The treatment of teachers and education in general in the USA is criminal. Not "bordering on criminal," but criminal.
How are American children able to participate in the "pursuit of Happiness" without a sufficient education?
The first complaint listed against the King in the Declaration of Independence states, "He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good."
Where are "the most wholesome and necessary" Federal laws guaranteeing American children receive a quality education, without fear of overcrowding and overworked/underpaid teachers?
The federal govt. does not question adding billions, or trillions more, to the defense budget, but refuses to consider the importance of education.
Summer, this is heartbreaking, and so true. I often am so incredibly flummoxed by what the United States could be, what its government could offer people, and what choices are made instead. And the fact that a great deal of the trouble is obviously attributed to the whole boot strap, Independence, rugged trope is confounding.
Thank you for sharing where your heart is. Thank you for being in the schools and community filling gaps you shouldn’t have to fill.
A "novel idea": let love guide us. Let us look out for each other. Let us celebrate and discuss and share and be enriched and enlivened by our differences and our similarities. Let's rip down the money altar.
Let's stop worshipping and emulating greedy billionaire assholes and their criminal corporations. Let's stop fucking up the planet and leaving a hopeless hell-hole for our kids to suffer in. Let's stop ignoring genocide. Let's stop leaving people on the sidewalk to rot or imprisoning them FOR FUCKING PROFIT!
We can photograph far-flung corners the universe with incredibly reliable, superbly engineered spacecraft, but we can't feed and house and educate and spend time with our young folks? We can come up with the most horrifying, sci-fi weapons of mass destruction that can literally obliterate ALL life forms on this planet, but we can't provide free, clean energy for all(the technology exists) and employ permaculture-among other tools- to resuscitate our ecosystem and feed errry-body???
There was a band in the 70's named WAR, and one of their biggest hits was"Why Can't We Be Friends?" Good question! Can we, at the very least...PAUSE...and breathe...and LOOK at each other...and recognize our common humanity...and muster the discipline to be fucking civil? Maybe we don't dive straight into the kumbaya shit, but, goddamn, can we at least pause the screeching and chest-pounding and gun-slinging long enough to call a long truce and attend to the wounded, the terminally depressed, the shell-socked, and the dying...?
I should probably edit this, but...fuck it...
Thank you for your committment and your engagement and your passion. Ditto to the rest of y'all who haven't given up and humbly press on.
I'm glad you didn't edit this. You're on point with all of them! I love WAR, too. And we need to stop centering $. This culture was built on violence, genocide, and $ over people, so here we are. Surprise, surprise. The whole world at this point, mostly, thanks to colonization. Time to start over, for sure. Center people over profit. I've oft wondered how we can have a video of with my voice saying something I never said, but we can't feed and house people, we can't put our kids in safe schools, and it costs more to incarcerate an adult than house them?! We are self-centered and short-sighted, and it starts with our fucked up myths and stories and heroes. The false binary (good/bad) the one superhero who goes at it alone, the winner vs. loser dichotomy, sports... the loss of Indigenous ways that center elders, women, children, embracing vulnerability, protecting it, to see it as a strength. Thank you for your rant/ramble!!! <3
This made me cry. I know the cultural roots of this self-destructive malaise are deep and ancient, and real transformation will take longer than our short time here on earth. But when and if it comes, what you do and have done will be part of it.
Awesome, KK, thank you. I'm told that the new age upon us, the Aquarian age, will bring forth more collectivist thinking as less one of individualism. We're gonna need it!
The way you described the stress on parents (their jobs going away, property taxes, cost of living) funneling down into kids who are told to bottle it up without tools or support is a really clear view of the problem. The way you describe the classroom as a community barometer of dumped emotions hits deep...so true and sad that those in power are preventing investment in schools and our kids. We have so many resources and yet what we choose to do with them is baffling.
