DSHS (Department of Social and Health Services), DEL (Department of Early Learning) and a myriad of unions including SEIU (Service Employees International Union) and AFSCME (American Federation of State, County, Municipal Employees) which was my union when I was inside DSHS said you were dumb. My managers told me you were dumb. Managers said folks coming to the day care licensing orientation classes were dumb. Parents, we were told were dumb. Managers in day care licensing said we were not to give parents information (I have the email).
Teaching a community class for the last five years, guess what DSHS, DEL and Teacher Unions, we, the people, citizens and parents are not dumb. Memo to DSHS, DEL and the unions, quit blaming parents and quit telling government workers that the citizens of Washington State of dumb.
I found and find folks are hungry and thirsty for truth telling. I found folks were readers, intuitive and critical thinkers. I found adult learners like kid learners don't want to be bored.
John Taylor Gatto, a New York Teacher of the Year and now author of such books as Weapons of Mass Instruction calculated only 100 hours are needed to teach someone to read. When my grandson was in agony trying to read the public school education way, luckily, I was reading Gatto's book on The Underground History of American Education.
Learning to read had been so easy for me I had forgotten the mechanics of how I learned to read. When I read Gatto's book, I went "Ah, ha!" and thus in no time my oldest grandson learned not only to read, but loved to read. He surged ahead so quickly one week on a Monday he quickly and happily did the whole week's worth of homework. Guess what? Like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, he got in trouble for "going ahead." He was so confused, here he had done a great thing and got in trouble for it.
I sub in a school district as a classroom assistant and I find kids are often times bored, so bored, they sometimes act out. Many of the classroom assistants are bored.
Most of us don't know where we got this "public education" system that is mind numbing to so many kids. "All in all, we're just another brick in the wall." (Pink Floyd) Like the shenanigans that brought in SEIU, the template for that started over 150 years ago when the National Education Association (NEA) was brought in...through an Act in Congress, a federal law.
Who were the "teachers" at that time who wanted this "association"? Teachers who had failed as entrepreneurs in putting together their own schools.
One of my father's refrains growing up was "you're a Democrat, you're union and you vote." OK, dad. So union supporter was I. So much so I organized a union in an area that had never been unionized before. As the years went on I became a DSHS social worker and union member I witnessed the decline of what it meant to be "union".
In 1988 a social worker III had to have masters degree. In 1989 the union "declassified" that position so that a masters was no longer required. I watched and spoke up about the decline. I have documents from the 1990s where a group of social workers wanted the union to take stands to serve our clients. The union rep. guy didn't support our taking those kinds of stands.
The outcry of these unions claiming it's what DSHS workers wanted, what DEL workers wanted and/or what parents wanted...it's all made up. When that whole "collective bargaining" thing came down in 2004, we, on the inside were going "huh?" Most DSHS workers felt like they were between a rock and a hard place between the managers and the union reps.
There is so much federal taxpayer money floating around education and day care. I went to many of the Early Learning Council "public" meetings. When I testified one such day, I asked the audience members to raise their hands if they were NOT getting federal or state money. Out of about 60 people in the room, two raised their hands.
And if you are a private agency attempting to really address the issues, man, oh, man, if you anger the state bureaucratic manager who makes decisions about where the money goes, you lose the money. Some good programs went away because of that scenario. I also know high class agencies kept going, kept their integrity when their funds were threatened and then taken. Such agencies sometimes lost millions because of the abusive power the bureaucratic managers wielded.
We, the people, will take back our power and the government must be subordinate to we, the people once again. Sam Cooke sang, A Change Gonna Come and it's now, it's unfolding. Technology has surged passed the 1990s typing data into a computer no one will ever see it, to the technology of the 21st century which is rapidly helping us form communities once again. Jack Warner said in 1926, talkies will never work. You know, Jack Warner of Warner Brothers. History is happening now.
I give the legislature the most kudos because I have witnessed they have passed some pretty darn good laws. I also know they would have been happy to pass more good laws, but they are in a conundrum when we, the people, believe our voice doesn't count. I've written over and over again to the public that, indeed, your senators and representatives clearly want your input. We, the people input. Not, we the organized union, not we the special interest.
We, the people and we the workers didn't and don't want these modern abusive unions. They are not who they say they are. In terms of education we have to get rid of the 1850s model which was the Prussian education system, more specifically the Prussian Army.
In 100 hours kids can and do learn to read voraciously and love it. Creating a myriad of school models to assist their craving for learning based on what they are passionate about is right now an open book. A book that can be created in such a way kids and parents would be joyful.
I've done anecdotal research in my classes. Most people don't remember the mechanics of how they learned to read, most weren't in agony learning how to read and many are avid readers today.
George Carlin said he loved entropy. Let it crash. Let the fear mongers who say we can't survive without DSHS, DEL and Education unions, tell them we are not afraid.
We are a great country. Washington State is my home state and I will fight for the integrity of my home state and for all the little ones who I witnessed being treated unkindly; and for their parents who were dismissively put down. And I'll fight for the kids I saw in the public school education classes who were BORED!
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