BACK TO SCHOOL w/ Teachers who aren't looking out for the children, just themselves

Yes, we all know there are good teachers who are there for the kids.....At the same time, we have a multitude of teachers and teacher's union hacks who are only interested in how many tax $$$$$ they can extort out of the people's pockets.

The average cost per pupil per year in public schools has reached $11,800. This increase in cost has not produced BETTER schools, only more expensive ones that are failing our children. The Boston Herald editorial staff pegs it - The Teacher's Unions are in DENIAL.

Teacher union in denial

By Boston Herald Editorial Staff Thursday, August 30, 2012

The Boston Teachers Union is continuing its crusade to protect lousy teachers, now threatening a legal challenge to the city’s plan to implement a new performance evaluation system in September.

Now in the real world, of course, workers don’t get to dictate which criteria will be used to evaluate their job performance.

But the BTU and the School Department have to bargain over a new system for rewarding good teachers and getting rid of bad ones. Still, despite a legal requirement by the state to put a new system in place this school year — and despite the loss of $9 million in federal funds meant to reward the best teachers — there is still no deal.

The union claims the city hasn’t bargained in good faith, which is preposterous, given the union’s own refusal to separate the evaluation issue from other unresolved contract issues to try and save that $9 million.

So in the absence of a deal, the city has decided it will move full steam ahead with a new evaluation program. Now the BTU is threatening to prolong the seemingly endless labor dispute.

We’re not sure BTU president Richard Stutman was watching, but there was a lesson for the entire educational establishment on display at the GOP convention in Tampa this week, when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie spelled out the need for reform.

“Teachers don’t teach to become rich or famous. They teach because they love children,” he said. “We believe that we should honor and reward the good ones while doing what’s best for our nation’s future — demanding accountability, higher standards and the best teacher in every classroom.”

“We believe in teachers,” he added, slamming politicians who instead “believe in teachers’ unions.”

Amen to that.

The reason

Like the man said, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Many have asked, " Why are we in Afghanistan ???  Why would we want to be there ??? What good could come from being there??"

The enclosed picture answers those questions and a hundred like it.
 
These two kids were on the street area between our villa and the office area. They were playing in the street like kids their age do everywhere.  I gave them cold bottles of water as it was very hot today in Kandahar, reaching 106 degrees.

My heart went out to these two kids - two young lives in a country where the news is usually bad and life is taken for granted.

In March 2012, Sgt. Dennis Weichel Jr, 29-year-old Providence National Guardsman was struck and killed by an armored vehicle on March 22 in Laghman Province after moving an Afghan boy to safety who was trying to retrieve something underneath the vehicle.  He knew the reason why we are here....He freely gave his life for that same reason. He was remembered by his fellow soldiers for having the "courage of a warrior" and the "heart of a father."

These children are the reason why we are here as they (and thousands like them) are Afghanistan's future.