Oh! Ok dudes! My gloves are off! And I am going to tell you off. Some many of you chose to slam NSTA for not accepting the 50k copies of An Inconvenient Truth. Yes, I too was surprised by the news considering that almost all local and national conventions are about teachers getting freebies with corporate logos on them. Big surprise! Teachers have been scraping the bottom of the the barrel and their own pockets for years and years for science materials to teach kids. But yet, I still hear, "yeah, teachers get the summer off and teachers have good health care and retirement packages and so on." They have it good
But as someone who was nominated for the NSTA teacher of the year (didn't get it), I have a different perspective on NSTA and what it does for ALL of us. And yes, it was the SHELL NSTA Science teacher of the Year. This award is for 10,000 dollars to use in your classroom. But the award goes for work that had already BEEN done. And yes, you are darn right, that many of us are "whores for the corporate dollar". Fuck yeah, because it is for YOUR KIDS that we do this.
Many years ago, immediately after Sputnik there was a big infusion of cash for the teaching of science. But now many schools and children continue to suffer from the lack of real funding of good science teaching.
Do you have any idea what 10,000 dollars would have done to my science program in the inner city?
NSTA has been at the front lines of the battle against creationism and the battle defending evolution. NSTA offers teachers lesson plans on every topic for young teachers who are still developing their program. And old teachers that are trying to improve their teaching. NSTA has been tirelessly developing standards for science education at the national level. Go to the NSTA website and see for yourself.
An while we are on it, here have you been, huh?
Crickets chirping.
You John Q Public have sat on your fat ass and let the battle against our kids rage because they weren't your kids.
NCLB
charter schools
vouchers
High stakes testing
Because, many of you just think that blabbing in front of the kids is what teachers do and anyway anybody can do that.
So, NSTA decides to not accept a movie that people can buy themselves and show to their kids to protect the corporate sponsorship that helps them help teachers do a better job of teaching all topics in science. It is a deal with the devil, but what do you really expect?
Don't you drive a car, don't you pollute, isn't the state of public education the responsibility of it's citizens?
Well, look in the f***ing mirror, ladies and gents.
Accepting corporate dollars at a national level doesn't mean that everybody has "drunk the corporate shill koolaid". Do you really think that science teachers are not teaching climate change? Science teachers have a lot to cover and we don't get much help from you guys, period.
So Shell give NSTA money to promote good science instruction and you guy go nutso on NSTA because they don't want to endanger the funding that keeps their good work going. Well, where is my 10,000 dollars, eh? Where is the Daily Kos Science teacher of the year award?
You take the easy way out and crap on an excellent organization because they can't afford to lose their cash cows. Don't you know we take their money and still teach what we want to. How do you know that many science teachers don't already have AIT in their home libraries and plan on using it. Why endanger your core funding for something people can readily access?
Get real! Get involved, contact your science teacher and ask, " What can I do to help you do your job?" Buy you a microscope? How about string and tooth picks, some magnets? Several prisms? Hand lenses? A copy of an Inconvenient Truth? A proper scale? An aquarium? Have YOU visited your local school do you advocate public schools to your politicians locally, nationally? March down to city hall and protest the way the snow blows in through the 100 year old windows while the kids sit with their winter coats on?
Yes, I repeat in a better world NSTA should not have rejected the offer of those disks but in a better world NSTA should not have had to DEPEND on corporate giving to support their/our science education efforts.
Would you rather NOT have the funding and NOT be able to defend against creationism and defend evolution and other reality based science instruction.
Sometime we have to dance with the devil in order to get our goodies. Remember the way to hell is paved with good intentions. Your nasty letters to NSTA are written with good intentions to help the planet by showing kids a important movie. But bashing an organization that HAS to compromise in order to protect their main mission of helping science teachers teach good science in America's schools is useful to you cause it make you feel soooooo rightious. That is bullshit. Did you write that congressman about NCLB, yet?
THAT IS THE LETTER YOU SHOULD BE WRITING. THAT IS THE MOST SERIOUS DAMAGE TO SCIENCE INSTRUCTION IN AMERICA. And THAT IS THE MOST DANGER TO OUR PLANET
Poorly educated future Americans.
Don't bash teachers, help them. Yes, we are "whores" but like most whores we love those whose allow us to have a roof over our heads and feed our "habits". Get real! So come on if you don't like us dancing with that other dude give us what we need........cash.
Adequate funding for America's schools.