<$BlogRSDUrl$>

My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2004-05-16

Perceptions

I've been getting quite a bit of positive feedback for my post of a few days back "Why I Teach." First of all, thanks.

Secondly, every bit of feedback seems to indicate not just a respect for what I wrote about, but for teaching in general. In fact, one comment-er mentioned considering teaching for a next career (by all means, Joshua--you'll never love something so much that frustrates you so much (with the exception of family)).

This strikes me as very contrary to conventional wisdom. CW holds that Republicans hate public education and hate teachers. Of course that's wrong--Republicans actually reserve their ire for the union, which is actually not all teachers. But we play into that by our rhetoric, and distance ourselves from a huge portion of the electorate by not publicly acknowledging our respect for teachers.

So, for what it's worth, a bit of advice for Jessica Corry, Bob Shaffer, Pete Coors, and others running for office: talk to teachers. Don't assume because the union is way out to the left that you can't get teacher votes. This assumption also distances you from 'soccer moms' whose top issue is their child's education. TALK TO TEACHERS! Get to know what they think--you might be surprised. Sure, there's a bunch who you'll never reach; but there's a lot more who think about a lot of things and would love to have somebody listen to them.
Posted by: Michael / 5/16/2004 11:05:00 PM

Weblog Commenting by HaloScan.com

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?