First things first, I taught in a historic Union town that was deep blue in every regard. That means my experiences on this blog may be vastly different than those who taught in more conservative red areas. I was warned that I would not have a good experience working for this school district. I was sure that the stories I heard from other educators must be exaggerations.
Over my 25-year tenure, five instrumental specialists had come and gone. I remained the sole vocal specialist, and currently, there are no solely vocal instructors in this district. My role was the final one in the choir, and it has been eliminated. We are talking about a town with 35,000 people. The other music educators around the state were 100 percent correct about this school district's systemic problems.
And each instrumental instructor had a negative teaching experience. Allow me to ruminate. The first band teacher I recall moved to Nevada and promptly won a prestigious award. He was a very good educator. Bands under his tutelage were some of the best our schools ever had. His departure was due to the abuse of power by a senior music instructor. This senior educator, known for selling real estate during school hours, became the subject of mockery.
The stress led the second band teacher to start drinking, and I believe he only remained in the position for a few years.
The third instrumental teacher was dismissed for organizing a concert. The superintendent of schools disapproved of the concert for unspecified reasons. I attended the event and do not recall any inappropriate aspects of it.
The third instrumental instructor left within a semester, and I am unsure of the reason.
The fourth band teacher was someone I knew personally, as we were related by marriage. Fresh out of college, he was an exceptional instrumentalist and composer like the first instrumental educator I knew. Unfortunately, he had a falling out with some of the more prominent band students and their families. The students chose to make his life extremely difficult. Items were being taken from the band room, specifically marching gear. The parents disapproved of his methods for grading. As the situation worsened, he departed after five years.
The fifth band teacher was outstanding in his role, skillfully incorporating computers into music education and sharing a wealth of knowledge with me. We combined choir and instrumental music, achieving a remarkable effect. After four years, he visited my choir room, voicing his frustration: "I am getting no support from the administration; it seems like they are intentionally undermining me." The term 'undermining' was substituted for a profane word.
Back to the matter of deception........................
I never truly required administrative support; all I needed was the freedom to develop the music program without interference. Yet, due to union rules, there had to be perfect equity, often to an illogical extent. Logic and insanity are not good bedfellows. We were unable to sideline underperforming educators or recognize exceptional teachers with meaningful rewards. Despite the meaningless accolades, I'm referring to substantial recognition, either financially or through superior positions—those are the things that truly count. I've received numerous pats on the back.
The public education sector is currently facing significant challenges with deceit, which are unlikely to be resolved unless there is a shift from "union thinking" to "logical thinking"—a change that seems improbable.
Let me ask a few simple questions to test our infection rate. Should an elementary music teacher be paid as much as a senior-level college prep math teacher? Come on. No. Should a principal have the power to place his sister in a math position when she has a degree in English literature. Really? Absolutely not. Should a person on the spectrum be hired as a school administrator? No way. Should we give a person a 7000-dollar annual pay raise because they received a college degree in soccer from "Gackle Community College".
If infected by "union thinking", these questions become difficult for some.
Let's apply "union think" to the world outside of education. Should a nurse be paid as much as a brain surgeon? Absolutely, they both work really hard. Snarky light is on. Should president of a fortune 500 company hire her brother-in-law as the main IT man with zero credentials? Yes. No problem. Should we hire a person as mayor of our town who has had a traumatic brain injury? Yes, wonderful person! Should a nurse get a 7000 dollar a year pay raise for getting a CPR and wound care endorsement? I wish! Snarky light dimmed.
If we agree "yes" with any of the above questions we have probably been infected with "union thinking". This type of thinking is why our education system puts out subpar, illiterate students for the most part. The exceptional students do well in spite of the public education sector.
If we think the education system is about academics, we have been deceived. When I started directing public school choirs, students might miss one day a week for extra-curricular activities. By 2019, the average student was missing 2 days a week. Just imagine, the girls are in volleyball while the boys are in football. A short break and then there's boys' and girls' basketball. A short break and there's boys' and girls' track and field. The other sports, not mentioned, are not the main culprits that have the students missing so much class time.
