The Good in People

Today I was reminded of the good in people that so often gets overshadowed by the bad in this world.  A woman was on the side of the road being grabbed by her husband and a random stranger drove by and saw.  That stranger made a U-turn and went back to the woman to see if she needed help.  The woman accepted his help and he took her to the police station.

We all need a "Listening Post"

Sigurd Olson created a retreat called the Listening Post.  He was a writer who felt the need to find solace in nature so he purchased 26 acres of undeveloped land (and later added 10 more acres) on Burntside Lake near Ely, MN.  He then searched for an old cabin and when he found one he had it disassembled and reassembled on the property (with a few modifications).  This is where he spent time and found his inspiration for some of his writings.  I first read about Sigurd Olson in Minnesota Conservation Volunteer which is an excellent magazine.  You can read the article here.  I think what we can all take from this article is that we need to take the time to listen and we need to each find a place where we can go to center ourselves.

State of Education

I try not to get political in my blog but I am so frustrated with the editorials and comments regarding education in WI.  For those that don't follow Wisconsin politics, our governor and legislature passed a bill that limits union negotiation power to salary alone (not working conditions, benefits, etc.) and requires that all unions re-certify.

In general, I do not believe unions play a very important role today, however in teaching they play a huge role.  In private business management has an invested interest in the success of the company and typically has a good knowledge-base of the industry.  In teaching, management is elected officials from the community who likely have no or very little knowledge of education and what it means to be a teacher.  Additionally, their interest is typically focused only on saving the taxpayers money (which unlike private business is not tied to creating a good product at all).  Allowing a union to negotiate, reminds those elected officials of the importance of also creating a good product.

With the passing of this bill, the general public (the ones with no knowledge of teaching) have come out in greater numbers than before bashing teachers, complaining they make to much and don't work very much at all.  What this does is discourage bright students who are considering going into teaching from ever entering the field and it encourages current teachers to leave the field.  Who would want to be in a field where every day you are hearing how awful teachers are and how they have such lavish benefits???  Add to that the difficulties that parents aren't interested in their children learning (either they are only interested in good grades or they don't care at all) and administrations who cater to parents by forcing teachers to lower standards so the kids can get higher grades and not supporting teachers with discipline problems.

This new bill like just about any new bill will take many years for the effects to be clear.  But we are already seeing lots of good teachers retiring, moving to the few districts that still value their teachers, or leaving the teaching profession all together.  What will this mean for our students?  What will the changes to class sizes and student learning conditions mean for our students?  Time will tell.

"Pick out the Immigrant"

Rep. Luis Gutierrez from IL gave an interesting speech regarding Arizona's immigration law and the recent Supreme Court ruling.  You can see it here.