Jobs' honest and accurate statement - Reader comments at The New York Sun

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Reader comment on:
Steve Jobs Has Guts

Submitted by Scott, Feb 21, 2007 11:24

Jobs spoke the truth. Our nations' public schools are fraught with incompetent bums!

Truthfully, teachers do have a tough job. No doubt, the students are more challenging today than ever with school environments reflexively reacting to even the hint of a threat with total school lock-down. Unfrotunately, hysteria has replaced common sense, but this doesn't begin to address the dearth of excellent teachers in our schools.

Parents are mostly too busy with work to even get involved and find out what's being taught, or even speaking with their children to find out what's happening in school. Are they happy? Is learning exciting and fun? I'd wager that close to 100% of 3rd graders and above would register as unhappy and unexcited about learning. The system has killed the natural inquisitiveness and supplanted it with mind-numbed orthodoxy. Today, children are ushered from class to class and talked at about all matters of social consciousness and indoctrination. So much for reading, writing and arithmatic. Today, children are taught about lesbian families and how to put condoms on bananas...contemporary issues they MUST all understand.

Having three children and having been through perochial, private and public schools over 17 years plus, each with pluses and minuses, we found that the public schools were by far the worst in terms of addressing our needs. There were so many built-in bureaucratic hurdles and rules it was nauseating. The system is set up to process 80+% of students who sit still and do what they're told...which isn't teaching. It's indoctrination. The balance are shuttled into special programs where they can't disrupt others or are recommended for evaluation...How about another drugged-up student to make them more agreeable?

I maintain that much of the public schools could immensely benefit from a bottom-to-top house cleaning. Get rid of the dead wood. Hire teachers who are positive, excited and know what they're talking about. Pay the good ones well but demand results. There get no guarantees. Just like the private sector, we all have to work and perform. Slackers can go home, especially when my children's education and welfare are at-stake. And the system should support them. Get the trouble-makers help. Family matters tend to boil over into the student's school life. The standard social worker approach doesn't work. There is hard work to be done, but a good start would be dismantling the union's death grip on our public school. Only then will the system be free to breath freely and truly educate the children.

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Other reader comments on this article