Summer, I’m with you 100%. Dunleavy is such a hypocritical greedy fuck. He slashes everything including teacher pay and retirement and yet collects a tier 1 pension. How convenient for him. I’m sure if you challenged him on it he would say “well, we worked harder back then…” and then throw in some republican rhetoric about “entitled teachers!!”
You’re whole list of ‘how we got here’ is spot on. I like how you pointed to addiction too. We are a addicted culture to; identity, power, greed, lust, food, caffeine, psyche meds, alcohol, drama, meth, heroine, status, success, titles, phones, video games, social media, stock prices and most dangerously…..cults!!
It would seem Plato may have been right about the dangerous fall of democracies. Let’s hope a wave of enlightment comes before it’s too late!!
Thank you for this very important article. It truely is heartbreaking to watch this before our very eyes. Bless you my fellow Alaska friend.🙏 Stay strong!!💪
Summer, I'm so glad you're carrying the torch for public education. I taught newly arrived immigrant middle schoolers for six years before moving to high school alternative (adjudicated) education for 24 more. I know all you say and more is true.
And Alaska doesn't have a teacher retirement system? That is contemptible. Keep up the pressure. Nothing changes unless we insist on it.
That's awesome you did that, Mark! We do have retirement, but it's not a pension, which is a big difference. We're the only state in all 50 that does not have a teacher pension. Thank you for your support!
Summer, I've been trying, but still can't distinguish retirement/pension. What does that mean in Alaska besides they're trying to screw teachers... again?
My understanding is a retirement plan is funding by the individual whereas a pension plan is funded by your employer. Plus, the pension plan lasts until you die. Retirement plan no longer receives contributions once you stop working.
So the retirement plan is just your own investment, it sounds like. Yeah, just another way for "conservatives" in government to show they despise teachers. Keep up the terrific, important work, Summer!
There is no money for anyone but the rich and the corrupt government in the U.S. We have been taxed to death and pummeled with inflation. The middle class is all but gone. It’s not particularly the elephants or the donkeys squeezing us, it’s widespread corruption in the US congress and the Administration, along with state and city officials. It’s the same in Europe & elsewhere.
You have to go online, alternative sources to get the picture because the old, mainstream sources are censored. Many sources are right here on Substack.
We need to vote these jackasses out and start over.
I know this doesn’t help you out, right now, in Alaska, but take heart, the end of all this corruption is coming. It may get worse before it gets better, but pray and have faith.
Thank you for your service as a teacher, and community stalwart. Love your posts too!
Thank you for writing. I suspect if you surveyed teachers here in New Zealand you would get a similar sentiment.
As someone in my 40’s working hard to reconnect with my feelings and undo the emotional suppression conditioned as a child, it feels like a long unnecessary detour in embracing what it is to be human.
Oof, that's hard to hear, Mark, I'm sorry. I always envisioned NZ as a utopia compared to the U.S., but I suppose the trappings of colonization (individualism) have made their way everywhere. And in the U.S., even bright blue states like Washington and Hawaii are struggling with education. Washington teachers had to sue the state to get a wage increase, and they won! Apparently, schools are overcrowded in Hawaii, and in California, we had to go on strike to get fair wages. We also won. Yep, even in states with Democratic leadership.
Thank you so much for sharing about your school system and thank you for all that you do! I’m a school social worker, and while we’re blessed with funding for curriculum and sports, we have a long way to go in our community when it comes to supporting the mental health needs of our students and families. I’ve always found it so backwards though that the schools performing well get the funding - why would you cut funding for a struggling school when they clearly need it??? We for sure have to change the system if we want to fix the overarching issue here.
I write this from Texas, apparently as the other humongous state in this Union, a fellow traveler with Alaska in the toxic patriarchy of rugged individualism! Only here the governor was dead set on a school voucher program whereby he would releave the public schools of funding and hand it in the form of vouchers to anyone who wanted to move their kids to some overpriced private school in the name of parental freedom of choice. Of course this would gut and destroy most of the public school systems. When some of his fellow Republicans in the legislature saw the fallacy and wouldn't go along, he funded a political posse to Primary those heros who stood up!
