Teachers on Strike!
While the rest of the country's children have labored and studied and sat in classrooms for the past two weeks, the children of Detroit have done none of those. They've been on an extended, educational hiatus, while their teachers have been on strike.
The teachers of Detroit's public schools initially went on strike to protest a proposal by their district to cut their pay over the next two years.
While both sides hammered out the details of a "better" contract, kids sat at home, roamed the streets, and probably zapped their much-need brain cells to oblivion by playing too many video games.
I may be a dummy, but I'm not dumb enough to take sides here. The real loser in this strike is the kids and the community. While adults argue over percentages and benefits, students lose valuable opportunities for their minds to be stretched. They also witness a system that tells them to stay in school at all costs, but locks the doors when demands aren't met.
I know I'm just a dummy, but aren't those kids being sent a mixed message? What if all of my mannequin friends just decided to not show up to work for a couple of weeks while they worked out a contract with store managers? The people affected would be you, the consumers. You'd have no one to show you how "cool" you'd look in those new blue jeans or how "phat" you'd be with the $150 sunglasses.
It's funny how the corporate machine always seems to forget the key ingredient: you.
Well, that's at least how this dummy sees it.
The teachers of Detroit's public schools initially went on strike to protest a proposal by their district to cut their pay over the next two years.
While both sides hammered out the details of a "better" contract, kids sat at home, roamed the streets, and probably zapped their much-need brain cells to oblivion by playing too many video games.
I may be a dummy, but I'm not dumb enough to take sides here. The real loser in this strike is the kids and the community. While adults argue over percentages and benefits, students lose valuable opportunities for their minds to be stretched. They also witness a system that tells them to stay in school at all costs, but locks the doors when demands aren't met.
I know I'm just a dummy, but aren't those kids being sent a mixed message? What if all of my mannequin friends just decided to not show up to work for a couple of weeks while they worked out a contract with store managers? The people affected would be you, the consumers. You'd have no one to show you how "cool" you'd look in those new blue jeans or how "phat" you'd be with the $150 sunglasses.
It's funny how the corporate machine always seems to forget the key ingredient: you.
Well, that's at least how this dummy sees it.
I'm a dummy, but I'm no moron. I am a master observer of human nature...[
2 Comments:
Big Dummy - Do you think kids should have to go back to the old days where they stand in the corner and wear "Dunce" hats for being stupid? Better yet - what if the adults had to in this situation?
I think teachers deserve more - especially in Detroit.
I definitely agree that teachers usually deserve better pay. Other than us crash test dummies, they are the most underappreciated profession.
I still think that the mission (i.e., the kids) is lost when it gets to this point. It's a lose-lose-lose situation.
And, as far as wearing dunce hats, I feel that it's still a heckuva lot better than being hurtled at a car factory wall. Only people with pointy heads should wear them.
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