned into my conversation that they don't hold the singular vote on the school's policies.

Personally, I believe that changes made at the schools concerning gun rights and, even more important, the safety of our kids and grand kids are a better point of focus. I was really bummed out when campus carry failed because I believe that it, too, could be the first small chink in the Liberal armor regarding education. I, too, would like to see the entire current educational system abandoned because I think it is beyond repair but I don't see that as practical today. There is not sufficient public outcry yet to make it possible. In the mean time, I just want to try to break the current stranglehold that the Libs have over it. The other posts that suggest that it is almost impossible to be conservative and a teacher underscores what I'm saying.

If I had been anywhere but my church, I would likely have suggested to the teacher that she should consider resigning tomorrow. People who cannot or will not tolerate opposing points of view have no place teaching our kids.

[n5wd]

chasfm11... just remember (as I'm sure you already know if both you and your wife hold permanent certificates (wish I had gotten mine earlier so it would have been permanent, but renewing every 5 years only costs a bit over $100 each time ;-( ) that there are all kinds of folks in the teaching profession, from "flaming libtards" to the most strident Tea Partiers you'll ever listen to, and a lot more of the in-between.

Also remember that unless your district explicitly prohibits weapons in cars, the standard model board policy that's distributed by the TASB (Texas Association of School Boards) does not prohibit weapons in vehicles, but only on school premises, which is defined in the policy the same way it's defined by law: the buildings and places where school curricular or extra-curricular activities are taking place.

[chasfm11]

chasfm11... just remember (as I'm sure you already know if both you and your wife hold permanent certificates (wish I had gotten mine earlier so it would have been permanent, but renewing every 5 years only costs a bit over $100 each time ;-( ) that there are all kinds of folks in the teaching profession, from "flaming libtards" to the most strident Tea Partiers you'll ever listen to, and a lot more of the in-between.

Also remember that unless your district explicitly prohibits weapons in cars, the standard model board policy that's distributed by the TASB (Texas Association of School Boards) does not prohibit weapons in vehicles, but only on school premises, which is defined in the policy the same way it's defined by law: the buildings and places where school curricular or extra-curricular activities are taking place.

Thanks for the reminder. Our district has the specific prohibition which I want to see lifted so that at least the schools can follow the TASB standard.

As I also said, I've not found single "flamer" in our granddaughter's school so I am and will remain aware that this is not a "one size fits all." situation. The Tea Party group that I attend has members who are teachers as well. The unfortunate part seems to be the overall tone of the administration is to keep those voices at bay.

My permanent certification is from PA so I cheated. My point in mentioning it was to rebut the claim that I couldn't possibly know any thing about schools or the school environment. When challenged, the Libs next step is to say that because I haven't been in the classroom recently, I ll don't have a valid reason for an opinion.

My post was to simply say that I'm finding it harder and harder to simply state an opinion without being attacked or confronted. I'm a grandparent and a tax payer and I expect to have input to the district's policies. I don't expect to have THE ONLY input. I don't expect others to be in that situation either. I have several policy related items that I expect to champion. When I'm attacked instead of my ideas being attacked, my patience with the attackers is greatly diminished. The situation I reported was completely unprovoked by me.

[n5wd]

... <snip>...
My post was to simply say that I'm finding it harder and harder to simply state an opinion without being attacked or confronted. I'm a grandparent and a tax payer and I expect to have input to the district's policies. I don't expect to have THE ONLY input. I don't expect others to be in that situation either. I have several policy related items that I expect to champion. When I'm attacked instead of my ideas being attacked, my patience with the attackers is greatly diminished. The situation I reported was completely unprovoked by me.

I don't know what it is with folks, but common courtesy seems to be out of the norm in many places, today. Of course, you should be able to carry on a conversation with someone without a third-party joining in, but quite often that's impossible in public situations. About all you can do is dirty looks and ignoring the intruder, if that's possible.

I know it's water under the bridge, now, but I'd suggest making an appointment to talk with the board member in a private session. I know our board members do that regularly, because there's usually not enough time to talk something through at the board meetings, plus it's really unfair to ask someone to state their case in 140 characters like a Twitter message.