Ugh! Our gov took the notes from your gov and did the exact same thing! They're all trading notes, clearly. I recall in the earlier 2000s the Republican platform on education in Texas specifically stated they were against critical thinking. I couldn't believe that! Later they retracted it, but it was very telling...
Thank you, Summer, for the 2 very eloquent essays on teachers and schools. I worked as a teacher's assistant for special ed kids and as a school librarian for 10 years. I saw the awful cuts in budgets and creative arts and the lack of respect for teachers and the education of our children. How can people not see that not prioritizing our children's educational and social needs is so harmful. How will they grow up to be happy, intelligent, caring, community-centered people without the tools they need?
This is so sad. It also mirrors what is happening in state schools in the UK. I hope funding is approved and education is recognised as precious in Alaska by your leaders.
Oh no, not there, too! Sounds like it's everywhere. Someone from NZ said it's prevalent over there, too. This requires a major cultural shift, IMO. Gratefully, they say that moving into the new astrological age of Aquarius, we will see a cultural shift from individualism to collectivism. This world needs it, that's for sure!
America spends most of its money on “defense,” wars, and killing people and spends a pittance on education. The deluded right wing keeps voting for pro-corporate, anti-human agendas that decimate our education, culture, art, literature, theater, music and dance—all the things that nourish our souls and sustain us as human beings. It’s despicable and heartbreaking. 💔
The treatment of teachers and education in general in the USA is criminal. Not "bordering on criminal," but criminal.
How are American children able to participate in the "pursuit of Happiness" without a sufficient education?
The first complaint listed against the King in the Declaration of Independence states, "He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good."
Where are "the most wholesome and necessary" Federal laws guaranteeing American children receive a quality education, without fear of overcrowding and overworked/underpaid teachers?
The federal govt. does not question adding billions, or trillions more, to the defense budget, but refuses to consider the importance of education.
🤬 It belies belief.
Hang in there and keep fighting the good fight.
So true. Thank you for your support, Steve!
Summer, this is heartbreaking, and so true. I often am so incredibly flummoxed by what the United States could be, what its government could offer people, and what choices are made instead. And the fact that a great deal of the trouble is obviously attributed to the whole boot strap, Independence, rugged trope is confounding.
Thank you for sharing where your heart is. Thank you for being in the schools and community filling gaps you shouldn’t have to fill.
Thank you for seeing, hearing, and understanding, & thank you for your advocacy!
Oh, hell yeah!
Begin co-signing, rambling rant...
A "novel idea": let love guide us. Let us look out for each other. Let us celebrate and discuss and share and be enriched and enlivened by our differences and our similarities. Let's rip down the money altar.
Let's stop worshipping and emulating greedy billionaire assholes and their criminal corporations. Let's stop fucking up the planet and leaving a hopeless hell-hole for our kids to suffer in. Let's stop ignoring genocide. Let's stop leaving people on the sidewalk to rot or imprisoning them FOR FUCKING PROFIT!
We can photograph far-flung corners the universe with incredibly reliable, superbly engineered spacecraft, but we can't feed and house and educate and spend time with our young folks? We can come up with the most horrifying, sci-fi weapons of mass destruction that can literally obliterate ALL life forms on this planet, but we can't provide free, clean energy for all(the technology exists) and employ permaculture-among other tools- to resuscitate our ecosystem and feed errry-body???
There was a band in the 70's named WAR, and one of their biggest hits was"Why Can't We Be Friends?" Good question! Can we, at the very least...PAUSE...and breathe...and LOOK at each other...and recognize our common humanity...and muster the discipline to be fucking civil? Maybe we don't dive straight into the kumbaya shit, but, goddamn, can we at least pause the screeching and chest-pounding and gun-slinging long enough to call a long truce and attend to the wounded, the terminally depressed, the shell-socked, and the dying...?
I should probably edit this, but...fuck it...
