The 2008 EIA Public Education Quotes of the Year

In the picture below our four year old Anastasia is practicing addition with Jim. The first step is to solve the problem on the abacus, the second step is to check the answer on the calculator and the final step is to confirm the answer on the Lake Shore addition machine. As any competent educator understands repetition is the key to learning math.



Ten more reasons why we hope to homeschool. Thanks to the The Education Intelligence Agency for publishing these ten great quotes.



Cathy

The 2008 EIA Public Education Quotes of the Year

EIA is proud to present the 2008 Public Education Quotes of the Year, in countdown order. Enjoy!

10) "I don't think we should ever lay off teachers." – Manchester, New Hampshire Alderman Mark Roy. (May 29 Manchester Union-Leader)

9) "What an a**hole." – Madison Teachers Inc. Executive Director John Matthews, offering a terse commentary on Stan Johnson, former president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council. (March 27 Isthmus Daily Page)

8) "Obama's right that the NCLB-inspired testing mania is out of control, but wrong to give teachers 'ownership over the design of better assessment tools.' That's a recipe for no assessment, because the teachers unions, for all their lip service, don't believe their members should be judged on performance. They still believe that protecting incompetents is more important than educating children." – Columnist Jonathan Alter. (July 21 Newsweek)

7) "I had an experience in the past couple of weeks that really evolved my thinking about charter schools. I used to think charters were the epitome of all evil, and just created solely to bring down public schools. After my experience, I find I need to alter that view a lot. The people I met at this charter conference, I must say, are just like me, just like you. People who were simply fed up with the status quo and were tired of hitting their head against a system that will not change." – Julie Washington, elementary vice president of United Teachers Los Angeles. (August 6 Socialist Worker)

6) "You'd think it would be a no-brainer that people who don't perform get the axe and those who do get raises. Isn't that the way it works in most nonunionized professions? But the teachers union apparently exists in some alternate universe where everyone is rewarded equally regardless of the quality of their work." - Leonard Pitts Jr. (November 16 Miami Herald)

5) "Until we really do bust the teachers unions, the next generation of kids in public schools is at risk." - Andrew Sullivan. (November 13 Daily Dish)

4) "With increasing cost of college loans and health care and the fact that the buying power of the teacher dollar is no more than what it was 20 years ago, we're pretty much back to where we were when I started teaching in the 1960s. I had to work in the summer to eat." – Cheryl Umberger of the Tennessee Education Association. (May 23 Tennessean)

3) "If this is about morality, our president-elect has admitted to doing crack, and he's our president. Does that make him a bad person?" – Louisa C. Tuck, New Jersey elementary school cafeteria and playground aide, responding to parental complaints about her past employment in the adult entertainment industry under the name Crystal Gunns. (November 21 Vineland Daily Journal)

2) "By the way, had the teachers' union been around when Sam Adams threw tea into the harbor, they would have run ads against him." - Carla Howell, whose ballot initiative to eliminate the Massachusetts income tax was defeated by a well-funded union campaign. (November 5 Standard-Times)

1) "When the scores go up, it's not just meaningless. It's worrisome." – Alfie Kohn. (October 18 Salt Lake Tribune)