I agree that teachers who aren't doing their jobs should be fired, but please, don't talk about all the days off!!! I've taught for 36 years and still love teaching….being an academic coach. My husband says I have a nine month affair every year because I spend so much time at school, with kids, communicating with parents, setting up centers, etc. And I spend oodles of money to make my classroom a comfortable, exciting place to learn. Teaching get in the blood!

Again, I've never had a paid vacation. No teacher that I know of ever has had a paid vacation. And my evenings grading papers, improving units, emailing parents, and my summers taking classes are all unpaid. So…..please don't continue the misconception that teachers have paid holidays and vacations.

Go spend actual time in a country before repeating worn out cliches and stereotypes on a blog please.

Anway, has there been no new news in the Ballard neighborhood in the past 3 days?!?!

No problem though. Go ahead and lay off our educators and dismantle our public education system. India and China are just dying to kick our butts on the world economic stage.

Why aren't there more programs like that?

http://sviweb.sccd.ctc.edu/p_bright.htm

In fact some of them are far MORE equal than the USA because education is paid for almost entirely at a national level unlike the USA. Are you really naive enough to think that all students in the USA receive the same level of education? Do you really think that kids in poor neighborhoods receive the same education as kids in rich neighborhoods?? The USA is just as segregated in education as many other nations. If you doubt this compare the quality of schools between say Bellevue or Redmond and somewhere in Appalachia country or the slums of LA.

They aren't taught to think independently or creatively…just to apply formulas and memorize. It's not a good system, either.

Present company excepted.

He was the union rep for the school, wouldn't you know.

If you relied on the same cop, firefighter or doctor almost every day for a year, you'd be just as critcal of a bad one. I don't know how those professions handle it, but it's much, much easier to push a bad Seattle teacher along to another school than get them fired, so that's what happens.

I guess if teachers don't want to have their barrel spoiled by the occasional bad apple, they should change the union so that it enforces professional standards among the members.

Your kid will get the education he or she wants. All a private school does is isolate. It offers no better educational opportunities. Brilliant minds have come from backgrounds with no education at all. The only thing hard about Harvard is paying the tuition.

What a nightmare.

The point that I was trying to make, was that we all pay the same taxes, it shouldn't be a pick and choose service. That is like saying if we had to have public health care and Joe got better care then Sally but they both paid the same amount into it. That wouldn't fly. Why is this any different?