Oh Lord it’s coming
I first saw it on my Facebook feed. I belong to one of those somewhat politically active teacher groups that’s ultimately a place where teachers can safely complain. It’s the end of the year, so there will be a lot of complaints. This year feels kind of different and it was hard to put my finger on it, but I think I noticed it when this story popped up.
I really didn’t take notice until I saw it on a different news source. It’s not that the teachers on social media lie. However, they are subject to hyperbole every now and then. However, more than one source has verified it, so I get to bring it to you.
For those that don’t want to go down the rabbit hole, essentially the bill proposes outlawing the teaching of anything deemed anti-religion and allows for parents to be able to pull books from the bookshelves that they deem to be offensive. The kicker was the following,
“Teachers could be sued a minimum of $10,000 “per incident, per individual” and the fines would be paid “from personal resources” not from school funds or from individuals or groups. If the teacher is unable to pay, they will be fired, under the legislation.”
People at school seem to think I know how to write for some reason, so I primarily support English classes. We hold meetings once a week to make sure everyone is on the same page. Social studies classes are even worse. They teach via Power Point and all of them are on the same Power Point.
Earlier in the year we had to take a workshop on the “teaching of controversial topics.” Essentially, we don’t. It isn’t so much that we teach the Bible so much as not teaching anything at all. Far be it for us to actually hit a topic that would force students to think critically about anything at all. Fortunately, we aren’t getting sued in Texas quite yet, but I’m sure Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, and the rest of the dream team will copy Oklahoma before too long.
I’ve been in education for 24 years now. With the way teacher retirement works, I am almost vested and simply am too far in to really do anything else. Many of my colleagues are not and are choosing to get out. This is different. Most of the time they simply have had enough of a certain campus or principal and want to go to a different campus. Sometimes a better opportunity just comes along. In this case, they are leaving education all together.
I promised myself a long time ago that I would never become one of those “back in my day” guys. Yet, here I am. When I started teaching history we had a rough timeline they wanted us to follow, but ultimately we had the autonomy to veer off the beaten path every now and then to hit a unit we cared deeply about. It’s what made teaching history fun. Everyone had their own time period they enjoyed teaching.
Seeing an entire hallway of history teachers on the same Power Point every day is just demoralizing. The only way I can make it through six or seven more years is to remind myself that it is about the students. Those relationships are crucial for their success and our sanity. We just have to watch what we say for now on.
OK-Dumb-Ass-Stan another state not to live in or even be close too.
1Its amazing how so many dimwits are busy voting in dimwits into office so that they can make laws preventing intelligent people doing a good job. With over 21 states trying to flush this country down the toilet, moving to anywhere in Europe is looking better all the time. Even the long trip to Alpha-Centuri is looking like a good idea!
Look’s like that idiot from OK –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Standridge
needs to have someone clue him in on the “Bill of Rights,” especially the first one!
https://users.csc.calpoly.edu/~jdalbey/Public/Bill_of_Rights.html
2Wow! That is sad! I think the legislators who wrote and voted on the OK law have never ever been any sort of a teacher, even the “primary” teacher of their own kid. I bet when their kid asked a question of any sort, the resposne was “Go ask your mother/father”. Kids are primitive smart. They know when they are not wanted. When they actually go to school and are forbiddenn to get an education, no wonder they turn out the way so many of them do!
3I think these oddball power grabbers sorely underestimate the students in our schools. These students know a LOT more than these controllers give them credit for.
But then, this is not “necessary for the preservation of the public peace”. This guy is simply trying to impose his own beliefs on everyone… through FEAR.
Is it any wonder there is a teacher shortage???
And by the way, I am all in on the “back in my day.”
4It’s a pathetic and weak religion that can’t stand by itself and has to be propped up by the state.
