When I first got on Facebook, I thought it was a great place for political discourse! (Insert loud, obnoxious, "you failed" buzzer sound here). I began to realize that social media was the worst place to spew one-sided opinions because a) you alienate people who are friends who don't necessarily share your opinion, b) you are subject to every other opinion that you don't agree with making you want to hurl, unfriend, reply heatedly, or whatever. If you want to start wars, Facebook is not the place.
There are however two things that I am passionate enough about that I will from time to time post about. One is abortion. Most of my friends know my story there and why I hate it so, but since that's not the main point here, I won't elaborate. Two is teaching.
I have not been a teacher long, but it has been long enough to know that this is a dark time for teachers in TN. I am a republican, but I am so near jumping ship on this one point! Tennessee Republicans ruined education here. And the infighting it has caused sickens me! That we have PAC's fighting to influence LOCAL elections infuriates me, especially since they both claim the same party! Not that PAC's are all bad, but on a local level, it ought not be that hard to get to know the candidates and what they stand for. All I got were ad slicks!!!
I will go vote today. I am much less prepared to than I ever have been, but it hold it a privilege to be able to, so I must. I just don't know many of the candidates. I will be leaning heavily towards Independents and anyone NOT associated with Debra Maggart and Bill Haslam. These are your ring leaders who went after, and punished, ALL teachers for the sake of ridding the state of an "evil" few! There are a few bad employees in ANY profession. No other business would destroy the entire profession for those few. Why would you do that to such an important one? Republicans used to stand for personal responsibility! Now they vilify one group for the lack of responsibility in the others involved.
Oh! Little Johnny didn't do well on TCAPs! That's the teacher's fault! Well, what about Johnny spending most of his time goofing off, copying his work off of others or his parents doing it for him? What about the teacher, frustrated with being accused of picking on Johnny by the parents, that she relents and gives him a grade he doesn't deserve, sure he's got decent grades, but he hasn't learned a thing. In our country, education is a right. In the rest of the world, it is a privilege and often must be earned. How's that for personal accountability?
So go vote today. I don't endorse anyone and Johnny isn't a real person. I do ask that you not push a button for anyone tied to the two mentioned above and that you find out a little truth about Common Core before you make a decision about it. There are some good things about it.
A little added clarification concerning this election- TN judges had nothing to do with O Care and county commissioners have no say in Common Core. Think about that when you look at those ad slicks.
