http://www.frumforum.com/teach-for-america-can-teach-conservatives-unexpected-lessons Building a conservatism that can win again Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:50:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.frumforum.com/teach-for-america-can-teach-conservatives-unexpected-lessons/comment-page-1#comment-38745 Publius Sun, 01 Feb 2009 12:05:48 +0000 #comment-38745 Senorlechero, the '...unexpected lesson for conservatives...' is that not all impoverished urban citizens of minority ethnicity want life handed to them, as is so often the denigratory tone of conservative discourse. My urban students of African and Hispanic ancestry know damn good and well that welfare is a form of class warfare perpetrated on them by well-meaning but paternalistic statists. They want work. They want honest, productive, usually boring but occasionally creative, enobling, exhausting, paycheck-on-Friday, decide how to spend your own money not vouchers to the landlord, work. The problem is that after two generations of the other, they have no one to show them what it is like. We learn how to be men, in the first instance, by watching our fathers and copying and our sisters learn by watching our mothers. Gibbon's students will learn by seeing him show up every day, knowing he is doing hard work in bad conditions and still there every day. As a teacher so conservative I make Gibbon and the late President Reagan look like Ted Kennedy, I value my union because it protects me from being fired for stating the unpleasant obvious fact: that the statist ideology that permeates urban education, lowering the bar so the less able can succeed and thereby devaluing the work done the diligent; has been, is now and forever shall be, a failure. To paraphrase the Bard, "The fault, dear Senorlechero, lies not in our unions but in our ideologies." Senorlechero, the ‘…unexpected lesson for conservatives…’ is that not all impoverished urban citizens of minority ethnicity want life handed to them, as is so often the denigratory tone of conservative discourse. My urban students of African and Hispanic ancestry know damn good and well that welfare is a form of class warfare perpetrated on them by well-meaning but paternalistic statists. They want work. They want honest, productive, usually boring but occasionally creative, enobling, exhausting, paycheck-on-Friday, decide how to spend your own money not vouchers to the landlord, work. The problem is that after two generations of the other, they have no one to show them what it is like. We learn how to be men, in the first instance, by watching our fathers and copying and our sisters learn by watching our mothers. Gibbon’s students will learn by seeing him show up every day, knowing he is doing hard work in bad conditions and still there every day. As a teacher so conservative I make Gibbon and the late President Reagan look like Ted Kennedy, I value my union because it protects me from being fired for stating the unpleasant obvious fact: that the statist ideology that permeates urban education, lowering the bar so the less able can succeed and thereby devaluing the work done the diligent; has been, is now and forever shall be, a failure. To paraphrase the Bard, “The fault, dear Senorlechero, lies not in our unions but in our ideologies.”

]]> http://www.frumforum.com/teach-for-america-can-teach-conservatives-unexpected-lessons/comment-page-1#comment-42700 turnturn Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:29:32 +0000 #comment-42700 Dont give a rip about Madeline Albright! I have always enjoyed some of the disdain that conservatives have for the beltway. To bad our guys and gals fell in love with it for the last 20 years. Dont give a rip about Madeline Albright! I have always enjoyed some of the disdain that conservatives have for the beltway. To bad our guys and gals fell in love with it for the last 20 years.

]]> http://www.frumforum.com/teach-for-america-can-teach-conservatives-unexpected-lessons/comment-page-1#comment-41615 senorlechero Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:49:51 +0000 #comment-41615 this is a great topic, and Bravo to you for making such a committment. But I wonder what the unexpected lessons for conservatives are? I'm sure most conservatives believe that if we send our best teachers to low performing schools the results will be good, that is why conservatives are for merit pay and generally against Teachers Unions. this is a great topic, and Bravo to you for making such a committment. But I wonder what the unexpected lessons for conservatives are? I’m sure most conservatives believe that if we send our best teachers to low performing schools the results will be good, that is why conservatives are for merit pay and generally against Teachers Unions.

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