Comments on: A letter to my students

By: Charlie Valentine

Charlie Valentine — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:49:24 +0000

Cuts in Government spending seem to be the major talking point across the globe and education has been effected by this everywhere. But when I look at the Maths (sorry I didn’t go to Berkeley) more money is now spent on all public sectors including Education. The trouble is everything is more expensive now than it was 30 years ago and expectations are higher. When I when to college there were 12 computers in one computer suite, how many are there at Berkeley today? I still managed to pursue a computer related career. Not that 12 computers is adequate to teach now. But with more resources being required by everyone something has got to give and I have never seen a political party voted in by pledging to hike up taxes, no mater which generation we talk about.

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By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 04:22:05 +0000

Conner, perhaps you missed the part where he was talking about California? Your link is for Washington.

As for California, spending increases, but not on teachers or classrooms.

If you take into account the adjusted rate of per-pupil programmatic funding, then it has indeed fallen quite dramatically.

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By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 23:59:27 +0000

Surprised you don’t mention Prop 13, the distillation of your point: an entire generation of Californians screwed the next just to have more money to go on vacation.

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By: Connor

Connor — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 22:03:51 +0000

A well written essay, though errant as it may be. I completely agree that my parents generation has totally dropped the ball, but for reasons well beyond the scope of this letter. The fact is, spending on public education (per capita) has been on the rise for years. Don’t believe me? Check it yourselves. The real crime against my generation has been the decline of a public virtue and a feeling of entitlement. I see it everywhere. The government programs put in place to “help the poor” have done little more than alleviated the burden of the collective conscience of the populace. Why care for a neighbor in need if the government will take care of him for me? The moral decay, along with reckless spending has left an entire generation the job of cleaning up the mess of the baby boomers.

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By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 05:50:55 +0000

To Mary,
You rant like and old coot who is out of place in the world today. It is true that many kids do not get a job at 16 in this day and age.(I did have a job at 16 just FYI) It also true that 30 years ago math and science courses were MUCH easier. The amount of school work placed on most teens today is bordering on insane. Worse than that fact is that they also barely retain any of the school work they’re forced to learn. Our society constantly tells our youth that they are special and unique but then we push them through a cookie cutter education system that has no room for individuality. Rather than promoting free thought and self expansion we reward obedience and absolute submission to authority. So maybe you’re right about the youth of today, perhaps they are lazy and every other horrible thing you think about them. Though your anger is really misplaced. In the end only one group of people is to blame for any shortcomings of our youth. You and every other person from your generation. Together as a whole we are only a product of our mothers and fathers.

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By: Finbar

Finbar — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 03:55:55 +0000

I for one am proud to be spending full price for my child to have the opportunity to be exposed to thinkers like Doctor O’Hare. If the present public discourse had any long-term view we would value investment in infrastructure and intellect (through education) over some simplistic view of deficit reduction and racial blame. Go Bears and Go Professor!

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By: Carrie

Carrie — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 05:52:55 +0000

This is dead on. Criticisms of teachers are borne of those who want such criticisms to be true so a to support their political platforms, often because Americans are horrifically inadequate at examining their own viewpoints. Most set them at about eighteen, then spend sixty years defending them (whether they hold water or not). The they make arguments about things they know absolutely nothing about so as to support these stubborn platforms. I’ve been known to change my viewpoints easily, in the face of clear evidence, and am utterly disturbed by how often I amaccused of “blowing with the wind” because someone shows me how a predicate on which my assumptions were based is inaccurate, and I accordingly adjust. Americans on the whole respect steadfast adherence to viewpoints over informed decision-making. SCARY. In terms of teachers though, the vast majority that I have encountered work ten to twelve hour days for ridiculous salaries. In Arizona very few teachers make over $40,000, due to salary freezes now near fifteen years old. However, the cost of living in this state puts such a salary (especially when student loans figure in) in the poverty range- and yet these people work ten to twelve hours a day, and from what I have seen, most of them through the summer often doing jobs such as waiting tables, running cocktails or working at grocery stores-
to make ends meet. Those who are critical have so little clue what they are talking about, and are spewing such nastiness towards some of the only people left in society who still care about everyone else, that it is truly heart-breaking.

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By: Carrie

Carrie — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 05:35:41 +0000

Out of touch liberals? 70% of the wealth of this country is held by 10% of the population and this professor is out of touch? The Amerian public, as segregated family units each desperately trying to hold onto whatever it is that they have or have managed not to lose as of yet, has bought into the rhetoric of the super rich- that anyone trying to fund education systems (who by the way produce the public that will be charged with taking care of us when WE are are old) is evil and stealing the wealth of families. In reality what education and other necessary public services need is so minimal, and what the super rich are doing at the top is epic. The bank bailouts, the tax related corporate welfare- those are the big numbers. Education, basic social services, they aren’t. The bank bailouts, a corporate welfare culture? THAT is where your money is lost. Just ask Warren Buffet and George Soros- they ARE the super rich, and they are trying to tell the American public how ridiculously coddled they are by the financial system. Or the CEO of Starbucks, who now has 100 corporations on board……..

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By: Carrie

Carrie — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 03:59:25 +0000

I am a little confused, by cutting off funding to every student in California, you think you have solved illegal immigration issues? No concern for having pulled the investment in the future of the entire state of California to spitefully send a message that does nothing but screw almost everyone? I think this is the nature of the professor’s apology- a big “I’m sorry” that people like you were allowed to wreak havoc based on such uneducated, misguided, mean-spirited and flatly stupid conceptions. Good luck in your later years, my dear, because the populace you are unleashing on the state will never be able to take care of you, and will probably rob your retirement to fund their own existence. Thank yourself for your enlightened decision to screw your whole state when it happens.

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By: Violet

Violet — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 04:27:45 +0000

Really Mary? Their not victims because they didn’t have RABBIT ears growing up as kids?! I think you’ve missed the whole point of this professor’s letter. He’s trying to point out the dumbing down of society through certain tax cuts that caused things like mediocre high school education. You’re talking about loans? How about the fact that the government already regulates almost 100% of student loads, which means less competition and higher interest rates for students; which ultimately results in students taking years and years to pay back the student loans, demanding tax cuts just so they can pay all their bills off. Yes, this generation is indulged in distractions but that still doesn’t mean theirs not something wrong with the system.

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