Educated in spite of the system...

...that's me.  I'm one of those whackos who thinks that the publik skool system should be dismantled with all due haste.  Looks like I'm not alone.

As usual, no blog post is complete without the commentary.  If the chart Mr. Allen posts isn't enough to raise your eyebrows, this comment from Mr. Art Welling ought to blow the top of your head off:

"All these teachers who bitch and moan that we’re wanting to cut the waste from the school system are willfully blind to their bosses’ stealing their lunches right under their collective noses"

I call bovine excrement on that line.

*I* am a teacher, and I know EXACTLY where the waste is in our system. I can walk into the Building I work at, walk straight into half a dozen offices, and point right at all the criminal waste it will take to make you sick to your stomach.

I can point at a Big $$$ director who spends as much time at his desk watching 'hobby' videos on the internet as he spends trying to trash instructors, and both together make a full work day for him.

I can point out a principals custom hand made desk that cost more than my car... and COULD have been had at 1/20th the cost from our own schools cabinetry program.

I can point out administration who swore they were taking a pay freeze, since they demanded we take one.... and then awarded themselves multi thousand dollar 'bonus' packages.... again each worth more than my car.

I can point out instructors who are selling scrap metal to buy shop supplies.... while the admin is billing the school for $500 meals.

I can point to a brand new state mandated 'administrator' who's job no instructor in three building can see the purpose of, but is so heavily work laden he requires a very pretty young assistant to... well.... assist him I suppose. So far, all he does is wander around the building.

Yes... we know EXACTLY where the waste is, and nobody who matters will listen to us. We are the teachers.... we are the bad guys of this weeks agenda, so nobody cares to listen to us.

We are the people who work 60-70 hour weeks while getting paid for 40, and take over the job of raising the kids everyone else has abandoned.... but we are the 'bad guys'.

We are the teachers, who spend ten extra hours a week writing paperwork that no one will ever read, just so some outrageously paid administrator can claim their job has purpose.

Yes... we damn well know where the waste is. We have to wade through it every single $%#@&%$ day just to do our jobs. We have to feel our noses shoved in it every morning, when we arrive at school an hour early to sweep the useless make work away before we can do our real job. We have to endure the stink of waste... watching administrators buy *themselves* new toys as we buy class supplies from our own pockets.

We are the people who do the actual work... and who nobody will listen to.

We are the people who have read Atlas Shrugged, understand it, and will be the last ones out the door as the lights go out.

Homeschooling.  Private schooling.  Anything is preferable to what we have now.  Even no schooling at all--at least then we won't have our pockets picked in order to pay for a custom desk or hottie 'assistant' for some parasite who does absolutely nothing for anyone.

God be with you and your students, Mr. Welling.