Comedy and Everything Else

[ericluxury]

My mother was a teacher in the SF school district for 35 years. Over the course of that time, she had a principal who didn't like the way she ran her classroom and they didn't get along personally. He got meddlesome to the point of harassment. She also had an incident where a parent who was unhappy about their child's performance and made a fuss. These are not uncommon problems for teachers to face in a career in public schools. Without a union, how do you propose protecting them and/or arbitrating with them in what is an emotional issue for parents.

I agree that the teachers union can be in the way of positive reform (and in the case of merit pay, they currently are in the way), but don't you think having an industrial model where schools produce test scores for something that isn't a capitalist industry is maybe more of the problem than the teacher's union?

I don't necessarily think that the teachers unions are always good. My mother had health problems in the last 5 years of her career. Because of the teachers union she was able to keep her job and that probably was to the detriment of her students, who had substitute teachers more than they should have.

There are reforms that are necessary, but if the teachers union was to dissolve tomorrow, I would bet that the education system wouldn't get any better. The rot goes much further.

[Adult Ed]

I didn't mean to hijack this thread and turn it into Politics! I was making the more narrow point that I am disappointed in the level of discourse on the show when it turns to politics.

I thought the conversation with Patton about comedy was inspirational.

[ericluxury]

youre right about the first point. i will pm berliner in the future.

[Berliner]

Jimmy's teacher's unions comment has been bugging me for months, and I finally saw a chance!

I will probably take this conversation into the politics! ghetto.

[Wizz]

ooo boy i just shout out a hoot 'n a holler - jimmy's coming here to indy! i can't wait to see him and then hear about the "Jazz & Jokes" show

[bridgetosolace]

I'm pretty sure that "Guy Eating Chips During Dramatic Conversations" is one of the best act-outs in the history of the show.

EDIT: And I also completely disagree with their evaluation with Meghan McCain, but I wont hijack the thread unless someone cares to argue it.

[Wizz]

And I also completely disagree with their evaluation with Meghan McCain, but I wont hijack the thread unless someone cares to argue it.

haven't heard the ep yet, but if their evaluation is "wouldn't hit that," then i disagree wholeheartedly

[nathansmart]

Jesus did talk about people praying in public as hypocrites but he was talking about very specific people that prayed on purpose so that other people could see them - and not just because they were praying. He talked about the ones that said, "Thank you God for not making me like those sinners" and how judgmental that is.

The problem with a lot of what you guys are saying is that when you take down an entire group of people for something bad that a certain ratio of people are doing - you will always be accused of generalizing and stereotyping. Because that's exactly what you are doing. Barry Sobel may think it's okay but really it doesn't help the discussion at all.

If you really want to criticize a religion for the ills it does, you need to attack the source. For instance, it's really easy to attack Scientology because in it's own manuals and teachings, it says that Scientologists should treat outsiders badly. It's something mandated from the creator, L. Ron Hubbard. That's a fair critique.

But, time and time again, you guys point out the stuff that Jesus did and said (and you also point out the Christians that you know that do walk the walk) and never once did he say that it's okay to molest children, or to not keep each other accountable. The bible speaks very clearly about keeping each other accountable and what should be done about it. The fact that a lot of churches don't follow that isn't a flaw with the religion, it's a flaw with those churches.

I just think it's wrong to treat things differently just because religion is involved. You can treat hypocrites differently - there's no problem in calling out the assholes - but you can't put everyone in a box and call it a day.

And finally, just because someone does something good in the name of God doesn't invalidate what they do. You may think it's not genuine because they feel that they have to do something, but that's looking at in the wrong way. I don't sacrifice my time and money for the poor because I feel like I'll go to hell if I don't or that I'll please God by doing it. I do it because I genuinely have a love for humans, just as secular humanists do. We can argue about whether or not that comes from me following God but it doesn't change my feelings towards my fellow man.

[Darryl]

I don't usually address any issues brought up on C&EE, but I can NOT let this one pass, due to its importance:

Samsonite luggage was NOT shown being thrown around by a gorilla in an ad, as is commonly misremembered (even by me). It was American Tourister, and it was thrown around by a chimpanzee.

I'm glad we could have this talk.

[Berliner]

Gorilla, Chimpanzees, they're all monkeys, right?

[bridgetosolace]

Ape does not kill ape!

