http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/15/teachers-are-parasites-and-terrorists Comments On: Teachers Are "Parasites" and "Terrorists" by Dan Savage en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:15:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
Hasn't that soft spot on your skull closed up yet, dear?
Posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay]]> Sun, 16 Dec 2012 23:46:30 -0800 The Stranger http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-6…
Posted by Linda J]]> Sun, 16 Dec 2012 21:07:00 -0800 The Stranger Posted by monkeylover]]> Sun, 16 Dec 2012 17:56:28 -0800 The Stranger @Dano,

While I appreciate the vid and the interview of the most gallant and brave individual, etc., and the dailkos article, they both fall into the same category, forever allowing the soulless and brainless clods to frame the argument, to frame the debate.

This is exactly what you did, Dano, when you first came out in support of Bush's illegal war for oil --- evidently you were woefully ignorant of the multi-generational evil of the Bush-Walker family (and couldn't be effing bothered to research it), so your assumption was that their colonialist resource war was justifiable?

Please stop allowing everyone who is either super-rich, or represents the super-rich, to frame the discussion, to frame the false arguments, etc.

There is no fiscal cliff, Dano! There is no Red Team v. Blue Team, Dano! There is no media, Dano --- just as there is no economy; the sooner you witless fools will attempt to wrap your heads around this, the sooner you may realize that those who own the banks, and the oil companies, and the weapons manufacturers, and the biopharmaceuticals, etc., etc., etc., are the very same group of people, who also own their MSM, or MainStreamMythology they spew at the rest of us 24/7.

Posted by sgt_doom]]> Sun, 16 Dec 2012 12:33:08 -0800 The Stranger Posted by charliebickle]]> Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:54:58 -0800 The Stranger Posted by alguna_rubia]]> Sun, 16 Dec 2012 10:51:29 -0800 The Stranger
First of all, critiquing people who have just been through a tragedy for the way they come across is an extremely low, asshole thing to do. There is no "correct" way to respond to stress and trauma.

And second, I have no idea what you're talking about. She's clearly barely avoiding busting into tears at every second, almost breaks down a few times, and wipes away tears throughout. What on earth do you think traumatized people are supposed to seem like?
Posted by McJulie]]> Sun, 16 Dec 2012 08:15:18 -0800 The Stranger
Please don't look at someone who just lived through a massacre and complain that she "shows no despair" or "seemed rather distant." That is an absolutely common, standard, and even healthy reaction to trauma. People who have been through something too frightening or violating or terrible to stand usually dissociate from their feelings-- mentally put all the terror, grief, and fury aside, because they need to function. They need to think rationally enough to, say, hide their students and lie to gunman about their whereabouts-- and you can't do that effectively while you're experiencing feelings as intense as what you're actually feeling. So the emotions get locked down, and they don't necessarily all come out the second the experience is over. For really severe things, it can be years until people let themselves feel the fear, anger, and sadness of terrible experiences.

So, yeah, you're not seeing people look upset. But that's probably because what they went through upset them more than it upset people who didn't go through it, not less. They'll (hopefully) show that later, when they're sure they're safe, not right now, hours after the event, with television cameras in their faces.

Also, maybe you could try not being an asshole to people who just lost friends and colleagues, and nearly died horribly?


Posted by Gaudior]]> Sun, 16 Dec 2012 06:48:44 -0800 The Stranger
Posted by OutInBumF]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 23:54:01 -0800 The Stranger
We've all seen how self-absorbed and empty of compassion and empathy that particular segment of the population is.
Posted by seatackled]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 23:20:01 -0800 The Stranger

Posted by westello]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 22:50:11 -0800 The Stranger
Your correlation between the right wing's demonization of teachers as lazy and self-interested as compared with the heroic actions of the teachers in Connecticut is spot on. I've experienced multiple lock-downs in my career (usually due to a shooting in the neighborhood) and in every classroom you would see children huddled in a corner with their teacher in front, protecting them with her body. So yes, I'm exceptionally offended by those who say we don't care about our students because we want fair wages for what we do.

And to those criticizing the traumatized teacher being interviewed by the media- fuck your noise.
Posted by MK1]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:40:37 -0800 The Stranger
The conservative mindset (such as that is) loves victimhood, and loves the idea of being a victim, but only on their own terms. Dead soldiers and civilians are the best, because they can ascribe thoughts and positions to them and not be held accountable. Plus, monuments make great backdrops.

They love the first responders, and the people on the front line, until those people ask for some help in dealing with what they've been through - then they just become ingrates.

The truth is that teachers are villainized and portrayed as lazy and indifferent by the right, and have been for years. Their thought leaders do it because they are cynical, and know it will appeal to their idiot followers. The idiot followers buy into it because, well, they're idiots.
Posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:11:42 -0800 The Stranger Posted by qrq]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 20:53:26 -0800 The Stranger
Teachers and public education are the first victims. Well, not really the first. Just the first in public service. When are we going to stop it and take our country back?
Posted by northender]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 20:52:58 -0800 The Stranger
I wasn't there. I have no idea of the agony. But...I agree. I saw the interview with her and it was one that disturbed me.

