HCEA Proud to be a Harper Creek Teacher
  • Homecoming Parade 2018
  • Retirement 2018 Celebration
  • 2017 Senior Walk
  • Raise Your Voice
  • Stakes Are High!
  • Homecoming Sept. 30th, 2016
  • HCEA RETIREMENT
  • Christmas 2015
  • Homecoming 2015
  • Spirit Week
  • August 2015
  • Recognition Ceremony
  • May & June 2015
  • 2015 May Negotiation Update
  • Ridgeway's 90 Day Plan
  • April News
  • FYI: FEB. 2015
  • June 2014: New Board Policy
  • Excerpt of WonderMakers' Report
  • Wonder Makers
  • Two Winners
  • FYI
  • Homecoming 2014
  • Back to School
  • HCEA RETIREMENTS
  • Celebration
  • FYI-Stay Informed
  • Reports: Clear as Mud
  • Symptoms of Unsolved Mystery
  • Road Trip to Ferris State
  • CO2 Readings at HCMS
  • CO2 Point and Counterpoint
  • Response To CO2 Concern
  • Future Worries?
  • March Update on Grievance
  • High School Conferences
  • March HCEA NEWSLETTER
  • Safety First?
  • BCPS Teachers' Solidarity
  • Dr. Rodabaugh's Report
  • Rodabaugh's Credentials
  • Point Counterpoint
  • MEA UniServ Update
  • Dec. 20th Tunnel Crawl
  • On Site Visit
  • Voices Via Harper Creek
  • HC Students Experience Burke's Metaphor
  • FYI - Surfing for Information
  • MEA Support & Process
  • Update on Process
  • Presentation
  • Voices of HCEA
  • Oaks' students & HCHS
  • December Newsletter
  • Boot Em 2013
  • Murder In The Heirs
  • November
  • Communications on Grievance
  • HCEA FILES A GRIEVANCE
  • More than Bricks and Mortar...
  • October Minutes
  • Wallerius' Art Classes
  • October
  • Harper Creek Students' Projects
  • Memorial in Grand Rapids to Unions
  • Homecoming Parade 2013
  • Staff Appreciation Breakfast
  • Aug. News & HCEA Breakfast
  • July News...
  • Board Presentation Via Fred Beachler
  • Betty Picard's Art Classes
  • Schofield's Class Find Voice
  • Bene Johnson's Art Classes
  • Zachary Wallerius' Art Classes
  • Barb Remaley's HCEA Retirement Party
  • HCHS ARTS
  • HCEA OFFICERS for 2013 through 2015
  • HCHS CLASS OF 2013
  • Harper Creek Teacher's Husband Returns from Afghanistan
  • FYI (Keep Informed))
  • Workers' Rights Rally Dec. 11, 2012 HCEA PROUD!
  • Boot em to the Curb
  • Nov. Election High Stakes
  • Six Ballot Proposals
  • The Time Is Now
  • November Election
  • Another HCEA Voice
  • Loss
  • Updates!
  • Common Good or Greed?
  • FYI Dates to Remember
  • Giving Voice
  • What is the truth?
  • Retirement Celebration
  • May 30th Update
  • Dues
  • Trends of Truth
  • Celebrate
  • Bargaining April 26th
  • Bargaining April 19th
  • United We Stand
  • Why Push?
  • Equity & Dignity
  • Unite!
  • CISD
  • Imp. Dates
  • Worker Bees Unite
  • Bargaining
  • Solidarity
  • Value-Added (Not)
  • MI Ignores Research
  • State & Local
  • The Public School
  • Transparent (NOT)
  • Sonoma Tree & Year in Review
  • Wattles Park Breakfast
  • HCHS Boot em
  • MI News
  • Don't Be A Turkey!
  • Miles to go ...
  • MEA PRESIDENT UPDATE
  • Dialogue Continues...
  • MEA Pushes Back
  • From the Archives
  • While You Were Teaching...
  • Lansing Update
  • HCEA and HC Events Save the Dates
  • Hold On
  • Introductions
  • Meet the Board
  • Community
  • CMU
  • CMU Photos
  • March on D.C.
  • The Dog Days of Summer
  • Knowledge Is Power
  • STEP UP
  • Keep the Faith
  • Local News
  • FYI
  • Pow-Wow: Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatom
  • Retirement Party
  • No Money ? Really?
  • Legislators $ and less work
  • MESSA CHOICES II IN TA
  • What is New in Lansing
  • Imagine...
  • MEA Radio &
  • Be Not Afraid...
  • While you were...
  • May 21st Lansing Rally
  • Trends of Truth
  • May 25th Bargaining Update
  • Mediation May 11th
  • 4/28/11 Bargaining Update
  • Local HCEA News/Participation Events
  • Questions?
  • Priority Health Update
  • May Update
  • Michigan Ground Zero
  • Historical Perspective of Teacher Unions
  • Solidarity Project
  • Solidarity Bracelets
  • Jase Bolger ?s
  • Jase Bolger Event
  • We Are...
  • State/National News
  • Local News
  • Solidarity Clips
  • Bargaining Team Update
  • Members' Words...
  • Inspirational Quotations
    • Fighting the Good Fight
  • Give Voice with Words
  • HCEA PROUD
  • Solidarity Forever
    • Looking Great in Yellow Green
    • Fire Snyder Page
  • Fighting the Good Fight
    • Untitled
    • What's New
  • General Meeting
  • FYI
  • Patterns Form...
  • Middle School Locker Room
  • Varsity Locker Room at Middle School
  • Up to Standards?
  • High School Snow and Water
  • Feb. 20th Second Day of Flood
  • Maintaining Schools
  • Tentative Agreement
  • Seniors 2017

