[kj] New Topic The war criminal Blair must pay!

[sade1]

Just some more fuel*erm* i meant, food for thought concerning merit pay.

"..good teachers.. frequently leave their positions because of being mobbed by poor teachers, which, of course, is the point of the mobbing. ...merit pay for teachers simply ups the stakes in the status game. ...it marks them for mobbing."
http://www.truthout.org/031909EDA  (it's brief, i promise)

"..'mobbing.' ...from biology; when a hawk is sighted, a mob of birds do what they can to drive the predator away. In teaching, the 'predators' are good teachers "

 
... ... ... ... ... ... 

[looking at the current state of things..]
 
'Who has the fun.. 
  ..is it always a man with a gun...? 
    Someone must have told him if you work too hard... you can sweat" 




________________________________
From: The Exorcist <killingjoke at theimmortalfool.com>
To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!) <gathering at misera.net>
Sent: Mon, February 15, 2010 10:49:50 PM
Subject: Re: [kj] New Topic The war criminal Blair must pay!

I can give you many more examples as well.

1 in 20 is acceptable for you? Whatever happened to accountability?

I also fail to understand how you can compare teachers which are paid for by the public (via taxes)
to corporations which are private/semi-private entities and are accountable only to the head honcho or to the investors that choose to
invest in it.

Teachers barely earn enough to survive?
I wouldn't call this barely.  
http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/DHR/TeacherPrincipalSchoolProfessionals/Salary/Salary+Step+and+Differential+Schedules.htm 

Don't forget all holidays are off, and paid summers. Plus if you work (teaching) during the summer your salary gets an increase for the duration.
Add on more credits and you get another bump up.
Then throw in tenure after only 3 years (Best damn job security ever! Even if you fuck up big time.) 
plus medical benefits and it's actually quite decent.
Now add on retirement pension plans + cost of living increase.

Those poor poor folks! I wonder how many people on this list have job security after 3 years.

For every example you can give me of teachers fired for "no reason" I can give you more that should've been fired and
are kept around. 

Hmmmm, how about this one? Get paid $100,000.00 (Tax payer $$$) a year for doing... Wait for it... Wait for it... Absolutely nothing!
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bounce_rubber_flubbers_MrL9ZhEGshrv2H5ToVTxUK 

And here is the article by the New Yorker. 
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/31/090831fa_fact_brill

You can read more about union cover up and bullshitting in the above article, as well as teachers who claimed to be
unduly fired/punished/released. And what you basically get out of the article is that it's one big clusterfuck. 

The unions have lots of power and political clout, they give out quite a chunk of change to many politicians. Planting cue cards at hearings? Check!
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/31/090831fa_fact_brill

And there is so much more... 

Please don't try to pull the "poor little innocent union" crap with me. 
You can do it to others that don't read up on this but I won't let it fly.

Everything by you is an attack on the little guy, the war mongers, the this, the that. Plenty (most) of the money comes from local,state and regional pockets
not DC. (The teachers contract negotiations and powers are not implemented nor negotiated by Washington.)


At 11:03 PM 2/15/2010, GREG SLAWSON wrote:

THat IS interesting. Every teachers union I've read about hates the idea. And the article from LA weekly is a classic case of taking a few extreme examples--by 

>the articles own admission, about 1 in 20 teachers suck--and making a huge case of it. How many corporations have at least 1 out of 20 workers who stink, but are 

>not fired? What about the financiers who wrecked the US economy--some of them now in the Obama administration--and not only were not fired, but grew even 

>richer? Most of the right wing goons like West will let them off the hook, and attack a few teachers who barely earn enough to survive (in the US anyway). Another thing these bullshit "news" articles don't mention is that for the first 3 years of a teacher's career, they can be fired FOR ANY REASON, no questions asked, until they get tenure. There was a teacher at my school who was fired after 2 years for loosing a student's homework. He used to stay late after school every day giving extra help, and used his free period to tutor kids. I knew another extremely smart and dedicated teacher who was fired after one year for sending warning notices to all his students, in order to shake them up a bit. ANd the rules are changing to give principals more power to fire even tenured teachers. There is a wholescale attack on teachers unions--currently the largest unions in the US, which has an extremely rapidly declining union membership--by local, state, and fed

 government. It's yet another way to attack ordinary working people in order to fund the huge military budget (larger than that of all other countries in the world combined, and over half the total US budget).

> 

>________________________________

Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:14:39 -0500

>From: killingjoke at theimmortalfool.com

>To: gathering at misera.net

>Subject: Re: [kj] New Topic The war criminal Blair must pay!

>

>Interesting, in Colorado teachers had recently voted to employ merit pay. 

>

>Not having merit pay is simply a very good tactic to keep all the teachers in-line and not shake up the teachers union (like the AFT/UFT).

>Since all teachers in the union be they good, bad, average or exceptional have equal votes you can just imagine the havoc it would

>wreak were they to introduce merit pay. Pitting one group of union members against another is bad union politics.

>

>The union is all about money (for itself) and power (power in numbers); to have anything rock the boat is a big no no.

>

>For a semi-lenghty read on the bullshit that goes on in the teachers unions feel free to read the linked article below. 

>This is one of the latest I've come across.      

>

>http://www.laweekly.com/2010-02-11/news/lausd-s-dance-of-the-lemons/

>

>

>

>

>

>At 07:06 PM 2/15/2010, GREG SLAWSON wrote:

>

Sorry Sade, I must have been mixing up 2 different emails. And yes, I meant competition! One more point about the 'exceptional' issue--

communism doesn't mean that no one could ever be exceptional--in fact it would be (and even was, in the early USSR) encouraged. But they

made the mistake of using purely economic motivations (pay bonuses) (called the Stakanovite system or something). My point is that there are

many other reasons to do your best at something, beyond purely personal economic gain. There have been studies by economists (in the US) that confirm this. And,

as a teacher, I see some teachers who may be considered exceptional, but hey are not motivated by $$ to be so. In fact, all the teachers I know are agaisnt

Obama & Co's plans to bring "merit pay" to teachers who boost test scores the most  (many think it's a scheme to bust teachers unions too). Many teachers

don't even think it makes logical sense...

