Dear Teacher Haters: Oh Grow Up

Dear Teacher Haters: 

Oh, grow up. You are being used by the rich and powerful. The POWERS THAT BE are managing to starve our educational system by creating hatred of school teachers and you are an example. And, I know who you are: you are the jerks who said, "Na nana booboo!" in kindergarten, aren't you?

Here is a post from a Facebook friend of mine and veteran teacher Rachel Maciejewski:

Most of you who really know me know that I have been teaching the children in Milwaukee for the past 25 years. I love my profession, students, their families and my school. I’ve worked in schools/environments that many would have run away from. 

Prior to Act 10, I never really understood or cared much about the political ramifications of my profession. I did not pay attention. After reading and educating myself on the issues, I began to see how the last budget was going to affect my students and my own children and I began to speak up. I am not going to apologize for who I am or for my beliefs when it comes to children. 

In the past two years, I have been called names, had my salary posted on FB by people I thought were friends and watched some of my good friends sit by and say NOTHING while that happened to me. I spoke up about the new budget last night and got this response: 

“@ Rachel Maciejewski - How much do you make from Union thugs?? how much do you suck from the tax payers on a yearly basis....well guess what? that number just dropped $650 million as that money goes back into the pockets of where it belongs: the tax payers. Monopolized public schools have abused their monopoly in the market place as they have "bargained" for higher and higher wages and benefits that we, the tax payers, had absolutely no say in when it came to the negotiation process. That process is NO MORE. WE are back in charge....NOT you. Its OUR money, NOT yours. WE are the boss....NOT you. You do what WE say. If you don't like it, then quit.” 

I’m done trying to justify why I chose teaching as a profession. I’m done trying to explain that I am also a taxpayer and that I work for the benefits and salary I earn. When I went to UW-Madison I did not say to myself “Oh, let me become a teacher and screw the taxpayers of Wisconsin.” 

I have taught 26 years, have two degrees and cannot even tell you how many extra classes I have paid for to renew my license and/or to learn more about my profession. I work hard and my family rarely gets to see me or spend time with me. If that makes me the enemy in Wisconsin and you agree with the person I quoted above, please unfriend me. I’m not going to apologize for who I am, what I believe in or for fighting for what is best for my children and students. I’m done being the “punching bag” for others who have no clue. I will know who truly I am blessed to have as my friends in the end. ]

Dear People: Come Together Right Now!

Dear Fellow Wisconsinites:

Come together right now or I am going to smack you. I have had it up to here!

We have all fallen under a spell. We believe that opinions about political party, religion, reproductive rights, union rights, etc. separate us.

That is an illusion. A magic trick. We may have differing opinions about those issues. But, we are being manipulated by power & money interests who are using those differences to turn us against each other.

There is only one issue: Power and money vs freedom and democracy. We are on the same side, Democrats and Republicans. We should all want freedom and democracy. Because if we don't all have it, none of us have it.

I have been watching a small group of very self-interested people drive wedges between various groups of normally sane people - and, it is depressing the hell out of me.

People have been manipulated into hatred & envy of school teachers - school teachers! People worth billions of dollars have manipulated middle class and working people into accusing teachers of being "rich." The absurdity of it should have us all agog!

Powerful politicians, and those who fund them, have managed to create hatred of working people & unions. The idea of "union thugs" went out of business in 1972, unions have and spend far less money than corporations do on political campaigns, and yet people are throwing those words at secretaries, nurses and, again, school teachers.  Unions have benefited the people of the USA in ways too numerous to list, yet people are showing hatred toward union members. Hatred!

People wealthy beyond our imagination have convinced average working class citizens that everyone should reduced to the lowest common denominator and no one should have decent benefits or vacations. And who does this benefit? Corporations now have a large pool of people who hate unions and don't believe that employees deserve a decent compensation package! How convenient for them

The powerful corporatists courted Evangelicals for 30 or 40 years. Do I believe that the powerful wo/men running gigantic oil companies and funding political campaigns don't believe in science? Hell, no! They don't care about religion, but they want Evangelicals to vote on single issues.

