What four words can describe nearly every public school teacher in America, and most in the world.
“S” stands for “sincere”, as in, “I sincerely believe that I am doing a good job specifically. I am equally sincere in my belief that public education is a pillar of modern society. The facts are less pleasant. America’s test scores in reading and math skills are among the lowest in the world. Public education has actually turned our nation into a people of innumerate near-illiteracy.
“I” stands for “intelligent”, as in, “I Sincerely believe that I am an Intelligent person, using my skills to benefit others.” Some scholars have determined that those who major in Education are in the lower third of their undergraduate classes. Still, many do have intellectual abilities.
“C” stands for “concerned”, as in, “I Sincerely believe that I am anIntelligent person who is Very Concerned about making things better.” Unfortunately, things are getting worse, taking meaning away from that sentence in two ways: 1. Costs per student are skyrocketing. 2. Test scores in every area are stagnant or dropping. That leads to the question: Can someone who claims to be both sincere and intelligent not be aware of the fact that they are part of a system that deprives more and more students and their families of a brighter future.
“U” stands for “underpaid”, as in, “I Sincerely believe that I am an Intelligent person who is Very Concerned about making things better even though I am Underpaid to the point that I am being taken advantage of.”
What do we, mere taxpayers, say when confronted with the surprisingly often repeated litanies associated with the nearly all public school teachers who think they’re SICU? It’s very easy. We agree:
“Yes! I agree that you are Sincere, Intelligent, Concerned, and Underpaid! Here’s how to fix it: Right now, we are paying about $15,000.00 a year, per student, to provide a substandard education. If your union would push for it, you could rent a classroom for $5,000.00 a year, buy a few books, hook a few computers up to the internet, and make almost $150,000.00 a year. That would be a great help to you and the students would learn more.”
Nearly all public school teachers think they’re SICU. Teachers who actually are sincere, intelligent, concerned, and underpaid would welome such a change. Can that be said about those who resist such improvements?
