Joe Klein's insult to American teachers

[totodeinhere]

There is also the accumulating decades of educational incompetence, since - let's face it - a whole lot of smart female teachers were liberated to pursue their dreams and we were left, as Albert Shanker used to say, with the bottom 20% of college graduates to preside in our classrooms.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/3g2lwn9

I sometimes agree with Joe Klein, but his insult to teachers is way over the top. Teachers are facing a lot of obstacles right now, and what they need right now is our respect and encouragement, but not what Klein has to offer. I know that this is anecdotal, but some of the smartest people I know are teachers. They are dedicated professionals working on the front lines for substandard pay and they get very little of the appreciation that they deserve. I already fired off an angy email to Klein. Let's see if he has the guts to answer me.

[DrDan]

1. what an outrageous statement

[FormerDittoHead]

2. List the women who opted out of teaching because the money wasn't good enough.

In my experience, the best teachers choose that profession not because of the money, but because it's what they love and want to do.

[abelenkpe]

3. I used to teach

There's no money in it and I couldn't afford rent and student loans. A lot of people left teaching because the pay was low. I have the greatest respect for those who continue to teach, but we do need to pay them more to attract talented teachers not slash their benefits and reduces their pay (which seems to be ongoing.)

The thing that's really disturbing about this quote is that it suggests that women's liberation movement is to blame for talented women leaving the teaching profession for other jobs (that would have traditionally been unavailable to them.) That talented women would continue teaching for little or no pay if that was their only option.

[Bandit]

4. IMO the main thing wrong with what he said was the sexism.

It is as if men do not teach...Like it's women's work or something. :shrug:

[Marr]

5. Joe Klein went to expensive private schools before attending an Ivy League university.

He doesn't know jack shit about public education, or the kinds of people who devote their lives to actually working in the field. He just runs his stupid mouth under the assumption that he is a wise elite, for whom data is unnecessary-- like the rest of the punditocracy.

I am so fucking sick of this small collection of pampered daddy's boys who the corporate media holds up as representative of the range of political debate. On one side you've got soft-handed man-boys who've never worked a day in their life, like Joe Klein, and on the other side, soft-handed man-boys who've never worked a day in their life, like George Will. They are practically the same person.