In what other profession...     - David Reber, Topeka K-12 Examiner

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I'm going to step out of my usual third-person writing voice for a moment.  As a parent I received a letter last week from the Kansas State Board of Education, informing me that my children's school district had been placed on "improvement" status for failing to meet "adequate yearly progress" under the No Child Left Behind law.

I thought it ironic that our schools were judged inadequate by people who haven't set foot in them, so I wrote a letter to my local newspaper.  Predictably, my letter elicited a deluge of comments in the paper's online forum.  Many remarks came from armchair educators and anti-teacher, anti-public school evangelists quick to discredit anything I had to say under the rationale of "he's a teacher."  What could a teacher possibly know about education?

Countless arguments used to denigrate public school teachers begin with the phrase "in what other profession..." and conclude with practically anything the anti-teacher pundits find offensive about public education.  Due process and collective bargaining are favorite targets, as are the erroneous but tightly held beliefs that teachers are under-worked, over-paid (earning million-dollar pensions), and not accountable for anything.


In what other profession, indeed...

Michigan Republicans:  Let's Privatize Public School Teaching by Andy Kroll (Mother Jones)

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In Michigan, a state perennially crippled by budget deficits, public school districts across the state have already outsourced their bus drivers, cafeteria workers, sports coaches, and janitors to try and save money.  Now Republicans in Michigan's state Legislature want to take the outsourcing frenzy one giant leap forward by privatizing public school teaching.

Michigan Republican Sen. Phil Pavlov, who chairs the state Senate's education committee, is preparing legislation that would allow public school districts to hire teachers through private, for-profit companies.  Privatizing the hiring process would presumably allow school districts to bypass compensation packages sought by teachers unions and let private companies compete for contracts with districts... (Read the rest)


"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.  Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope." - Robert Francis Kennedy

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Rewriting CEO pay   (NBC 8-31-2011)

West Virginia learns Finland's "most honorable profession":  Teacher

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(CNN)  When newly minted West Virginia Schools Superintendent Dr. Steven Paine told parents, teachers and educators in 2005 that he wanted to use Finland as a model for their education system, he got a lot of blank stares:  Finland?  What, people asked does West Virginia have to do with Finland?

The Contrast couldn't be more stark.  In West Virginia, many children face poverty, illiteracy and broken homes and lack easy access to health care or proper nutrition.

Finland has a largely literate and relatively homogeneous population, little immigration and almost no poverty or social problems.  They also offer a vast network of social supports including free meals and health care for school children.      (READ THE REST)

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