|
Publisher:
HarperCollins / Perennial |
Release
Date: January 20, 2004 |
ISBN:
0060096624 |
Awards:
|
Format
Reviewed: Paperback |
Buy
it at Amazon |
Read
an Excerpt |
Genre:
Nonfiction / Education |
Reviewed:
2004 |
Reviewer:
Brenda Weeaks |
Reviewer
Notes: |
Copyright
MyShelf.com |
|
The
Worm in the Apple
How the
Teacher Unions Are Destroying American Education
By Peter Brimelow
Brimelow
begins his candid exposé on the National Education Association
with a little history. The NEA, created in 1857, "was"
a professional association concerned with "standards, ethics,
and educational techniques" [preface]. Its original goal was
improving America's education. So where did they get lost? The author
tells us it was during the 1960s. The NEA morphed into a labor union,
after removing school administrators from its membership and becoming
competitively obsessed with the American Federation of Teachers.
This was also when Kennedy issued an executive order allowing collective
bargaining for federal employees, mind you, "in exchange for
labor union support" [preface]. Because of these changes, Brimelow
concludes that our educational system has been failing our children
ever since.
Brimelow
begins with NEA's 1999 annual meeting. It reads like a political
train wreck, and is the perfect start in proving his point. Throughout
the book, Brimelow shows the NEA's move from reading, writing, and
arithmetic to such things as self-preservation, politics, and political
correctness books and class atmosphere. Brimelow names names, places
blame, dishes numbers, and exposes past and present union leaders.
His eye-opening facts are riveting as he relays various accounts
in trying to prove the absurdity of the union's control. For example,
a Connecticut Teachers Association filed a grievance demanding pay
for the additional two minutes a week the union claimed teachers
worked that year; a Pennsylvania association filed a grievance against
the school district because coffee and doughnuts were not provided
during a training day; a New York "Deaf" school being
forced to keep teachers who couldn't sign; and a Washington local
union shot down a superintendent's need to alter school starting
time for special education students because some teachers would
have daycare problems. It goes on and on
.
Brimelow
doesn't dish the dirt only to leave readers wound up. The last chapter,
"A Twenty-four Point Wish List," is well thought out and
well written. Recommendations are aimed at improving education,
protecting teachers, and parents' rights -- all minus an expensive,
dominating union.
“The Worm
in the Apple is the kind of book that demands reaction and
hopefully causes change. Readers can expect to have a mental list
of whom to share this book with before they're half way through
it. |