Politics

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If immigrants are no different than the rest of us, then why should this prestigious award go to a teacher noted for teaching students from immigrant backgrounds, 90% of whom are on public assistance? Apparently the parents are not so ignorant of American ways that they've never heard of welfare.

If we are suppose to be color blind, why does it even come up in the story where these pupils hail from?

Thus the key to winning this honor is not so much about perfecting one's skills and expertise as a teacher but rather about rendering such skills in the service of the ongoing social revolution seeking to transform the fundamental nature of American society.

Last year's winner, Jason Kamras (a District of Columbia Math teacher who selected pedagogy as his life’s work because he thinks "high quality schools for economically disadvantaged students is the greatest social injustice facing America today") is quoted on the National Teacher of the Year website as saying, "My intense desire to see my school excel comes not only from an unwavering belief that all students deserve an excellent education, but also the unique role Sousa played in the civil rights movement...To honor the school’s unique role in the movement, I feel compelled to guarantee that it serves as an agent of social change, advancing those who have been ignored or constrained."

What business is this of a math teacher? It is his job to teach students how to add and subtract, not to indoctrinate them in utopian theory. After all, even these students need to know basic arithmetic to determine whether they have gotten the right amount of government cheese or that their food stamps have been tabulated correctly.

Had this teacher seen his students as individuals to be taught career skills rather than as components of some demographic shift to be channeled for the benefit of the elite, I doubt his name would have ever come up for consideration. And the same goes for the 2006 winner as she makes a big to-do about teaching minority children rather than children as children.

Sadly, as with most other aspects of the education system, it seems the Teacher of the Year award is not about encouraging people to stand on their own two feet but rather about fostering dependency upon the COMMUNITY.

By Frederick Meekins

Related links:

http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=768416

http://www.ccsso.org/projects/national_teacher_of_the_year/national_teachers/6194.cfm

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