What is this country coming to? My 13-year-old son told me today that the Cross he wears on a chain around his neck is not allowed to be visible while he is at school.

Needless to say I became completely unglued. I ordered, yes ordered, him to wear that chain around his neck in plain sight. 

I instructed him that if any member of the faculty says anything, that he is to give them my cell phone number. Now I wait with baited breath. 

When I get that call I will burn rubber to get there and in their faces. They are going to get a rant about how two of my son’s Great Grandfathers fought and were wounded in WW I, how his grandfathers served in WW II and Korea, his Uncle was killed in a firefight in Vietnam, and his cousin was severely wounded in Iraq. 

His ancestors made these sacrifices to grant my son, and theirs, freedom of religion. I’ll be damned if some politically-correct bleeding heart liberal commie pinko will take that right away from my son.

If you are an educator, you should stop reading now because it is about to get ugly.

I don’t like to lump all educators, or any other group, together and paint them all with the same brush, but in this case I will make an exception.

I have several friends who are educators and believe it or not, are also conservatives. They are “closet conservatives”–they don’t want to get beat up on the playground–and they are few and far between.

Clearly the vast overwhelming majority of educators at all levels are extremely liberal.

When I taught ROTC at a state university I got to know a lot of professors. There were two who were firearm enthusiasts.

Yes I know, hard to believe. These guys were great. But what blew my mind was that whenever we would be walking on campus and would pass other professors who would say hello to me, after they passed, my friends would ask inquisitively “You know them?”

I would always confirm that they were a friend or an acquaintance. They would inevitably retort “You think that they are your friend? They are part of the organization trying to get ROTC thrown off of campus!” This happened over and over again.

My boss and I knew that this was a very real movement with a fair amount of student support.  He is a brilliant guy and when the new University President was interviewing all of the department heads he went in with a desk side brief on his laptop. 

The President started the conversation with “What can I do for you?” The Colonel’s response was “Nothing, let me show you what we do for you.” 

His statistics showed how many hundreds of thousands of dollars the Army brought to the campus every semester. Additionally, the Army was the single largest employer of graduates from that University. 

The President was impressed. We were the only folks not asking for something. We never worried about being ejected from the campus after that.

Now I know that that teachers will never be conservative and it would be wrong for them to teach a strictly conservative view. But when they bring their own opinions into the classroom that is equally wrong.  

I was helping out at my daughter’s charter school a few years ago and was in the teacher’s lunchroom. It was right after the Virginia Tech shooting. 

One of the teachers said “Did you hear what President Bush said yesterday?” In a horrified tone she said, “He said that ‘This is not the time to discuss more gun control!” 

The dozen or so teachers just slowly shook their heads side to side in disgust. I was stunned and silent for a moment. 

Finally I shouted “Don’t any of you actually listen to the news? Any news? You call yourselves educators and not one of you actually watched the news last night, or you would know how wrong she is!” 

You see it was a then-campaigning John McCain who was answering a left field question from a reporter who asked if the shooting would justify more gun control. McCain said that this was a time for mourning and not the time to discuss that.

It was not Bush and it was not an unprovoked statement, as she had made it sound. These teachers are an embarrassment to their profession and in my rage I think that I told them that.  Then I proceeded to inform the principal of her staff’s ignorance.

I know that I am going to hear it from a lot of people out there, and I know teaching is not as easy as the good teachers make it look. I have had two teaching gigs and I loved both of them despite the company. 

Additionally, with the few number of hours you are actually at the podium and the vast expanses of down time (ie. Christmas breaks, Spring breaks, Summer breaks)  you won’t get any sympathy from the average person who logs 40+ hours a week for 50weeks a year.

I would like to the schools to go year round. With that should also go salary increases. If you want the best and the brightest you have to pay for it.

Here is the bottom line: what educators do is extremely important. Perhaps one of the MOST important jobs out there.  They are training the future doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers, etc. etc. and Leaders. 

Therefore we have the right, no make that the responsibility, to expect excellence from our educators. Part of that excellence is fair, balanced, objective instruction. Teach them how to think, not what to think. If your schools are not doing that, then you need to get involved.