There were a few others...and I guess it was that even for people who were there they seemed rather distant from it. She almost went into a kind of teenage "yeah, it was brutal man, but you know what..." sort of rap. That kind of narrating on events one was participating in as if they were having an out of body experience and watching it happen to themselves on YouTube! I encounter it many tomes, especially with "young people" and it frightens me.

I was not really seeing emotion...human emotion...and I realize that there is shock...until I saw the father of one of the victims crying.

The reason these OOB reports bother me is because I see that attitude...that way of going through the world, as possibly what lead the shooter and others like him to be able to commit these crimes.

Recently scientists met at the UW to discuss the question Are We Living In A Simulation...like the Matrix. I cannot say. But more are behaving..as if so.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 20:22:03 -0800 The Stranger Posted by NealB]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 20:11:29 -0800 The Stranger If these teachers were in a charter school, would your umbrage be as passionate?

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 20:11:13 -0800 The Stranger
And calling bullshit on bullshit is *not* continuing the 'us v them' dichotomy.
Posted by Some Old Nobodaddy Logged In]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 18:21:00 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Calpete]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 17:47:05 -0800 The Stranger Against evolution and thinks that the best way to create quality teachers is to strip them of any protection and the right to get paid.


Posted by JensR]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:38:20 -0800 The Stranger Merit pay was used in the past, then dumped because it is ineffective. That is why they oppose it. How do you judge the monetary worth of a teacher who teaches PE vs a teacher who has gotten a loaded class of difficult students? Who is worth more - a special Ed teacher or someone whose classroom is full of kids from Laurelhurst and gets great test scores? Test scores have a direct correlation to socioeconomic status, less so to teaching,
In Utah, the Mo teachers got the merit pay. Or the male teachers. They were definitely not the best teachers. But then, who defines who the best teacher is? A teacher may be great for one kid, but not so great for another. Does that mean they are a good teacher one year and a bad teacher another year?

And then there's this: http://eyeoned.org/content/the-worst-eig…
Posted by StuckInUtah]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:37:13 -0800 The Stranger
There are fantastic teachers, to be sure.

But settling for less pay in return for job 'security' for some is a formulae for mediocre people parking in a job punching the clock until they retire. And those folks make the worst teachers possible. And unions protect them.

Parents who have had to send their child off to spend 7 hours a day with such a teacher soon develop a white hot hatred of the system that enables them.

Until unions develop the will to screen and cull their own membership expect a high percentage of parents to see unions as the #1 enemy.

And your assertion about public service compensation is out of date and inaccurate.

Public "service" pensions are especially extortionist and, in fact, public service unions finally managed to do to local/state/federal government what their private sector brethren did to every industry they infected; bankrupt it.

It is true that the main problem with American education is the quality of the homes from which the students come. And teachers are often unfairly blamed.

But place the blame for that problem on Liberal policies (hello Murphy Brown!) that have destroyed the American Family.
Posted by Sorry. Real America is on to your scam.]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:22:05 -0800 The Stranger 2. some are heros and amazing.
3. now get this, it's hard to have a brain isn't it: SOME are NOT. Some are neither comptent nor nice nor heros.
4. QED like all professions they need some mechanism for weeding out the incompetent. instead of lockstep seniority. so, it can be a test, or it can be the principal evaluates.
5. teachers as a group and the wea firmly reject the concept of merit and performance based hiring and firing. in this they are wrong, despite the fact that some are nice, and some are great.
6. none of this has aught to do with charters. you can be for or against charters for other reasons.
7. none of this has aught to do with funding, except for many of us, the lack of performance structures and incentives means more funding is less likely, obviously voters don't want to give more money to a system that's failing too many.
8. all of the above exists in a world where for 20% of students, our schools fail. fail. utterly. this has lots to do with gun violence, drugs, gangs, bad parenting, absent parents, history of centuries of racism, poverty, our lack of a social democratic political economy etc etc etc but so what? those things need to be addressed, but none of it means we shouldn't have merit systems in place now. and none of it means a given level of pay or pensions may or may not be overly generous. so this us versus them demand to WORSHIP ALL TEACHERS EQUALLY is total bullshit, and the attempt to hijack the gun tragedy to attack education reform is not only stupid, but unfair and a bit cowardly. how would merit hiring and firing mean that this teacher would not have been a hero in this shooting? please explain. and remember to write clearly and stop with the sloppy thinking, okay kids?
Posted by reverse mcarthyism]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:54:58 -0800 The Stranger
Maybe they are speaking from experience? Maybe their teachers really were?
Posted by david]]> Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:51:45 -0800 The Stranger