Standing Up

A few days (March 13)  back I wrote about the discovery of Uranus by the great amateur astronomer William Herschel and his sister Caroline.  In that same blog I mentioned that
a)  "Amazingly it was the same date  that science took a setback in the state of Tennessee when the Senate passed the Butler Act in 1925 (Yeas: 24; Nays: 6).  The law prohibited public school teachers to teach anything which denied the Biblical account of man’s origin. "The law also prevented the teaching of the evolution of man from what it referred to as lower orders of animals in place of the Biblical account."  Within two months this will lead to charges being filed against John Scopes,  " 

and also that

b)  "And the question of evolution in education is still under attack on March 13 of 2011. From the Memphis Flyer..
As you probably know, House Bill 368—which allows teachers to critique such "controversial" theories as the theory of evolution—is coming up for a vote on March 16 in the general subcommittee of the House Education committee.
Although the bill also attacks global warming and human cloning, the primary aim of the bill's sponsor (Bill Dunn) is to gut the teaching of evolution in public schools."


So a few days ago when I was asked by Jonathon to post something about the Solidarity Blog Day in support of teachers under attack I was glad to participate.  I should make a disclaimer.  I'm not that political anymore.  I'm near the end of my career and tired of fighting I guess, and I'm not even that much in favor of unions, or any large bureaucracy....... BUT... I'm totally opposed to the gross abuses of power that happen without them,,, and seem to be about to occur even with them.

So Today, I'll wear red,......for all those kids I talked into teaching when they could make so much more money elsewhere.....       I don't think there is a fence on this one...

Go ahead, teachers, rattle the bars of your cage... use your voice while you still have one....

Here is a clip from a letter by Lynne Winderbaum that was posted this morning on JD2718 that I really liked:

So you ask me, “Why did you need a union? You had a good reputation as a teacher, good  reports from your supervisors, loved your job, and thanks to social networking, have students who keep in touch with you from a career that spanned nearly forty years. Couldn’t this have happened without your union?” No, never.
What we want from our existence is very simple really. We want to be able to support our families. We want to be able to take care of their health needs. We want to be able to protect them if we die or are too disabled to work. We want respect in the workplace. We want to be able to provide our children with an education that will give them a life better than the one we led. Women want to the right to raise their children and return to their jobs. We want to be able to live out our old age with independence and dignity. Couldn’t this happen without my union? No, never.

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