[JimmyJimmy]

Health care is not that complicated. Why is it that the government can administer medicare to everyone, every single person not one left out, over the age of 65 and do it with 28% less overhead?

For profit health insurance for all is horrible. We do everything in the interest of the corporation in AMerica, the banking bailout, healthcare, wars.....

Single payer option is bad why? Why? Love to hear it.

[JimmyJimmy]

and the anti-union teachers that care about their students can do so in a private school can they not?

So why don't they?

Private schools are all over the fucking place, all over the fucking place.

If you don't want to join a teaching union, why don't you go to a private school that doesn't have one? Oh yeah, cuz they pay shit and you have to live like a pauper. I wonder why that is?

So anti-union teachers don't actually want to work at non-union schools, cuz if they did, they would, and they don't.

They want all the benefits of the hard work done by others, and instead of thanking them, they end up actively undermining them.

[CrescentRoses]

I've seen some videos of Stefane on youtube with her doing stand-up comedy, but she never mentions this (as far as episode 35). I thought she was just a high school teacher. Does she still continue her stand-up, but just doesn't talk about it or did she quit?

And on another unrelated note....What are the right online news sources to read, that follow Jimmy, Todd, and Stef's views? I just don't know which people are legit anymore.

EDIT: And now listening to episode 40, I found out I missed seeing Todd Glass because I didn't go see Louis CK when he came around Buffalo. I could kick myself now. I have to hurry up and go through these archives in case I miss Jimmy or Todd again.

[ericluxury]

I wrote the pro-union post, but Jimmy, what you are saying is the opposite of the truth. Or at least, misleading and often untrue.
Private School teachers tend to get paid more because private school, in order to justify their expense, have to provide the best service they can in order to get rich parents to send their kids there.
Teachers unions are very helpful for providing raises and helping teachers not get fired, but public school teachers are the ones who generally live like paupers, especially in the beginning of their career with the district.

Maybe you are talking about Catholic and religious schools? I don't know anything about them. I do know that many public school teachers would love to teach in private schools were they would get paid more to teach to classes with reasonable class sizes and much better equipment. Private schools aren't an option for many teachers because like most services for the rich, a different skill set and presentation method is involved and most people don't have enough experience with the rich to know how to cater to them.

edit: it is apparent that I know nothing of religion and/or religious schools. I hear private and think of private schools and boarding schools rather than parochial schools.

[nick]

I wrote the pro-union post, but Jimmy, what you are saying is the opposite of the truth. Or at least, misleading and often untrue.
Private School teachers tend to get paid more because private school, in order to justify their expense, have to provide the best service they can in order to get rich parents to send their kids there.
Teachers unions are very helpful for providing raises and helping teachers not get fired, but public school teachers are the ones who generally live like paupers, especially in the beginning of their career with the district.

Maybe you are talking about Catholic and religious schools? I don't know anything about them. I do know that many public school teachers would love to teach in private schools were they would get paid more to teach to classes with reasonable class sizes and much better equipment. Private schools aren't an option for many teachers because like most services for the rich, a different skill set and presentation method is involved and most people don't have enough experience with the rich to know how to cater to them.

You seem to be talking about a very small subset of private schools that cater to the very rich (and you're also discounting all religious schools for some reason). On average, private school teachers earn less than public school teachers.

[Berliner]

Well, the "average" private school is a religious school. The vast, vast majority of private schools in the US are operated by religious organizations, which is not going to be easy to compare with a public school. A nun who's taken a vow of poverty doesn't make as much as a public school teacher?

[nathansmart]

I don't know why, but I've never even thought that there were "secular" private schools. But of course there are...

[Berliner]

I also want to ask Jimmy, are there really teachers who say they don't want unions? I've never encountered one, but since Steph is a teacher, maybe she has experience with it. I know of teachers who want to keep unions, but would like them to accept reforms, but I've never known one who outright doesn't want them.

[bridgetosolace]

Private School teachers tend to get paid more because private school, in order to justify their expense, have to provide the best service they can in order to get rich parents to send their kids there.

Public school teachers are paid 61% more per hour than private school teachers, on average nationwide.

Although Private school teachers tend to be more satisfied with their pay than Public school teachers, and tend to enjoy their job more.

Probably due to smaller class size. Or maybe less adherence to a rigid curriculum.

Also:





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