Listen up, teacher’s talking
NOW, how’s it happen that American Federation of Teachers’ Randi Weingarten is always in the headlines?
“I’m a middle-class kid. Eastern Europe grandparents fled communism, totalitarianism. Mother’s doctor father, who spoke seven languages, then opened a dress store in Nyack. Mother, a teacher. Father, engineer. Me into civics. Realizing America deserves education, security, freedom, house, family, vacation, schools and union — I got involved.”
Explain schools. Explain Harvard.
“I’m a patriot. Hate is not OK. We criticizing the Jewish state or criticizing Jews? Our country has antisemitism, Arab hate, racism, ‘Death to the Jews,’ which is antisemitism. Disagreeing with Netanyahu isn’t. Protest is our tradition of free expression. For Palestinians and Jews to have land and rights is appropriate. College presidents didn’t state values. Instead, they got afraid.”
As to why today’s schoolkids can’t read cursive, she said:
“Tech powerhouses don’t want to teach it anymore. It’s that too much is now already on our smartphones. True we’re not spending enough time in early elementary on our basics — especially for kids who come to this country. I agree more time needs to be spent on that.
“I’m a civics teacher. I understand that when everything focuses on test scores, staff scores and data, data, data you can’t always see improvement — or helping kids to thrive in the next two days.”
OK, so next step for Weingarten?
“Full responsibility for a full class. graduate and undergraduate students. I’ll be teaching at Cornell. The subjects are labor, education, change and problem solving.”
Honor role
The all “Oppenheimer” Oscars have already cast presenters Nicolas Cage, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser, Jessica Lange, Matthew McConaughey, Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya.
And a mazel tov to us all.
The reich and file
Back aways Hitler in power brought us Sinclair Lewis’ book “It Can’t Happen Here” about an imagined fascist dictator who said he’d serve the “Forgotten Man” and — then — stuck his enemies in concentration camps, dissolved Congress and people wildly supported him — up until they didn’t.
“It Can’t Happen Here” was because our Constitution does not contemplate a do-nothing Congress with a completely unprincipled executive.
However, we may now see what happens when Congress, abdicating its legislative and constitutional oversight duties, depends on the executive’s goodwill.
Just saying.
She’s still got ‘It’
TAYLOR Swift’s upcoming song about Clara Bow brought to mind Edward Epstein’s book “The ‘It’ Girl: The Incredible Story of Clara Bow.” He says: “Her choice to play her someday was Marilyn Monroe. They had similarities. Both moms institutionalized. Both stars had mental issues.” All again in his current book “Frank & Marilyn.”
RANDI Weingarten also once called education officials “a - - holes.”
Who knows if that meant only in New York, kids, only in New York.