Thank you for your committment and your engagement and your passion. Ditto to the rest of y'all who haven't given up and humbly press on.
I'm glad you didn't edit this. You're on point with all of them! I love WAR, too. And we need to stop centering $. This culture was built on violence, genocide, and $ over people, so here we are. Surprise, surprise. The whole world at this point, mostly, thanks to colonization. Time to start over, for sure. Center people over profit. I've oft wondered how we can have a video of with my voice saying something I never said, but we can't feed and house people, we can't put our kids in safe schools, and it costs more to incarcerate an adult than house them?! We are self-centered and short-sighted, and it starts with our fucked up myths and stories and heroes. The false binary (good/bad) the one superhero who goes at it alone, the winner vs. loser dichotomy, sports... the loss of Indigenous ways that center elders, women, children, embracing vulnerability, protecting it, to see it as a strength. Thank you for your rant/ramble!!! <3
I loved your comments.........so on point. Sometimes I really become despondent at the lack of clarity, vision, truth and kindness on our planet.
I get it...Scary stuff happenin'...Take care!
This made me cry. I know the cultural roots of this self-destructive malaise are deep and ancient, and real transformation will take longer than our short time here on earth. But when and if it comes, what you do and have done will be part of it.
Awesome, KK, thank you. I'm told that the new age upon us, the Aquarian age, will bring forth more collectivist thinking as less one of individualism. We're gonna need it!
The way you described the stress on parents (their jobs going away, property taxes, cost of living) funneling down into kids who are told to bottle it up without tools or support is a really clear view of the problem. The way you describe the classroom as a community barometer of dumped emotions hits deep...so true and sad that those in power are preventing investment in schools and our kids. We have so many resources and yet what we choose to do with them is baffling.
Thank you, Van! <3 thanks for your support
Summer, I’m with you 100%. Dunleavy is such a hypocritical greedy fuck. He slashes everything including teacher pay and retirement and yet collects a tier 1 pension. How convenient for him. I’m sure if you challenged him on it he would say “well, we worked harder back then…” and then throw in some republican rhetoric about “entitled teachers!!”
You’re whole list of ‘how we got here’ is spot on. I like how you pointed to addiction too. We are a addicted culture to; identity, power, greed, lust, food, caffeine, psyche meds, alcohol, drama, meth, heroine, status, success, titles, phones, video games, social media, stock prices and most dangerously…..cults!!
It would seem Plato may have been right about the dangerous fall of democracies. Let’s hope a wave of enlightment comes before it’s too late!!
Thank you for this very important article. It truely is heartbreaking to watch this before our very eyes. Bless you my fellow Alaska friend.🙏 Stay strong!!💪
Thank you, Christopher! Knowing there are people like you in this great state gives me hope!
Summer, I'm so glad you're carrying the torch for public education. I taught newly arrived immigrant middle schoolers for six years before moving to high school alternative (adjudicated) education for 24 more. I know all you say and more is true.
And Alaska doesn't have a teacher retirement system? That is contemptible. Keep up the pressure. Nothing changes unless we insist on it.
That's awesome you did that, Mark! We do have retirement, but it's not a pension, which is a big difference. We're the only state in all 50 that does not have a teacher pension. Thank you for your support!
Summer, I've been trying, but still can't distinguish retirement/pension. What does that mean in Alaska besides they're trying to screw teachers... again?
My understanding is a retirement plan is funding by the individual whereas a pension plan is funded by your employer. Plus, the pension plan lasts until you die. Retirement plan no longer receives contributions once you stop working.
So the retirement plan is just your own investment, it sounds like. Yeah, just another way for "conservatives" in government to show they despise teachers. Keep up the terrific, important work, Summer!
There is no money for anyone but the rich and the corrupt government in the U.S. We have been taxed to death and pummeled with inflation. The middle class is all but gone. It’s not particularly the elephants or the donkeys squeezing us, it’s widespread corruption in the US congress and the Administration, along with state and city officials. It’s the same in Europe & elsewhere.
