If education doesn’t solve a problem, then it is a problem; If the educated do not solve problems, then they are the problems. ― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
Since the Second City is local news to us and I’ve been dying to tackle the latest CPS kerfuffle topic, let’s get right to it!
Here’s to Mayor Lightfoot?
There must be something to that twice daily correct broken clock analogy because, despite Chicago Mayor Lori “One And Done” Lightfoot’s so far disastrous reign, Her Honor deserves a boatload of credit for standing up to the Chicago Teachers Union by refusing to give in to their remote learning only blackmail.
And sure enough, faced with that firm resolve – and the stark reality that they weren’t gonna get paid – the CTU folded faster than Donald Trump on January 6th. Not to mention Chicago parents were seething at the absurd short notice regarding their forced continuing foray into the home-schooling minefield.
Considering that every last bit of plague science indicates the classroom is the safest place to be, Lightfoot was dead on when she said, “This is about politics. It’s not about the pandemic,” and “This is an illegal walkout.”
The Mayor’s too little too late endeavor likely won’t save her sorry political posterior, but even after 15 long years at the keyboard I still get giddy when an elected official does the right thing despite the prospect of suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous political fortune one more time.
What’s with all the name calling?
Taking a flyer from the second grade “I know you are but what am I” playground playbook, the CTU somehow thought that name calling would help turn the tide of those recent remote learning negotiations in their favor.
CTU President Jesse Sharkey’s and VP Stacey Davis’ greatest hits include, but aren’t nearly limited to:
- “This mayor is unfit to lead this city. She is on a one-woman kamikaze mission to destroy our public schools.”
- “We don’t like bullies, we don’t like tyrants.”
- “The Mayor is being relentlessly stupid.”
Nice! How to win friends and influence people, right?
The first irony is if those CPS teachers’ second grade charges behaved that immaturely, they’d be looking at a swift detention.
The second is the only folks intent on destroying Chicago public schools are these self-aggrandizing educators themselves who have absolutely no compunction about using their students as pawns in a dangerous political game.
And I thought the Grand Cheeto had no conscience. So, my estimation of teachers continues to plummet.
Living in Chicago once was more than enough, but if I ever returned to Rogers Park, I’d wouldn’t send my children to a CPS school if they paid me for the privilege.
But it gets worse!
Because when Mayor Lightfoot recently came down with the plague, those perpetually fascinating CTU members could barely contain themselves. “See!,” they shrieked on social media, “We told her so! It’s karma!”
Yep! Nothing helps your PR cause like wishing disease, destruction, and death on your political adversary.
Given the Mayor’s boostered vaccination status, she’s simply suffering from mild cold symptoms, which means she’ll be back to screwing up The Second City in no time at all.
Furthermore, despite the CTU’s unbounded glee, the truth is, we’re all gonna eventually get omicron. Even that megalomaniacal reprobate Dr. Fauci finally admitted that the latest variant “will find just about everybody.” And that’s a good thing because it heralds the inevitable herd immunity that will mean the end of the pandemic once and for all.
Here’s to the Mayor’s swift recovery. Meanwhile, stay classy CTU!
The light at the end of the CTU tunnel might not be an oncoming train!
Despite my wife being an Aurora, Illinois, middle school teacher, just when I thought the profession couldn’t possibly recover from their massive self-inflicted wounds, a beacon of hope shone through all the obfuscating fog.
Seeing both the forest and the trees, those fine Southwest Side Mount Greenwood Elementary School educators flipped their Union overlords the figurative bird by ignoring the illegal walkout and marching right back into the classroom first thing Monday morning.
As the Tribune so cogently put it in a Wednesday editorial, “Thank you Mount Greenwood teachers, for putting the children first. You stepped up for your children, your parents, and your community. You deserve our gratitude, as well as all of Chicago’s.”
What’s been sorely lacking in this sad plague era are those heroes who, during the worst of times, manage to rise above the fray, lead by example, and make us remember that we can rise above ourselves and our pointless and petty squabbles.
But they’re not missing anymore! Those Mount Greenwood teachers are exactly the heroes we so desperately need!
