Sunday, November 3, 2013

Chris Christie Is Schooled!


 

By Jeff Simpson

By now you may have heard that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, recently exhibited some sexist and savage behavior when he was asked a question by a local teacher. The question that set him off?

"Why do you portray New Jersey Public Schools as 'failure factories?'"
 The only thing Chris Christie enjoys more than donuts, is yelling at female teachers, so he jumped at this chance:

Everyone knows Chris Christie loves to be rude and shout at people. Shouting at public school teachers is a 'thing' of his that he enjoys. 99% of the time the people he chews out are women.
The teacher who was bold enough to ask Christie this question admits she was shaking when he jabbed his finger in her face and shouted at her, but she's still proud of what she did. We're proud of her too.
It's a shame Christie will most likely be relected governor on Tuesday, which is probably why he felt it was no big deal to be photographed shouting at a single woman who dared to ask him a question. So nice to see what he really thinks of his constituents and how he treats them.
 Bully Chris Christie shouting down a teacher when she asked him a question.

As Washington Post put it:

  Christie answered in his trademark Christie way: by yelling at her. He pointed a finger at her, as this picture shows, and shouted:
“Because they are!”
He also said:
“I am tired of you people. What do you want?”
Tomlinson’s question seems like a fair one, given that New Jersey public schools overall have long done extremely well on the  metric that school reformers like Christie believe are the most telling about academic achievement: standardized test scores. You can take a look here at some of the stats. By this standard, it seems that most New Jersey teachers are doing their jobs — despite severe education budget cuts of at least $1 billion by the Christie administration (according to this Star-Ledger piece). That of course hasn’t stopped Christie, as Jersey Jazzman notes here on his useful education blog, from repeatedly attacking teachers and their unions.


Of course, Ms. Tomlinson, has to understand to stop complaining.  If you are going to have republican rule,  hatred of local people and crumbling infrastructure are sure to follow!

Besides, if anyone understands efficiency and results, its politicians!   

Ms. Tomlinson, also did something that was unheard of to Christie........she thought before she spoke and composed this letter:

 Dear Governor Christie, Yesterday I took the opportunity to come hear you speak on your campaign trail. I have never really heard you speak before except for sound bytes that I get on my computer. I don't have cable, I don't read newspapers. I don't have enough time. I am a public school teacher that works an average of 60 hours a week in my building. Yes, you can check with my principal. I run the after-school program along with my my classroom position. I do even more work when I am at home. For verification of this, just ask my children. I asked you one simple question yesterday. I wanted to know why you portray NJ Public Schools as failure factories. Apparently that question struck a nerve. When you swung around at me and raised your voice, asking me what I wanted, my first response “I want more money for my students.” Notice, I did not ask for more money for me. I did not ask for my health benefits, my pension, a raise, my tenure, or even my contract that I have not had for nearly three years. We got into a small debate about how much money has been spent on education. Too me, there is never enough money that is spent on education. To invest in education is to invest in our future. We cannot keep short-changing our children and taking away opportunities for them to explore and learn. As more money is required for state-mandated curriculum changes and high-stakes standardized testing, it is our children that are losing. Programs are being cut all over the state as budget changes are forcing districts to cut music, art, after-school transportation, and youth-centered clubs. But let's put money aside for a moment. What do I want? What do 'we people' want? We want to be allowed to teach. Do you know that the past two months has been spent of our time preparing and completing paperwork for the Student Growth Objectives? Assessments were created and administered to our students on material that we have not even taught yet. Can you imagine how that made us feel? The students felt like they were worthless for not having any clue how to complete the assessments. The teachers felt like horrible monsters for having to make the students endure this. How is that helping the development of a child? How will that help them see the value in their own self-worth. This futile exercise took time away from planning and preparing meaningful lessons as well as the time spent in class actually completing the assessments. The evaluations have no statistical worth and has even been recognized as such by the NJ Department of Education. I am all for evaluation of a teacher. I recognize that I should be held accountable for my job. This does not worry me, as long as I am evaluated on my methods of teaching. I can not be held wholly accountable for the learning growth of a student when I am not accountable for all of the factors that influence this growth. Are you aware that poverty is the biggest determination of a child's educational success. If not, I suggest you read Diane Ravitch's new book Reign of Error. Take a moment and become enlightened. Getting back to the issue of money. I am fully aware of our educational budget. Where is all of this money? To me it seems like it is being siphoned right off into the hands of private companies as they reap the benefits of the charter schools and voucher programs that you have put into place. It certainly hasn't gone to improve school conditions in urban areas such as Jersey City. The conditions that these students and teachers are forced to be in are horrifying. Yet you are not allowing the funds needed to improve these conditions. Are you hoping that these schools get closed down and more students are forced to go to private charter schools while the districts are being forced to pay their tuition? I know for a fact that this is what has happened in Camden and Newark. Yet these charter schools are not held to the same accountability as our public schools. Why is that? Because deep down you know that you are not really dealing with the issues that influence a child's education. You are simply putting a temporary band-aid into place. Unfortunately that temporary fix is already starting to be exposed as Charter Schools are showing that they actually are not able to do better than public schools. You are setting up teachers to take the blame for all of this. You have portrayed us as greedy, lazy money-draining public servants that do nothing. I invite you to come do my job for one week Governor Christie. I invite you to come see my students, see how little they really have during the school day as they are being forced to keep learning for a single snapshot of their educational worth. For that one end-all, be-all test, the NJASK. The one that the future of my job and my life is now based upon. Why do you portray schools as failure factories? What benefit do you reap from this? Have you acquired financial promises for your future campaigns as you eye the presidential nomination? Has there been back-room meetings as you agree to divert public funds to private companies that are seeking to take over our public educational system? This is my theory. To accomplish all of this, you are setting up the teachers to take the blame. Unfortunately, you are not the only governor in our country that has this agenda. What do “we people' want, Governor Christie? We want our schools back. We want to teach. We want to be allowed to help these children to grow, educationally, socially, and emotionally. We want to be respected as we do this, not bullied. BadAss Teacher, Melissa Tomlinson




6 comments:

  1. After reading this, I am thinking Christie would be a terrific GOP candidate. It looks like there are many questions and issues that he would respond to with out of control anger. Americans don't want a President with out of control anger.

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  2. Uncontrolled anger = fear

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  3. What a steaming heap of infamy...

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  4. This teacher better watch it. Bet she gets FIRED for daring to question the 2nd most popular governor in America. She's lucky that Governor Christie showed the restraint he is known for in just teaching her a lesson with his finger. If this teacher was in Wisconsin, her life would have been threatened, she would have had Walker supporters showing up at her house threatening to kill her and her family, she definitely would have been FIRED and BLACKLISTED from ever being hired for another teaching job.

    Yes, she's lucky that all she got was a good finger pointing "lesson" from Governor Chris Christie.

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  5. :-( Have her remarks fallen on deaf ears? She succinctly puts his vitriol into perspective. Maybe hers is the tiny voice that will break the bubble around the fair city of Whoville and we shat at last be heard. Maybe we need one more, the smallest of the small . . .

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