In any event - hang in there. I'm going to be in the same situation in a couple of years when I retire - my grandkids will be attending the district where I now work (one's already in Kindergarten with one of my former students as her teacher! ) and I fully expect to be active in speaking my mind to the board, then.

[chasfm11]

<snip>

I know it's water under the bridge, now, but I'd suggest making an appointment to talk with the board member in a private session. I know our board members do that regularly, because there's usually not enough time to talk something through at the board meetings, plus it's really unfair to ask someone to state their case in 140 characters like a Twitter message.

In any event - hang in there. I'm going to be in the same situation in a couple of years when I retire - my grandkids will be attending the district where I now work (one's already in Kindergarten with one of my former students as her teacher! ) and I fully expect to be active in speaking my mind to the board, then.

That's a good suggestion. I was going to follow up with some written inputs to several of the board members. If she does arrange a meeting for me with the security person, I suspect that she might want to sit in as well. She seems genuinely interested in the subject and I'm glad about that.

I just happened to see her at the church and we talked about several other unrelated topics before I asked about her school board position. Surprisingly, there was no intervention on any of those other subjects. Isn't amazing how just the mention of guns brings out the best in people?

[VMI77]

<snip>

I know it's water under the bridge, now, but I'd suggest making an appointment to talk with the board member in a private session. I know our board members do that regularly, because there's usually not enough time to talk something through at the board meetings, plus it's really unfair to ask someone to state their case in 140 characters like a Twitter message.

In any event - hang in there. I'm going to be in the same situation in a couple of years when I retire - my grandkids will be attending the district where I now work (one's already in Kindergarten with one of my former students as her teacher! ) and I fully expect to be active in speaking my mind to the board, then.

That's a good suggestion. I was going to follow up with some written inputs to several of the board members. If she does arrange a meeting for me with the security person, I suspect that she might want to sit in as well. She seems genuinely interested in the subject and I'm glad about that.

I just happened to see her at the church and we talked about several other unrelated topics before I asked about her school board position. Surprisingly, there was no intervention on any of those other subjects. Isn't amazing how just the mention of guns brings out the best in people?

The only way to change the schools is to withdraw your support. As you said, money is power. Power is money. I realize that this doesn't apply to you, but taking your kids out of school is not only good for your kids, it deprives the school of money. When the school district is being strangled financially by people removing their kids from school, then those people have some power to effect the kind of change they want. There is still some chance of effecting change at the ballot box on the local level, but we're already at the point on the national level where the majority of the electorate, a good 60%, is either receiving means tested government assistance, or is employed by the government. As the Federal government continues to assert power at all levels we're eventually going to reach the point where the local ballot box is no longer a recourse.

[Cedar Park Dad]

<snip>

I know it's water under the bridge, now, but I'd suggest making an appointment to talk with the board member in a private session. I know our board members do that regularly, because there's usually not enough time to talk something through at the board meetings, plus it's really unfair to ask someone to state their case in 140 characters like a Twitter message.

In any event - hang in there. I'm going to be in the same situation in a couple of years when I retire - my grandkids will be attending the district where I now work (one's already in Kindergarten with one of my former students as her teacher! ) and I fully expect to be active in speaking my mind to the board, then.

That's a good suggestion. I was going to follow up with some written inputs to several of the board members. If she does arrange a meeting for me with the security person, I suspect that she might want to sit in as well. She seems genuinely interested in the subject and I'm glad about that.

I just happened to see her at the church and we talked about several other unrelated topics before I asked about her school board position. Surprisingly, there was no intervention on any of those other subjects. Isn't amazing how just the mention of guns brings out the best in people?

The only way to change the schools is to withdraw your support. As you said, money is power. Power is money. I realize that this doesn't apply to you, but taking your kids out of school is not only good for your kids, it deprives the school of money. When the school district is being strangled financially by people removing their kids from school, then those people have some power to effect the kind of change they want. There is still some chance of effecting change at the ballot box on the local level, but we're already at the point on the national level where the majority of the electorate, a good 60%, is either receiving means tested government assistance, or is employed by the government. As the Federal government continues to assert power at all levels we're eventually going to reach the point where the local ballot box is no longer a recourse.

Unless its a good school district of course, in which case that would be a bad idea.