Note that I am excluding illnesses, theatre, speech and debate, church activities, family vacations, cheerleading, drill team, dance, recitals and much, much more.
I approached the principal with a complaint, and his response left me speechless on the matter until my retirement, "Ted, sports are more important than this stuff". He gestured towards the large sign above the science wing of the high school.
Due to the lack of a designated day for students to miss for extracurricular activities, it was rare to have all choir students present for practice. This is no overstatement. I often pondered how teachers of math, science, and English managed the frequent absences due to school activities. This was a significant challenge before the advent of COVID-19. Even with concerts and trips scheduled a year ahead, students would still encounter scheduling conflicts.
No one complained............................................................................ except me.
All of these things listed above are challenges if you really love to teach and not just financial compensation. However, more challenging yet, there are a new group of educators coming out of our colleges that are not hired to teach reading, writing, and mathematics.
They are there to teach "The Message" and all that goes along with it. They are social justice warriors and infiltrate the unions seeking power and control.
I learned to avoid the teacher's lounge over the last five years. They like to find someone's ear to bend on "The Message". I heard their political views many times and really didn't care much.
However, they frightened me during the unpleasant years. It was like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" in my school district. Teachers I knew and respected for years were making fringe statements.
Here's a few:
"My niece refuses to get the vaccine until there is further research. I told her, you are a murderer. Anyone that dies of Covid-19 is your fault."
"Anyone that refuses vaccinations should be executed, like they are doing in China, big open ditches and drop them in there to save the rest of us."
"Do you want to get sick? Do you want to get sick? Does anyone here want to die?"(Full staff meeting at the High School)
"Ted, have you gotten the vaccine yet? We are going as a group to get the vaccine. Come on."(My union rep.)
These are just a handful of statements from the past few years. If nothing about these statements strikes you as incorrect, I'm at a loss for words. They are quite extreme. The perception of reality is distorted. Logic has taken flight. Most people know today there was a lot of deception around the subject of Covid-19.
In context, I tried to joke around, and lighten some of these statements. These teachers doubled down on what they said. I am so relieved that my daughters are graduated from public school. As for our grandchildren, all I can say is that each teacher needs to be vetted. Educators should not engage in fringe thinking.
We will talk more about these saintly, helpful, underappreciated, underpaid educators. Things have changed in the public education sector and most people have not noticed.
Let's shine a light on these underpaid educators. I was amazed by a retiring administrator's benefits. He showed me mathematical calculations of how much money he would receive from his pension in retirement. He was making 119,000 dollars a year at that time. His wife, a long-time teacher was making 79,000 with additional sheep skins. That's 7000 dollars a month for him. That's around 4500 dollars a month for her. 11,500 bucks a month until they both pass! And I left out the Teamster's perks. Wow!
Collectively, they would be earning over $138,000 dollars a year in pensions, which is significant. Keep in mind, they work only 180 days a year, with an allowance of 10 sick days and five personal days. Plus, they have all the holidays off!
Ready. For those non-math people like me- that's the equivalent of having 3.5 to 4 million dollars saved in a 401K! These two educators are in the top one percent of wealth in the country! Yet, folks will not believe it. And he was an angry hair on fire yelling kind of administrator. I never heard a single word spoken about her teaching. That's not true. She gave folks rude gestures with her fingers while driving.
When we see those "The More You Know" ads on NBC. They are being deceptive. Why don't they put up posters of multi-millionaires like those two? That's what they are, you know. And the annual salary of the current administrators is right there on the school district's web site for all to see. They will retire multi-millionaires as well. And only one of them is worth a hoot.
So much for poor and underpaid, eh? Teachers make up the 3rd largest group of millionaires in this country. And just yesterday our pastor was saying that he would vote for the upcoming school mill levy. Funny to me. I'm not going to tell him. He can read my blog. I'm never going to vote for another school mill levy and it goes against my own self-interest.
Folks around here won't be laughing when their property taxes continue to escalate.
This fact about teaching being lucrative now seems to be unknown. Strange. And our kids may not be able to read or write or balance a checkbook, but they can sure run and jump and know what gender they are.
I'm tired of public education..........................need a nap.
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