by Marsha Welch

Created on: June 03, 2008   Last Updated: July 26, 2009

Teachers' unions aren't the cause of the problems in today's public education system, although some would like to place the blame on them. The problems in education stem from the same fountain of wisdom that causes many of our nation's problems - our government. Compulsory education may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but as we now see, the only thing it truly accomplished that other types of education didn't is employing teachers.

My school memories were not of learning and being prepared for the "real world". They were of rules, regulations and any method possible to KEEP ME OBEDIENT. How convenient for the big businesses that hoped to employ me as their little robot in the factories that are now laying me off. They taught me, in essence, to do as I was told and keep my mouth shut, just as they are teaching our children today.

Unfortunately, the days of learning to operate within and contribute to your own community are long gone. Many people don't even know their neighbors anymore. Today's education is too rigid to accomplish things in a timely manner. This is the information age, and children still have to get up at a certain time and physically go to a particular school according to their place of residence. How utterly ridiculous! Why are they not logging onto their government purchased PC and internet service and learning anything they wish to learn from anywhere in the world? I think it's because there would be a need for fewer educators, fewer books, less gasoline, less money to keep the schools heated and cooled, less money for a lot of things.

What a relief on everyone's tax burden! Parents could be more directly involved in every aspect of their child's education, and with the money saved, they could possibly afford to take their children to the places that they may now only read about. And what about the relief to the environment? Fewer cars on the road, fewer trees cut down to produce all of those books and papers. The publishers could publish them on CDs. With Web Cams, children can see each other, their teacher, and places far away.

No more school shootings to terrorize and even murder our children. No more teachers having inappropriate relationships with students. No longer would a child have to miss learning due to most illnesses, and no longer would they be subject to the teasing and outright bullying with which many children now struggle.

No Child Left Behind sounds so sweet, doesn't it? But the other side of that phrase is that there aren't enough resources to teach both the potentially "Left Behind" student AND the average one. Students who wish to pursue certain classes and have no aptitude or interest in other classes are forced to participate in the classes someone else deems "appropriate," for the sake of simplifying the process.

Teacher's unions may be a small part of the problem in our country's education system, but I say it is a problem that began before there was a teacher's union.

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