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The future foundation of our society' was how one bearded Irishman put it in his rant on Wall Street via a now-famous YouTube video. He was not, of course referring, to the Wall Street bankers, but to teachers.
This is my own rant, aimed at systems of human beings that have come to the decision that public school teachers could be deemed expendable. I simply cannot see how one can justify a layoff of one public school teacher in a developed economy where the same cost-cutting measures could be spread across many of the different sectors in that economy. No, I'm not going to name the different public schools in the United States that have become prey to the downsizing effect simply because the United States is the easiest country to point a figure at. That's only the case because of the vast amount of media reports publicizing these layoffs are only so expediently available at the click of your mouse.
Let me make this clear. This is NOT an attack on the American/Western way of governing. This isn't a critique of the American system of governing. Why? Because this isn't an American issue - at least not exclusively. THIS IS A HUMANISTIC ISSUE, a problem for humanity as a collective to solve, because these layoffs are not happening in one place at a certain point in time.
Every job in an economy is important - every job contributes to a state's welfare. Some, however, are more important than others. There's absolutely no shame in that. But please try to persuade yourself that academia doesn't fit in the all-star category. Think of it. Every single aspect of human development - at least those that us human beings have control over - has come through the efforts of academics. From the language you're reading this article in (hopefully this reads English to you), to the language of writing you would choose to criticize this article; from the logic of reasoning your mathematics teacher instilled in you growing up, to the study of your religion (the list goes on and on). How can one dismiss the fact that this cornerstone of our society can be sacrificed for anything else? It is with this sacrifice, of course, that the teacher gets caught in the crossfire.
Leave politics aside for a minute; leave the fact that the man or the committee on the chair(s) has to take hard, sometimes unthinkable decisions. Leave the economic mess that we're in, with no clear sight as to when this freaking nightmare will end. Have we, as a humane society, dropped down to this? Foregoing the enhancement of our children's' education and why? Because someone thought 'Well hey, we tried different suppliers, we tried getting the municipality to reduce our leasing fees, we tried working with the school board on this, we tried everything. There's just no other way, WE GOTTA LET YOU GO.'
If an economy's most important resource is education, as many (including yours truly) believe, how can we layoff a single bearer of academia? How can we accept one public school teacher - who also needs his half-decent pay-scale to put his own kids through school- to be downsized?
For those of you too immersed in popular culture to research for yourself, I would recommend watching season 4 David Simon's The Wire, which deals with the harsh, realistic conditions in which public schools have to contend with in Baltimore, Maryland. For a more idealized reference, look for a debate on Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing. Season 1, Episode 18: Six Meetings Before Lunch. Rob Lowe's character Sam Seaborn gives this excerpt, which I will close this article with.
"Education is the silver bullet, education is everything. We don't need little changes; we need gigantic, monumental changes. Schools should be palaces. The competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be making six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for governments and absolutely free of charge to its citizens, just like national defense. That's my position...I just haven't figured out how to do it yet."
