What a way to come home. I click on one of the email accounts that has been set up to receive the latest Educators4Excellence weekly propaganda reports and something catches my eye. It seems that yet another, under 30, privileged class, Teach For America whiner is yet again kvetching how their lives are about to be ruined because they are at risk for being laid off.
It would be nice, at least once, to have one of these whiners be over 40, have children, had to actually work to earn their lot in life, and not have a trust fund to fall back on. Yes, E4E's Jane Viau is over 40, way over 40, but she is wealthy from being a Wall St lackey, so she doesn't count.
Today's latest whiner was featured in the New York Times in an article written by Fernanda Santos. I thought the Times was getting cool, starting to peel back Uncle Mike's lies, starting to see things for what they are. I think I was mistaken, though Michael Winerip seems to be a mensch and refuses to drink the Kool-Aid.
So this, Samantha Sherwood, 25 years old, and a science teacher, oops, the science chairperson at Mott Hall V in the Bronx, this child of privilege somehow got Fernanda to write a puffy piece on her plight.
Fernanda writes; Samantha Sherwood, a graduate of UConn, had lofty aspirations when she settled on a family-studies major at the University of Connecticut, like redrawing welfare rules or weaving together a sturdier safety net for people in need.
Aw, shucks. That is just so gosh darn sweet. Yes, Samantha, that white liberal guilt of yours. I know, from your gilded perch you look down and look at yourself as the savior to the boys and girls of color. That you need to justify your family's wealth and that the only people of color you came in contact with was the local gardner or housekeeper.
Samantha blabbered; “to be there, where the rubber meets the road.”
Wow, did you learn that cliche at UConn?
Santos tries to build tears in her readers; Now in her third year of teaching, earning about $45,000, Ms. Sherwood has come face to face with another place where rubber and road meet: she is most likely among the 4,100 New York City teachers scheduled to be laid off...
Hey, sorry. That's life. But why don't I have sympathy for Samantha and her ilk? Because at 25, with no mortgage, no children, no spouse, no responsibilities other than to herself, Samantha will bounce back. Samantha still can count on the largesse of mummsy and daddy. Samantha, if needed can always return to the bucolic family home whilst mummsy and daddy await her next culture to lord over.
Maybe Samantha should grow a set like a friend of mine has. He too is in the cross hairs of the layoffs. He, unlike Samantha, has three children, a loving and attentive wife, car payments, house payments, coaches baseball, is a true adult with adult responsibilities. We don;t see him whining and complaining the New York Times. We don't see him joining a faux grassroots movement such as E4E. Why is that? Because my friend is not a child of privilege, because he has not gone through life perched upon the gilded hill with a silver spoon shoved in his mouth.
Samantha, in her most trained voice blurts; “My own kind of ideology, my own commitment to have an impact in the world in some capacity, makes me more inclined to work hard to see my kids do well,”
Oh, you are just so special. You are the only one, the one who feels like that? Guess what Sweetheart? I know many, many teachers who feel that way. But for some reason don't feel the need to brag about it or wear it on their sleeves. But, you can respond to this blog posting by sharing with the readers how it feels to perceive oneself as special.
Whilst inserting foot into mouth Samantha claims, “there are people out there who just got settled in and aren’t doing their jobs.”
Says who? Your duce, Little Evan Stone? Give hard cold evidence. Were you coached before this interview? Did mummsy and daddy send you to UConn so you can lose all independent thought? Did you ever see the Music Man? Little Evan is no better than Professor Harold Hill.
On the first day of school each fall, Ms. Sherwood makes a pledge to her students: “I guarantee that if you let me guide you and if you work hard, you’ll leave this class knowing more about science than you did when you arrived.”
Oh oh. Nausea coming on strong. Be right back. Whew! A mess was averted. Thankfully there was some Canada Dry ginger ale in the fridge.
Samantha sayeth; “Their peers in the public schools in Chappaqua are getting all of those opportunities, and there’s no reason my kids in the Bronx shouldn’t.”
Hmm. Chappaqua vs. Bronx. I wonder what the average class size is in Chappaqua? I wonder if at any students at Richard E Bell Middle School in Chappaqua are wearing colors, live in poverty, watch mom whore herself out for crack, come from fractured homes, eat Doritos and grape soda for dinner. Don't think for a minute Samantha that not one teacher wants the same opportunity for their students in the South Bronx as the teachers in Chappaqua. Chappaqua isn't stupid enough to use Everday Mathematics, or the Writing Workshop. How ignorant, how repulsive, how condescending can you be?
Our last quote from Samantha; “We have to let children explore the beauty of what they’re learning,” she said, “not spoon-feed knowledge they’re supposed to memorize.”
The crack team here at SBSB took this statement and fed it to our special computer. The computer was in agreement with what which we already know, and teachers, except you and all your buddies at E4E, know. As long as there is this emphasis on testing, as long as teachers, including yourself, are judged by standardized tests, students will be going the memorization route. Children are not exploring, can't explore, can't be kids because of YOU. YOU Samantha are the problem.
I am tired of picking up a newspaper, turning on a radio and hearing about this turd blossoms from E4E whining about what will happen to them. They are children. They have zero responsibility. They have plenty of options left to take advantage of. Every single E4E turd blossom that appears went to an elite college, and elite prep school, an elite upbringing, and has not lived life. I dare E4E to give me someone who grew up working class, that graduated from Mercy College, that doesn't have a trust fund. And stop with the talking points already.
The day of comeuppance for E4E is quickly approaching. The smug look on Little Evan Stone's face will soon be gone and be explained away as a bad dream.
