TEACHERS-AT-ARMS
©2018 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Teaching is one of the hardest jobs in America, for they perform one of the most challenging jobs — teaching the young — and they do so while being woefully underpaid.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median average wage for a teacher is $53,000 per year. Given that most men are paid between $10 and $20 -thousand dollars more than women (and most US teachers are women), it should surprise no one that the average cop gets about $70,000 per year.
The recent Trump cartoon-bubble calling for the arming of teachers in the face of high-powered massacres in American schools betray a profound ignorance of what teachers do and who they are.
Good teachers are people who have sacrificed considerable amounts of money to do what they love (teaching), for people whom they love (kids).
Are teachers going to be armed with automatic weapons to confront young men armed with semi-automatic weapons? Hardly.
But it does give us insight into the paranoid fantasies of Trumpists, who want to militarize teachers in a dystopian Fortress America.
When teachers want resources, such as better books, computers, or — heaven forbid — better pay, they get slapped down by the same politicians now demanding that they be equipped with Glocks and AR-15s!
This is madness.
Teachers aren’t commandos, nor should they be asked to be. Can you imagine the dangerous potential kids may face with armed, stressed teachers, overworked, underpaid and disrespected?
It’s not easy to teach, but it’s infinitely rewarding when students discover the sheer joy of learning.
Yes, teachers need help doing what they do, but not more weapons of war.
They need books, space, respect and better pay.
To the Trump Regime, things such as these are not on the table.
–©’18maj