Comment	By	Date
A contract, last time I checked, is created by two sides, but when it comes time to discuss working conditions,... [MORE]	Paul J. Diamond	Mar 6, 2007 12:28
I wish I could thank him personally, but I cannot find his e-mail address. My shortfall, obviously. So, he has... [MORE]	bryan gudmundson	Feb 24, 2007 04:03
Why do good teachers leave the profession? Low pay, large classes, poor working conditions and site administrators and school district... [MORE]	ken tray	Feb 23, 2007 19:46
Let's look at Steve Jobs' comments scientifically. If his reasoning is correct, then states where teachers' unions are NOT powerful... [MORE]	DFrazier	Feb 22, 2007 23:58
The psychologists have taken control of the cirriculum at all accredited teachers colleges. They have replaced the Judeo/Christian ethic with... [MORE]	Incredulous	Feb 22, 2007 23:02
is that Boards of Education and Superintendent's are political creatures, whose biggest priorities usually are getting re-elected or a new... [MORE]	Paul	Feb 22, 2007 17:02
Parents teach their kids values, morals and ethics then the kids go to school where the teachers teach them there... [MORE]	Annette Hughes	Feb 22, 2007 12:27
Steve Jobs has guts. He says what many observers of education know but will not admit. I was involved with... [MORE]	Maury Leon	Feb 22, 2007 12:17
My mom was a shop steward for the teachers union and she said there were two things ruining the schools: ... [MORE]	Pierce Wetter	Feb 22, 2007 11:41
Some years back I was living in California. The high-mucky-muck of the teachers union was asked how his efforts would... [MORE]	rotten rip	Feb 22, 2007 11:38
As a seventeen year teaching veteran and proud union member I would like to invite Mr. Jobs to shadow me... [MORE]	Steve	Feb 22, 2007 00:37
And some....just don't! They coexist, and often in the same environment. Dedicated teachers have no need to feel insulted by... [MORE]	TL	Feb 22, 2007 05:32
Steve, you sound like a remarkable teacher , the kind of teacher we want to stay in education. And, no... [MORE]	Julie	Feb 22, 2007 10:26
Mr. Jobs is NOT teacher bashing. He is saying the unions tend to protect the teachers who are not doing... [MORE]	Geno	Feb 22, 2007 10:32
I don't see any place in his comments where he bashes teachers... I'm sure you do a great job, and... [MORE]	Matt	Feb 22, 2007 12:42
Mark Twain stated: " God made idiots for practice, then he made School Boards." and there lies your answer. Cheers to... [MORE]	Ray	Feb 28, 2007 15:43
Three cheers for Jobs!I've worked in the California Public Schools as a consultant and an artist. I also helped start... [MORE]	scott	Feb 21, 2007 22:43
Jobs is right on.....protecting the incompetent is ruining public education. I made the move to private education many years ago... [MORE]	Jim	Feb 21, 2007 19:23
State and federal governments have dumped ever increasing dollars into public education, proving the maxim that when you spend more... [MORE]	Steve	Feb 21, 2007 18:24
And I say it again: Amen! The best and the brightest tend--with exceptions, naturally--NOT to choose education as a career. The... [MORE]	Perry Clark	Feb 22, 2007 00:48
Kudos to Jobs! Kudos! The only thing I would add is that lazy, borderline-apathetic parents don't help, either. [MORE]	Chris Baecker	Feb 21, 2007 17:50
that is the proplem what is the solution? [MORE]	wayne rients	Feb 21, 2007 17:03
Unions are a farce. They allow legalized extortion. The unions are killing form and many other once great firms. Collective... [MORE]	honorable one	Feb 22, 2007 02:18
Steve Jobs has done the nation a valuable service by pointing out the negative impact that teachers have had on... [MORE]	Chris	Feb 21, 2007 16:45
amen to steve jobs jmb [MORE]	john brodnan	Feb 21, 2007 16:00
Without competition who strives to get better? Most Americans are starting to realize this now. Tax the rich to give... [MORE]	Ted Runnels	Feb 21, 2007 17:24
Thank you Steve Jobs! Now if we can just get some fellow industry leaders and others of influence to see... [MORE]	Wes Parry	Feb 21, 2007 15:04
When was the last time he stepped into a public school classroom in Florida or an urban school system. Teachers... [MORE]	Joanne Reid	Feb 21, 2007 13:32
With all due respect to Ms. Reid, to whom I wish no ill, I, a parent of two children in... [MORE]	Perry Clark	Feb 21, 2007 18:48
Ron, you sound somewhat mixed up. Teachers have to be protected if they don't do a good job and the... [MORE]	Alan	Feb 21, 2007 20:36
Blame the Union, Blame the Union, Blame the Union. Yes, Perry, I read carefully the comments. It was a combination... [MORE]	ex-teacher	Feb 22, 2007 06:51
In football cheap shots are penalized. In real life, super wealthy people, like Steve Jobs, get to dump their garbage... [MORE]	Mark	Feb 22, 2007 08:33
which have nothing to do with Jobs' comments. But you are wrong about administrations living in fear of unions. In... [MORE]	paul	Feb 22, 2007 17:23
Steve Jobs is courageous and astute for identifying one of the two largest institutional barriers to significantly improving public schools;... [MORE]	Dr. Anne Marie Vickers Quin	Feb 21, 2007 12:08
Blame the teacher, blame the teacher, blame the teacher. Teachers work under supervisors who DO have the authority to guide... [MORE]	ex-teacher	Feb 21, 2007 18:12
Thank you, Dr. Vickers Quin, for saying it so well. Would that the entire political and governmental establishments hear and... [MORE]	Perry Clark	Feb 22, 2007 00:19
Few if any of the many concerned individuals are "blaming the teacher". The entire point of Jobs' comments, and most... [MORE]	Perry Clark	Feb 22, 2007 00:35
I've heard the exact same comment made by Dr. Quin from numerous people within the education community, and the correctness... [MORE]	William Bowen	Feb 22, 2007 02:02
Has anyone mentioned that the building administrators are responsible for observing, evaluating, and retaining or removing teachers? The building principal... [MORE]	Sally	Feb 19, 2008 22:35
Jobs spoke the truth. Our nations' public schools are fraught with incompetent bums! Truthfully, teachers do have a tough job. No...	Scott	Feb 21, 2007 11:24
Michael Dell has a lot of gall to talk about employees being treated unfairly, considering how HIS company treats most... [MORE]	Gary Akins	Feb 21, 2007 10:23
Unions are the best thing to happen to teaching. The teachers who don't perform well have to be protected. If... [MORE]	ron	Feb 21, 2007 09:30
Teachers who don't perform well need to be fired, not protected. Public education exists for the benfit of the children... [MORE]	Matt	Feb 21, 2007 23:15
Wow - here's a perfect example of what's wrong with the "union attitude"...let's see... "The teachers who don't perform well have... [MORE]	barry	Feb 22, 2007 14:20
Finally someone had the courage to say what we in education have known for years. Unions are killing public education.... [MORE]	Peter	Feb 21, 2007 08:37

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