Get-What-You- Want-at- All-Cost Education

The educational protests being played out across the country may only be a rumbling of things to come. What makes the protests so alarming is that they are being played out in front of children. Kids have a front row seat to view their angry, screaming teachers. Of particular concern are the Wisconsin protests where teachers carry signs reading "Walk like an Egyptian." It's an encouragement and support of the violence employed by Egyptian protestors. It is also in direct opposition of the constitution teachers teach because America calls for peaceful protests.

As evidenced in this You Tube video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cufj2d8Co5A , some Wisconsin teachers took their students into the fray and the students didn't even know what the protest was about. When an adult protester claims the students walked out of school without provocation, another corrects him, stating it was a planned event. It's a risky maneuver. By teaching students to defy authority and seek what they want at all costs how will they respond if students turn on them and do the same thing? The bullying protocol in schools is out the window as educators defy authority, refer to their opposition as Hitler and resort to any means necessary to get what they want.

Like the rest of the nation, Wisconsin claims to be in financial dire straits. Changes in how educators are paid and their ability to bargain for that pay is the fuel feeding the fire. With the angry inferno burning out of control, union leaders are making no attempt to hide their gas cans. While the bitter rivals square off, the flames of their actions are licking up America's future.

My mother was a union steward for Teamsters for as long as I can remember. I was raised in a pro-union environment and have not strayed from it. I learned early the eleventh commandment of, "Thou shall not cross a picket line." Unions have benefited many but have failed to change with the times. The bargaining tools of yesterday are weapons of destruction today.

Teachers have been under-paid and overworked for years. Prior to selecting their career, teachers knew what they were up against. That doesn't make it right. Teachers should be among the highest paid occupations in the country. But so should firefighters and police officers because their collective bargaining is their very life. We tolerate obscene amounts of money lavished on those that entertain us and forsake the ones that save us.

On 9/11 those making the least amount of money paid the highest cost. Not a single firefighter stood at the foot of the Twin Towers refusing to go in because they weren't paid or respected enough. Instead, they gave their lives to save people whose income probably doubled or tripled that of their own. After the terrorist attacks they gained more respect and some a little more pay, but it is still not enough. In spite of the lousy pay and danger, there was a spike in firefighting education. They were lured by a deep sense of gratitude, reverence and patriotism.

In order to end the education war, teachers are going to have to decide if they are in it for the money or the kids because, at this point, they can't have both. Parents need to step-up and accept responsibility for their child's education. Politicians should be required to pay heavy fines to the school system when they run like cowards rather than do their job. The government has to stop bailing out private companies incapable of good financial stewardship. Unions need to stop protecting sub-par teachers that drain schools of money. President Obama needs to realize that if we focus on education, other issues such as healthcare, will begin straightening themselves out. And the entire country needs to start practicing self-sacrifice for the good of our future.

The U.S. Department of Education has a grim prognosis for education. If we are more educated than the coming generations and we were unprepared for events such as 9/11, what does that say about our future? We are not the America we once were. We are rapidly unraveling. To save ourselves we've got to declare a war on education and then everyone enlist. Burying our heads in the sand doesn't stop the storm from coming, it only prevents us from seeing the clouds gathering on the horizon. Do you see the brewing storms of tomorrow?

Sources
http://teachersunionexposed.com/blocking.cfm
http://nation.foxnews.com/politics/2011/02/24/union-dont-call-us-thugs

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/wisconsin-teachers-take-students-class-protest_550230.html