 
________________________________

Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:40:00 -0800

From: saulomar1 at yahoo.com

To: gathering at misera.net

Subject: Re: [kj] New Topic The war criminal Blair must pay!



>>> ..were it to succeed and everyone became "exceptional"... how would anyone be exceptional?   



>   ..you're taking the term exceptional is bit too literally!


 

It seems you took the term "everyone" a bit too literally. (Maybe I should've said instead, "everyone enough'?)

 

No one's attacking anyone (much less calling them names), just pointing out ironies and 

incosistencies the world would be better off without. 

 


> Back to the Haiti example .... the medical folks, have been completly exceptional. 



> There has been little or no...  Bill Gates/130 year olds, etc.


 

 That was conflating two seperate points from 2 different people, hence I'm not sure how (or if) that replies to what I wrote. 

Now, if I were the suspicious type i'd say it was a bit of a straw man to shoehorn in that last' sumthin' about the poor suckers jumpin' through hoops - but then again, no one's calling anyone names here...

 


> There has been little or no completion between them,


 

   Do you mean competition, instead of 'completion'?

 

 

 

... ... ... ... ... ... 


[looking at the current state of things..]

 

'Who has the fun.. 
a man with a gun...? 

  ..is it always 
    Someone must have told him if you work too hard... you can sweat" 




From: GREG SLAWSON <gregslawson at msn.com>


To: gathering <gathering at misera.net>

Sent: Mon, February 15, 2010 2:53:47 PM

Subject: Re: [kj] New Topic The war criminal Blair must pay!

I think you're taking the term exceptional is bit too literally! Back to the Haiti example--from what I've been hearing, most of the volunteers

that are down there, esp. the medical folks, have been completly exceptional. There has been little or no completion between them, nor are there any Bill Gates/130 year olds, etc.

It's amazing the hoops a couple of people will jump thru just to attack communism or anything on the left..poor suckers...

 
________________________________

Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:21:37 -0800

From: saulomar1 at yahoo.com

To: gathering at misera.net

Subject: Re: [kj] New Topic The war criminal Blair must pay!


   Assuming Ultimate Communism would encourage everyone to be "exceptional," were it to succeed and everyone became "exceptional"... how would anyone be exceptional? Exceptional being a relative term, is there some explanation of "exceptional" (as in, in relation to what?) that would still hold? 

   Because if everyone had Bill Gates' money, a philosopher's depth, and the health of a base-jumping 130-year-old twice-reincarnated Himalay Sherpa, no one could possibly be exceptional. 

 

 

... ... ... ... ... ... 


[looking at the current state of things..]

 

'Who has the fun.. 
a man with a gun...? 

  ..is it always 
    Someone must have told him if you work too hard... you can sweat" 




From: GREG SLAWSON <gregslawson at msn.com>

 
To: gathering <gathering at misera.net>

Sent: Mon, February 15, 2010 10:49:12 AM

Subject: Re: [kj] New Topic The war criminal Blair must pay!

Communism would encourage people to be "exceptional". It says nothing about going over people's needs. And yes, no country has got it

right yet (it's only been about 100 years--a short time by historical standards).

And as for your "it will never work b/c all people care about is $" beliefs, why are thousands flooding into Haiti, mostly unpaid, to help?


 
________________________________

Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:50:01 -0500

From: killingjoke at theimmortalfool.com

To: gathering at misera.net

Subject: Re: [kj] New Topic The war criminal Blair must pay!


Right on!


If only we all lived in Imaginary Communist Land (because it seems that no one can ever get it right and communism has never

ever existed) things would be so much better and we'd all be happy, joyful, thoughtless providers to the betterment of man kind. 


Should anyone choose to be exceptional we will just maim them till they are EQUAL with all the others. Should anyone want more than

what is deemed acceptable to them... Ohhhh boy! I pity the fool!


Greg, I do hope that your salary does not go one penny over your needs and that if you ever had or will have a pay raise

you will promptly denounce it and threaten your employer with resignation.


FIGHT THE POWER MUTHAFUCKAS!


At 03:03 PM 2/13/2010, GREG SLAWSON wrote: 
Unfortunately the march toward war doen't depend entirely on who's pres or PM. It stems from the competition between nations over markets, 
resources, cheap labor, etc. Obama has already stepped up the Afghan war (where the US wants to build an oil pipeline w/o Taliban interference), and 
has not withdrawn troops from Iraq any faster than Bush would have. As long as capitalism exists, WWIII will be on it's way (w/China?)... 
  
________________________________

Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:39:38 +0000 
From: adrianwason at btinternet.com 
To: gathering at misera.net 
Subject: [kj] New Topic The war criminal Blair must pay!

I dont know how many of the gathering outside the UK have heard about the latest bollocks enquiry about tony & george's ego trip but I found it alarming how much blair mentioned Iran.My motto is attack is the best form of defence but it has to be organised. 
  
Can anyone imagine what would have happened if these 2 clowns were left in power. I never ever thought I would say this but thank God america can get rid of it's idiots after their terms. 
  
If George & Tony were still in power WW3 would be just around the corner. In the Uk now we have a one eyed grumpy disorganised threatining(to his staff) totally fiscally incompetent person who inherited a good economic base and has totally fucked it up & the USA-who knows. 
  
But thank God it's not Cuba otherwise we could have those simpletons in for life.

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