Powerful corporate and political interests want Evangelicals to hate gays, abortion, women's rights and other religions so they can be manipulated. All the powerful elite have to do is convince Evangelical voters that a party or a person or an issue is related to baby killing, gays, femi-nazis, Muslims and guns. So, anti-abortion single issue voters will vote against their own best interests, the environment, health care, desperately needed programs - or any other issue if they can be made to think they are voting "pro-life."

They don't care about conservatism. I am more conservatism than the Koch brothers. They are opportunists.

It is all about money & power. So, let's come together. It is not about political party - although that is the avenue of separating us. Divide and conquer.

Powerful corporate interests are keeping our eyes on baby killing and gays and femi-nazis and teacher hating with one hand and picking our pockets with the other.

I love us all, each and every one. I do not want to live in a fascist state.

Vivian


"Inequality is real, it's personal, it's expensive and it was created. Today, 1% of Americans are taking home nearly 20% of the country's total income and own nearly 35% of the country's wealth. This didn't happen by accident. As former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich explains, we allowed it to happen."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik1y4ZNSjek

Dear Teachers: I Want You to Get $100,000/year!

Dear Teachers, Yes, you do deserve good salary and compensation packages!

DO I REALLY NEED TO STATE WHY TEACHERS NEED UNIONS AND HIGHER SALARIES? APPARENTLY SO.

Starting salaries for teachers in Wisconsin are now 49th in the country. Republicans would like us to rank 50th. What a goal!

Without unions and/or tenure, if the superintendent’s niece wants you job, she gets it  and you get a transfer or a pink slip. Sorry, Mr. or Ms. Superintendent. It had to be said.

20 REASONS TEACHERS IN WISCONSIN SHOULD HAVE LARGER COMPENSATION PACKAGES:

1. All teachers have bachelor's degrees and over 50% of Wisconsin teachers have master's degrees. They should make more money because they are better educated.

Fewer than 25% of Wisconsin residents have college degrees and even fewer have master’s degrees, yet critics of teachers’ salaries constantly compare the salaries of this highly educated population with the general population of Wisconsin.

They are not overpaid when their education and years of experience are taken into consideration.

Those with master's degrees make less than in the private sector but their benefits compensate for the lower salary.

2. Starting salaries in Wisconsin are 49th in the country and should be raised to make Wisconsin competitive with Illinois—or Wisconsin school teachers will flee to IL.

3. A four year college degree costs about $80,000 at a state school in Wisconsin and $200,000 at a private university. Scholarships & even loans are very difficult to come by. Opportunity costs raise that another $40-80,000—teachers give up an annual income of at least $10-20,000/year to attend college.

So, teachers with only a B.A have invested a minimum of $120,000 in their education and as much as $280,000 – 300,000 just getting the basic requirement to teach—a B.A. degree.

In order to recover just the cost of the education alone, a teacher would need to make over $8,000-20,000 more over the entire course of their careers than they would if working in another field!

Teachers cannot even recover the costs of their education—the pay is too low.

4. Failing to compensate teachers competitively will result in a "brain drain"—the most competitive & qualified teachers will begin leaving the field or not enter it or leave Wisconsin to teach in other states that are "friendlier" to teachers. Web-sites rate states according to the pay scale, benefits, scheduled raises, etc.

5. Public education is the final common denominator in our culture. If we despise our schools and our teachers, we despise ourselves. Our schools reflect our culture and are the one experience most of us share.

Most children will attend public schools. Relatively few will attend private or home schools.

Public schools are required to accept all students: those with devoted parents and those with negligent or abusive parents; those who are well-behaved and those with behavior problems; those with mental & physical illness; those with learning disabilities and those who are gifted and talented, etc. Public education is not comparable to private education.

Teachers do not create our social problems and do not have the power to solve our social problems. They have to play every hand that is dealt them year in and year out. They deserve generous compensation for this.

6. Teachers work independently, using their own judgment, without close supervision. This is in no way comparable to factory work, office work, or clerking in a store and they deserve compensation for this.

7. Children are, quite literally, the single greatest resource of any person, family, or country.

If our educational system has problems, we must solve them. But, those problems will not be solved by competing with McDonald's for employees.

The people who are responsible for our next generation of physicists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and mechanics deserve our utmost respect and compensation. If you do not value the people providing the education of your OWN children, shame on you!

Your corporations, your research labs, your armies, your hospitals are worthless without well educated population to work in them.

