Teaching Underground: Quick Roundup and Apologies

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Quick Roundup and Apologies

Sticking with the current events theme of some recent posts, there continues to be a great deal of conversation about the Occupy Wall Street movement. More of that in a second. The TU was at the annual "Making Connections" conference held by our division at one of our local High Schools. We indeed connected with our fellow educators and in an usual occurrence ate lunch above ground. Bad news is that Harold Camping has revised his previous prediction. Just when you thought things were looking up, we learn we are all doomed once again.

In an conclusion that can be described as equally relevant, Newt Gingrich appeared on Face the Nation and commented...

"We have had a strain of hostility to free enterprise and frankly, a strain of hostility to classic America starting in our academic institutions and spreading across this country," he added. "And I regard the Wall Street protests as a natural outcome of a bad education system teaching them really dumb ideas."
Comments from to 5:10

As a member of this bad education system let me be among the first to apologize for anything else I am responsible for. I'd add that Mr. Gingrich does better job as the former House Speaker than he does as an analyst on things, especially education(Dennis Hastert would never throw me under the bus like that). I can certainly be criticized for some things I have done or have not done as a teacher but I think one would have to stop just short of blaming me(or any teacher) for this protest. For the record I support free enterprise and don't want to share any wealth, especially mine. But there is plenty of evidence socio-economic level is something that impacts education(I agree).

Speaking for myself I do believe that the government should when necessary compel our citizens to act in the best interest of our nation and not always for themselves. The debate comes begins when we discuss how to best go about that. I start with the Constitution, a brilliant creation of mankind that attempts to balance the needs and rights of both individuals and society as a whole. Does a darn good job I might add. This is among the dumb ideas we teach. (Not among these is the idea that the Congress can "ignore" Federal Judges as Mr. Gingrich later stated. )

We asked around and what follows is a list compiled by experts on the events of the past year that can in fact be traced to actions of the TU.

(Feel free to add a comment with what you've done over the past year that you are either sorry for or proud of. Funny or not.)

Oprah Retires