5Nothing against religon, huh? So all the good stuff involving ripping the hearts out of people, offering them to the sun god, and then tumbling the rest of the body down the pyramid for the congregants to cut up and take home to grill is hunky-dory? [OK, the last part was one anthropologist’s conjecture about what the Aztecs did with the non-skull parts of their sacrifice victims.] And I get $10k if I catch any teacher castigating the child sacrifice of the Carthaginians, or Molok’s temple prostitutes, or Ba’al’s wild parties? Well, sign me right up!
Nick, I don’t know how retirement works for Texas teachers nowadays. But way back, several Tarrant County teachers bailed on their jobs and switched over to working on the garbage trucks, in part because they were able to roll over their retirement to the new job. Plus the job paid far better, took fewer hours, and from what you’ve been posting, it apparently garners more respect in Texas than teachers get.
6Not to get too overly technical, but essentially we get 2.25 percent for every year we teach. In many respects it is a very good retirement program. So, if I teach for 30 years then I will get 67.5 percent of my best five year average for the rest of my life. Hopefully, we will continue to get raises because I’m getting to the part of the salary schedule where I don’t get step raises anymore (added salary for years of experience).
A starting teacher with a bachelor’s degree will earn over 50,000 in most districts. I have 23 years in public school with a masters degree and a small stipend for working in special education. All of that gets me just barely over 70,000. I anticipate that based on past raises I will likely get to somewhere around 80,000 to 85,000 by the time I retire. So, 67.5 percent of that is not half bad. Still, I don’t know of any other career where people get such a small percentage raise over where they start 20+ years in.
Unfortunately, we are not on the same retirement as state or city employees. State employees get 2.5 percent per year they work. Over 30 years that ends up being 75 percent of their five year average. That little bit adds up after all. Now, I doubt the “blue ribbon committee” that Abbott dreamed up gets to that level. What I would tell them is that the amount of increased salary is a statement to teachers about how much their experience is worth. I was a pretty crappy teacher one or two years in. I didn’t have classroom management skills (because they don’t teach you that) and I was a lot less patient and a lot more impulsive. I didn’t have the wisdom that only 20+ years can bring. That wisdom is worth something. Apparently it isn’t worth that much more money.
7There is going to be a hue and cry about the lack of available teachers in 3 … 2 … 1 …
8What BarbinDC said. Who is going to want to go into teaching in states with laws like that? In not all that long, Red states will be an education desert, while Blue states will still be able to educate their students for better futures. The division between Red and Blue states will be wider and deeper than ever. It’s both tragic and dangerous.
9I wonder if this bill applies equally to Islam, to Judaism, to polytheistic religions like Hinduism, etc.
I wonder if this bill applies equally to the religious practice of polygamy. Oklahoma has a lot of Mormon residents.
I wonder if this bill applies equally to the use of mind-altering drugs in religious ceremonies. Oklahoma has a lot of native American residents.
I wonder how this bill differs from a run-of-the-mill anti-blasphemy law.
10There isn’t a gnat’s ass difference between the ‘beliefs’ and power-mad ambitions of the ‘Murikan cristoTaliban fanatics in Not-OK, Texass, Aladamnbama, etc., and the originals over in Afghanistan.
Get the stakes and kindling wood ready…
PBS’ ‘Amanpour & Co’ program has had this week an interesting series of interviews by Christiana Amanpour with various high ranking Afghan Taliban government ministers.
Who sound just like your typical XchristoFascist, Talibangelical, or hardshell Southern Baptist ‘originalist believers’, or the bad ol’ Spanish Inquisitors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanpour_%26_Company
.
11The Surly Professor @6, We visited many of the Yucatan Mayan sites long ago [awesome places]. They didn’t just sacrifice many of their own peeps, they ceremoniously disposed of their vanquished foes too by the hundreds.
And you didn’t want to be on the losing ball team either… Hey, corn and beans only go so far, and then you need to get some juicy steaks…
Although this could be good for teachers…class starts…”GAWD DID IT” class over now sit for 5hrs.
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