Me and Education

High school and Middle school 

Teacher Unions

After watching Waiting for Superman, I had a firm opinion on teacher unions, mostly because I had little background information on it. The film really opened up my eyes when it showed the life of many people living in poverty and their education opportunities. Most of the characters lived in poverty and had little choice on where to send their children to school. The public schools that they went to mostly had teacher unions teachers that have the position for a very long guaranteed time. As the film showed, these schools were failing the public school system, making teacher unions look disgraceful. At first, I did not think too much into this because I thought the film was giving true information. After reading Grading "Waiting for Superman", however, I think that the film was overgeneralizing teacher unions in general. There are always pros and cons of something and teacher unions are no exception. They can be bad when teachers are performing poorly and do not make an effort to increase productivity. Other teachers could copy the ways because they know that they could do anything they want and still not get fired. I think this applies to the Chicago teacher union strike. They acted this way because they wanted a huge raise, all the while not caring about their own performance in teaching. The same can happen when something good happens. Other teachers could copy the good ways, and then there would be a huge increase in productivity and public schools would not fail. Also, if teacher unions wanted to address something to the government, their voice would be heard because of their numbers, as opposed to if a single teacher wanted change in the education system. Overall, I think that the film was powerful and moving but should not be applied to all teacher unions.

 

Blog 1
Interview
         Currently employed as a medical assistant to an anesthesia provider, Karla Fauver of Summit Hill, Pennsylvania is unsatisfied with her career and is looking forward to a new career in nursing. She loves her job as a medical assistant working from her home but says that the time spent with her family does not pay off her low wages. This is her last semester as a sophomore here at Cedar Crest College and she cannot wait to start classes next semester. She hopes that with a career in nursing she can receive better pay than a medical assistant with no background training, and be employed by the Lehigh Valley Hospital. At 37 years of age, she hopes that being married three times is enough for her. However, she loves a big family; she grew up with seven sisters and four brothers and currently has six children of her own, with a hope of another one. Commuting daily to classes and juggling work and children is stressful and as a method for relaxing, Karla enjoys crossword puzzles and word finds. As an outgoing and energetic lady, Karla hopes to move to Telfurd, Pennsylvania one day. Her personality reflects her food taste; she likes spicy food, Mexican and Jamaican preferably, but also likes to try new things.