Bill Maher just gave all teachers a great pat on the back and A-1 support

[Mira]

Please watch for the U-tube of New Rules. He was wonderful.

His assessment of the firing of teachers was that children not learning is the problem of the structure in the home and the parents.
Teachers are the convenient scape goats, it does not cost any money to issue a blanket order to fire "bad" teachers.
He says in a home without books, without parents, and without guidance who raises the kids?
You're watching it now he says.

I can't synopsize it much better now, all I can do is to advocate watching for it when it gets posted.
An excellent piece of work, filled with universal truths.

[mrcheerful]

1. Yet we live in an era where it takes 2 incomes to live, where many parents have 2 or more jobs

just to keep a home over their heads and the kids fed. The 40 hour a week job is now 72 hours a week because of down sizing. So instead of blaming teachers we find someone else to blame instead of putting the blame where it belongs, those who created this mess. That might have been true back in the day when only one parent was working and that would support the family, but those days are far behind us.

Since welfare went from sitting in the home to sitting in a class room for 8 hours, meaning the parent gets the kid off to school then has to go to work first or whatever the state calls it, until 4 or 5 pm, depending on the state said person lives in, the lazy welfare mom excuse no longer is there either. Are there bad parents, of course just as there are bad teachers, but also remember a lot of adults in America are not educated enough to help todays kids with home work. Add to all of this the republicon attack on education since Raygun took over.

Yet again we have a strawman argument that plays on emotions and does very little to address the real problems in the country. It is easy to say whats wrong but if you ignore the complicated solutions and focus on the simple emotional causes your not really going to get answers to the problems.

[Mira]

2. YES YES and YES again.

It's not simple. It's horribly complicated.
It is the sin of minimum wage, it is the sin of that there are so many who are not educated well enough to earn more.

The cradle of the problem is the lack of basic education. The teenage part of the problem is the lack of good solid vocational education no regulated apprenticeships/testing and diplomas and turning out skilled people to earn a decent wage.

The adulthood of the problem is that with our economic situation, with the middle class having no relief and being squeezed to the last ounce of blood to feed the greedy, the people with not enough education - and even if they clawed their way to get some or educated themselves, are in a system that is not set up to see them succeed.

Gone are the days of the 50s and 60s when one wage earner could support a family, unions protected his (yes, his, then) job and employers got insurance for him and his family, and there was a pension on retirement.
Those days are gone, in order to feed the top.

I know Bill Maher made only the tip of the iceberg point.

But every time I see a young mother with a baby on her hip and her head cocked rambling into a cellphone while they shop the grocery aisles I want to give her a knuckle sandwich and tell her that the child needs to be talked to and taught colors and numbers and what stuff is called.

I hope all this is supportive of what you said.

[mrcheerful]

3. Thank you

[lib_wit_it]

4. Many parents of the past were unable to provide much help with homework, but did support a respect

for the public school system and for education itself. They also supported the expectation that their children would behave in a reasonably respectful and cooperative manner while in school.

In my experience, the fact that over time more and more of the parents began to be of the Tea-bagger mentality--rude, selfish, combative, and anti-intellectual--leading to the creation of an atmosphere barely conducive to teaching and learning, was devastating to the ability of the public school to function effectively. Imagine the attitude and behavior of students brought up with not just a lack of respect for, but with an active disdain for the educational system.

As you noted, we can thank the Raygun and the like-minded Repugs, particularly the right wingers, for much of this decline. An uneducated public is much more easily deceived and nothing furthers right wing political power like deception.

[Mira]

5. Absolutely - sadly I see it the same way.

Bill Maher, to get back to what started this, was really funny about it, and it needs some levity because WE can't fix it tonight, but we can chuckle.

The bit was:
If there is a household with no books, but Hummel figurines, CDs, and Jesus depictions, all it will produce is a citizen of "duh".

(now please realize that I'm paraphrasing how I perceived what he said, and I'm also aware he is unaware that if the Hummel's are real, if sold, and if buyers could be found, they would buy some serious huge TV and more CD's)

[stray cat]

6. I had many good teachers and a few really bad ones - like any profession

I'm not ready to grant sainthood to all members of any profession regardless of actions