Compete in a global economy? You want to pay the people that teach our children peanuts and yet have the gall to talk about a global economy?

I submit that Republicans have no money sense at all--and haven't had for years. They are "penny wise and pound foolish." Oh, look it up, for Gawd's sake!

8. Teachers are "on" all the time they are not on a designated break. They cannot chat on their cells, take long potty breaks, or snack when no one is looking.

9. They have to be in the room with OTHER PEOPLE'S SPOILED BRATS all day long. Pay them a lot, I say!

10. Teachers grade papers, make bulletin boards, read, attend seminars, etc—all on their own time.

11. EVERYONE should have a family supporting wage, health care, and a retirement plan.

If you are envious of teachers’ compensation packages and union benefits, go to college—it’s never too late! Get a job requiring a college degree or a union job. But, don’t try to cut teachers down to your size.

12. We love and revere Thomas Jefferson don't we? An educated public is necessary to a democracy. There is no more important job in a democracy than that of a teacher. We cannot claim to value education and then refuse to pay for it.

13. Did YOU teach YOUR own children to read or teach them math skills? Why not? Enough said.

14. Education as an industry is a powerful economic engine. Every dollar taken out of the salary budget for education is a dollar taken out of the local community’s economy. If you want teachers eating at your restaurant, buying cars at your dealership, shopping at your store, pay them.

15. Fringe benefits are not “free.” They are part of the compensation package that teachers receive. Is there something about “compensation package” that you don’t understand? Grinches, learn to use "Google" for goodness sake!

Articles criticizing teachers’ salaries frequently refer to them as free: “Teachers receive free health care,” etc. These benefits are part of a total compensation package. If an employer can purchase an insurance plan for $10,000 that would cost me $20,000—or which I could not buy at all on the non-existent “open market” for insurance—then I am better off taking the insurance in lieu of a higher salary.

16. Articles criticizing teachers salaries usually compare teachers with master’s degrees and years of experience (and include their total compensation package) to the “average worker” who does not have a bachelor’s nor the same years of experience. Comparing apples to apples, teachers are slightly underpaid.

17. Teachers buy supplies with their own money. Some of my elementary school teachers bought Christmas presents for every poor child in class every year.

18. Parents are required by law to send their children to school or to register as a home school. We cannot require our schools by law to provide a service and then under-fund them and the people who provide that service.

19. Did you educate your own children? If you think you can do a better job, do it. Go ahead. Walk the walk. And, while you are at it, please teach a Sunday School class and be a Big Brother or Big Sister. Were you at the PTO meetings? I didn’t see you. Teachers carry a heavy responsibility for your children's future.

20. Teachers change children’s lives. Teaching can be a spiritual calling. Teachers hold the hearts of our children in their hands. They are responsible for the emotional, intellectual, and physical well-being of our children. They can change the future. They should make at least as much as our politicians.

My dear know-it-all Grinches, if you hate public education so much, withdraw your children today! Today, I say! How can you possibly keep up your military and police state with such a woefully uneducated population! It is frightening!

What if your children cannot read the directions on their new handgun box because their teacher, who cannot make it in the REAL WORLD, didn't teach them well! Get them out of our horrible public schools and teach them yourselves!

Another possibility is that we cherish public education more! Join the PTO! Raise teachers' salaries! Send your children to school every day! Do their homework with them! Don't let your children be bullies--or be bullied! Make them respect their teachers! Teacher your children to read BEFORE they go to school! GASP! GARGLE! Why, we could all teach our children etiquette! OK, now I'm getting carried away...Breathe, Vivian, breathe...

I love you. I really, really do. But, if you want an educated population... well... you have to educate your population. And, nothing in life is free.

Your friend,

Vivian

In memory: Wilma Detherage Creekmore. My mother taught school and was a librarian for 30 years in rural Eastern Kentucky. We thought she was a rocket scientist—and so did everyone else.

As a child, I could not have imagined a day when people despised teachers. People treated us like we were the children of “Brad & Angelina!” 

She began teaching at 18 years of age (after WWII with an emergency teacher certificate and 2 years of college) in one and two room schools up “hollers” where the school district had contracts with neighbors to board her when it snowed.

