Be careful what you wish for because real problems and real solutions might cause a dramatic change in your professional and financial life. But, good Americans want what is best for the nation—right. President Obama is a great guy but you know he really is balancing hard solutions with the grim reality that some core supporter won’t like what needs to be done.
Teachers give a sound effort but the public school system needs fundamental improvements. Those improvements actually start with people having kids when they are prepared to raise properly developed, responsible children but politicians can’t say that or they will be accused of genocide or something. So, teachers who were trained to teach subject matter find themselves as surrogate parents, social workers and role models (the same can be said about police officers.)
What if we embrace that concept and train teachers for the roles need to be play in young lives. I am thinking supplements similar to coaches for more men in lower graders and retired military in upper graders. How many kids in certain areas grow up without a strong male in their lives and preacher are not doing it because people are half going to church. One strong male in a boy’s or girl’s life could plant that positive seed and I included girls because too many are only exposed to the shady, weak guys their mothers dated—if you can call that dating. We need male and female teachers who are firm yet fair and who can consistently get students to buy into the importance of developing their minds. If teachers can’t do that, they should seek other employment.
Healthcare professionals (doctors, administrators, nurses) should stop defending their wallets and realize that big changes are need in their field. The health care debate should include their input as much as the government and insurance companies but like teachers the first thing out of their mouth is don’t reduce their incomes. It alls comes down to cost effective performance and results
We often forget about the avenue into the Black middle class provided by the military. The armed services gave many a son and daughter of the South the opportunity to secure their financial futures and see the world. We need to hear from them more about what works and doesn’t work with the Pentagon’s use of defense contractors and when nation-building and regime change crosses the line. We care about people in Iraq and Afghanistan but should not forget about Idaho and Alabama public works projects. With net base education and distance learning, down time in the war zone might be a good time to earn degrees and credentials for post-military careers in law enforcement and teaching. Little Johnny won’t “bow-up” so fast on a no-nonsense teacher with combat experience and the girls in the community could learn a lot from a vet who is deliberate in her actions and fully-focus. Luckily, these troops to teachers and troops to cops programs currently exist and should be expanded.
I am confident fair people will accept changes or “corrections” for the common good in the same matter that people in the auto-making and banking industries were forced to grasp rough realities. As President Obama has repeatedly stated, now it is time for the hard part to being.
Project Logic Ga 
While it seems like a stretch, we should work with the same vigor that Travis Barker brings to playing the drums. The guy has mad skills and I hope he is feeling better after that plane crash South Carolina.
How about we actually enforce decent standards on the students themselves before we worry about even the parents, much less the teachers?
I can’t tell you the number of times I was threatened, assaulted, spit on, and any number of other offenses that most people realize you just don’t do to ANYONE.
Administration did NOTHING to correct it, because their hands were tied by crap like NCLB.
I couldn’t correct it, because I wasn’t their daddy and couldn’t take that belt off and tan their behind.
Teachers are there to TEACH ACADEMICS, nothing more.
Until schools get back to that, they will continue to fail.
Oh, and note that I said not one word about pay. On that particular subject, I really don’t have any complaints. That one comes back to more of a lifestyle choice made by the teachers themselves.
Of course, if you eliminated all the middle management out of schools/school systems, you would free up a TON of money that could be used for a variety of purposes, including the supplements you want and better (and better used) tech in the classrooms, among other things.
Jeff: I agree with you. I grew up in a family of teachers and during grad school, subbing was my income. But, being disrespected by want-to-be thugs or teens disrupting the class to cloak the fact that they can’t read is not going to happen.
When you know the system or educational process is not work, how can you stand idly by just because you want a check and did your best. Tell you what; if the south Georgia political bloggers (your guys, Ron and me) openly an all-male charter school fashioned after the “old school” and without old school rules, it would get done right.
Does it start in the home or start with bad breeding? Wow, I sound like Mengele which is not cool but consider that the people often having the largest families are the ones ill-prepared produce quaility citizens.