The Washingon Education Association is currently enjoying days off under the guise of an illegal teacher’s strike in the State of Washington.

I was just looking at their Facebook page, which if full of pictures from the various strikes across the state. See if you make the same observation I did:

If you came up with, “and these are the people trying to teach my child independent thinking, critical analysis and diversity of thought,” you’d be right.

I watched from the 18th floor of my building as 100s of Seattle teachers all stood and mindlessly chanted whatever it was the speaker at the time chose to make them chant. It looked much more like a rally of sheep than a rally of instructors.

Their point, or cause, to have our legislature fully appoint funds to programs they committed to funding isn’t really in dispute. That’s certainly not my issue with these strikes. My issue is that we, the voters, put our legislators in charge, and it’s up to us to put whatever pressure we choose on them.

These people committed to teaching our children, and what they chose instead was to walk out on them while telling themselves that’s not what they did.

Check out this guy:

How’s that for irony? Leaving his students behind and their parents scrambling to find care for them on a day that was not a scheduled day off so he could stand outside with a picket sign wearing a t-shirt that describes what he SHOULD be doing but clearly is not.

What saddens me the most is that these people are not only being used by their union leadership who’s only purpose is to gain and wield power, but they’re also forced to pay them a union due that collectively amounts to more than any of these people make so those very same leaders can make them walk away from a job they love to stand outside and catch hell from parents wondering why their public schools are failing them.

Mmph.

Here’s , she’s a teacher, um… I mean, activist…

I’m sure her interviews were full of questions that went something like, “fine, you have teaching credentials, but can you agitate a group of your peers? Are you familiar with community organizing? You know, when you draw lines and turn individuals into groups so you can then segregate them and pit them against each other. Put simply, are you an activist?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Excellent! You’re hired.”

And to close, a union cause wouldn’t be complete without exploiting children:

All we can see of the first sign is “We think…” But that’s really enough. No, this kid doesn’t think about this at all. He’s standing there in that sign thinking “hold sign=cupcakes.” More accurately, his sign should read, “I’m being used by my Mom, who’s also teaching your kids.”

The girl underneath is holding a sign saying, “thank you teachers for caring enough to not do your job today.” She has very good handwriting, though.

Conclusions:

• Teachers all think alike.
• They’re all forced to pay a portion of their salary to people who make them do things.
• Walking out on students=teaching.
• Walking out on students=caring about students.
• You can spot a teacher because they wear red.
• Illegal strikes always work: you can tell because education is now fully funded.
• Parents don’t need to worry about this, the WEA has this under control.
• Thinking you’re doing something effective is more important than doing something effective.

I don’t have issues with teacher’s, per se, and I when I consider the profession, most of the above is not the first thing that comes to mind. But when they all mindlessly follow bad leadership, then their behavior speaks louder than anything I can say.

I could go on…