She taught in schools that had coal stoves. She taught in schools that had 16 year old six feet tall delinquents in 8th grade. She was never afraid. They, and we, were afraid of her! She graded papers at night, bought her own supplies, and took clothes to her students. She finished a bachelor’s and a master’s degree after having 2 children. She was the role model of an independent career woman. 

My mother fought to unionize the schools because the wages were among the lowest in the country and because if the superintendent's niece wanted her job, she got it and Mother got a transfer—but lost that battle. She fought for sex education in the schools—and won that battle. She always fought for increased funding.

Dear Walker: Don't Sign the "I HATE WOMEN BILL"

Scott Walker: Don’t sign the “I Hate Women Bill!”

Political leaders’ personal/religious views on abortion are irrelevant. Your job is to practice your religion, not to legislate it. Do Republicans believe in small government and privacy or not.

You are considering signing legislation that would be torture for many women.

I have a friend in Kentucky who found that she was carrying a terribly malformed fetus that was unlikely to live more than a few moments after birth. She & her husband were grief stricken and decided to have an abortion - and, you want to prevent them from having an abortion or add another roadblock to their tragic journey?

Rape victims (about 32,000/year get pregnant) often have vaginal damages, tears, rips, cuts, bruising, as well as having been beaten and bruised from head to toe.

Sometimes women and young girls are raped with metal and wooden objects. Sometimes their hair is pulled out in chunks.

Rape victims have to spend hours in the ER - in agony. They have to take a toxic HIV anti-viral and perhaps other medications. They may have to take  medication for anxiety and depression, in addition to any other medication they were on. You would force them to endure a dangerous pregnancy if you could, but instead you are considering signing a bill to force them to endure an ultrasound if they get pregnant and want an abortion? Shame!

Many dozens, if not hundreds of the patients I worked with (I am a retired psychiatric social worker) over the years were incest victims.

Do you really expect girls who are depressed, may be living with an abuser, are often suicidal, often engaging in a wide variety of acts of self-harm to now have an ultra-sound and identify the baby parts?

Did you know that a young girl whose father has been ramming his penis down her throat and up her vagina since she was 10 years old may have a "gagging" sensation every time she is anxious for the rest of her life? She may now be 18 and taking a number of psychiatric medications - and, you want to put another road block in her way to getting an abortion should she get pregnant? Shame!

I hope you are aware that women also have abortions for a wide variety of medical, personal, social and, yes, financial reasons. This may seem so trivial to well-fed folks. But, I have seen children going hungry and it is not something I want to see again.

There are a thousand things you are unaware of in your ignorant assumptions about selfish women who just want to pursue their careers or private lives. (Women with careers can afford children, BTW.)

Shame on anyone who votes to put roadblocks in the way of access to abortion.

Get out of your box and respect the rights of women.

With respect for the ability for women to make their own decisions,

Vivian Creekmore

Dear Wisconsin Senators: Shame on YOU

Senators:

My personal/religious views on abortion, and yours, are irrelevant. Your job is to practice your religion, not to legislate it. I thought Republicans believed in small government and privacy? No, obviously not. Are we on our way to the Evangelical version of "Sharia Law?"

Perhaps you are unaware that there are as many reasons as there are women for seeking abortion. 

I have a friend in Kentucky who found that she was carrying a terribly malformed fetus that was unlikely to live more than a few moments after birth. She & her husband were grief stricken and decided to have an abortion - and, you want to add another roadblock to their tragic journey?

Rape victions (about 32,000/year) often have internal damages, tears, rips, cuts, bruising, as well as having been beaten and bruised over their entire bodies. Sometimes they are raped with metal and wooden objects. Sometimes their hair is pulled out in chunks. They have to spend hours in the ER - in agony. They have to take a pretty toxic HIV anti-viral and perhaps other medications. They may have to take psychotropic medication, in addition to any other medication they were on. Oh, and women of all ages are raped as well as healthy young girls. And, now an ultrasound, if they get pregnant?

Many dozens, if not hundreds of the patients I worked with (I am a retired psychiatric social worker) over the years were incest victims.  Do you really expect girls who are depressed, maybe living with an abuser, often suicidal, often engaging in a wide variety of acts of self-loathing to now have an ultra-sound and identify the baby parts?