You have to go online, alternative sources to get the picture because the old, mainstream sources are censored. Many sources are right here on Substack.
We need to vote these jackasses out and start over.
I know this doesn’t help you out, right now, in Alaska, but take heart, the end of all this corruption is coming. It may get worse before it gets better, but pray and have faith.
Thank you for your service as a teacher, and community stalwart. Love your posts too!
Peace & Blessings
Thanks so much, James. From your mouth to God's ears!
Thank you for writing. I suspect if you surveyed teachers here in New Zealand you would get a similar sentiment.
As someone in my 40’s working hard to reconnect with my feelings and undo the emotional suppression conditioned as a child, it feels like a long unnecessary detour in embracing what it is to be human.
Oof, that's hard to hear, Mark, I'm sorry. I always envisioned NZ as a utopia compared to the U.S., but I suppose the trappings of colonization (individualism) have made their way everywhere. And in the U.S., even bright blue states like Washington and Hawaii are struggling with education. Washington teachers had to sue the state to get a wage increase, and they won! Apparently, schools are overcrowded in Hawaii, and in California, we had to go on strike to get fair wages. We also won. Yep, even in states with Democratic leadership.
Thank you so much for sharing about your school system and thank you for all that you do! I’m a school social worker, and while we’re blessed with funding for curriculum and sports, we have a long way to go in our community when it comes to supporting the mental health needs of our students and families. I’ve always found it so backwards though that the schools performing well get the funding - why would you cut funding for a struggling school when they clearly need it??? We for sure have to change the system if we want to fix the overarching issue here.
That system you mention enrages me. Which is why I was completely against giving teachers bonuses, as our gov suggested. So backwards, like you say.
I write this from Texas, apparently as the other humongous state in this Union, a fellow traveler with Alaska in the toxic patriarchy of rugged individualism! Only here the governor was dead set on a school voucher program whereby he would releave the public schools of funding and hand it in the form of vouchers to anyone who wanted to move their kids to some overpriced private school in the name of parental freedom of choice. Of course this would gut and destroy most of the public school systems. When some of his fellow Republicans in the legislature saw the fallacy and wouldn't go along, he funded a political posse to Primary those heros who stood up!
Ugh! Our gov took the notes from your gov and did the exact same thing! They're all trading notes, clearly. I recall in the earlier 2000s the Republican platform on education in Texas specifically stated they were against critical thinking. I couldn't believe that! Later they retracted it, but it was very telling...
Thank you, Summer, for the 2 very eloquent essays on teachers and schools. I worked as a teacher's assistant for special ed kids and as a school librarian for 10 years. I saw the awful cuts in budgets and creative arts and the lack of respect for teachers and the education of our children. How can people not see that not prioritizing our children's educational and social needs is so harmful. How will they grow up to be happy, intelligent, caring, community-centered people without the tools they need?
Right? "It's just our future. Oh well... screw the future. At least I get mine." Thank you for your comment, and support, and your service for kids!
So sad to hear how f*****d up this situation is for Alaska's kids and teachers. Toxic culture.
Yup :(
Love this, thank you. Rugged individualism is killing all of us. Fixing it will start with the kids.
Yes! 100%! thank you
This is so sad. It also mirrors what is happening in state schools in the UK. I hope funding is approved and education is recognised as precious in Alaska by your leaders.
Oh no, not there, too! Sounds like it's everywhere. Someone from NZ said it's prevalent over there, too. This requires a major cultural shift, IMO. Gratefully, they say that moving into the new astrological age of Aquarius, we will see a cultural shift from individualism to collectivism. This world needs it, that's for sure!
America spends most of its money on “defense,” wars, and killing people and spends a pittance on education. The deluded right wing keeps voting for pro-corporate, anti-human agendas that decimate our education, culture, art, literature, theater, music and dance—all the things that nourish our souls and sustain us as human beings. It’s despicable and heartbreaking. 💔
Yep 💔