Thursday, April 28, 2011

Education Week: This Teacher Is 'Mad as Hell'

Education Week: This Teacher Is 'Mad as Hell'

This Teacher Is 'Mad as Hell'

Peter Finch portrays the angry Howard Beale in the 1976 movie “Network.”
—MGM Studios/Getty images
Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.

I am a public school teacher and a member of a union. Contrary to popular political rhetoric at play in Wisconsin and elsewhere, I amnot, however, a leech on society, nor am I a lazy incompetent who shows up to collect a paycheck, not caring whether my students learn. I am a teacher and, in the words of Howard Beale in the film “Network”: “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

I am an English teacher who wakes up in the middle of th