Did you know that a young girt whose father has been ramming his penis down her throat and up her vagina since she was 10 years old may have a "gagging" sensation every time she is anxious for the rest of her life? She may now be 18 and taking a number of psychotropic medications - and, you want to put another road block in her way to getting an abortion should she get pregnant? Shame!

I hope you are aware that women also have  abortions for a wide variety of medical, personal, social and, yes, financial reasons. This may seem so trivial to you well-fed folks. But, I have seen children going hungry and it is not something I want to see again.

Anti-choice Senators, there are a thousand things you are unaware of in your ignorant assumptions about selfish women who just want to pursue their careers or private lives. (Women with careers can afford children, BTW.)

Shame on anyone who votes to put roadblocks in the way of access to abortion.

Get out of your boxes and respect the rights of others.

Not much love today for lawmakers,

Vivian

Dear Janesville Cliques

Dear Janesville Cliques:

Yesterday, the Facebook page, Janesville Community Page, posed the question, “Have you found Janesville to be “cliquey? What does that mean to you and what can be done to change that perception?”

I love “Janesville Community Page” and that is a terrific question. But, I would like to change the reality – and, not the perception.

Let me establish my bona fides: In the years between graduating from college and moving to Janesville at age 36, I live in 4 states (East Coast, West Coast and South), hmmm… about 10 towns/cities, 12 dwellings that I can think of and worked at about 7 jobs including internships. I lived in 4 states in 3 years. Head-spinning, right!?!

So… cliquey? Every place on earth is cliquey in the sense that no person, organization or group anywhere wants to share power or money. So, access to power is tight & closed every where. Outsiders may never even know who the power players are in a given location – no matter how long they live there.

Cliquey in the social sense? Of course, Janesville is extremely cliquey. Not because the people are evil, but because there is little movement here. It isn’t a college town. There aren’t 10 big businesses or industries moving people in and out. It isn’t a tourist town. People have been here for decades – no, centuries!

People here socialize with their families and their kindergarten friends. Maybe they expand to include high school friends and the people they work with. Maybe not.

And, people see themselves as very friendly and do not see themselves as cliquey. That is because they are IN THE CLIQUE!

Janesvillains (smiling) are very polite. But, how likely is an outsider to be invited to dinner? To a party? Not very. To meetings, certainly. Not into people’s homes.

I realized that I am so Southern Hospitality Over-Friendly that I scare people -- especially Norwegian Bachelor Farmers, whom I had never heard of before. Yep, those Bachelor Farmers are afraid to make eye contact with me at the county fair. I shake hands too often, make too much eye contact and smile waaaaaayyyyy too much.

And, my husband is a big city Jewish boy. When his family visit (wearing too much jewelry) and we eat at rural supper clubs, people actually stare at us. Still. After 25 years. Yes, we feel right at home.

My husband and I have been to a party and a wedding where no one spoke to us and our hosts never introduced us to anyone. NOT. ONE. PERSON. SPOKE. 

Few people in Janesville “work a party” – greet guests, introduce them to others or walk the room making conversation.  None of our neighbors in Middleton, one location in Madison, nor in Janesville introduced themselves to us when we moved in. When I introduced myself to my neighbors in J’ville, only one family was friendly. One woman stood blocking the door and peering around the corner. Some people cried at Newcomers Club.

So, 25 years later, here I am. I have met people and made wonderful friends. But, I would advise anyone whose first impression is negative, and who doesn’t have to stay, to go. If you love Janesville at first sight, by all means, stay!

I made wonderful friends homeschooling and in the Democratic Party.

So, hell yes, Janesville is cliquey! So, if you are a Janesvillain, OPEN SESAME! Say, “Hello!” to everyone, of course! Greet everyone – not just your old Kindergarten friends. Greet your new neighbors. Invite people besides your first cousins to your parties. Greet people at your own parties, meetings and organizations! Smile! Smile at people that you have met even if you didn’t go to high school together. This is a cold hard place! Make it easier.

Oh, now, don’t be mad! I love you.

And, as for the other municipalities in Rock County, don’t be smug! Yes, Beloit, you are cliquey and unfriendly, too! Farther north? Madison? Oh, puleeeeeeeeeeze! Madison, you are just full of yourself, but at least there is a lot of coming and going so it is possible to meet people.

Say, “Hello!” Janesville!

Vivian