I am a distance runner.  I run to keep sane.  With all the troubling times that we have gone through lately, I have seen my mileage go up up up.  It is necessary for someone in my situation.  I am a conservative in a world of liberals.  If only there was a place to run to....Well here is my first installment.  A short essay I call "Closet Conservative."

At work I am a closet conservative.  At least that's how I feel I have to be.  You see I am a teacher, and There is some false perception that Academia members must be ultra liberal to ensure that our education system and union stay strong.  This may be true for the union side of things but not the education side.  The disservice of liberal academia is a topic that I am sure I could write a book on, but I want to focus on the most important issue facing this great nation, and that is the 2008 presidential election.  And I specifically focus on the Union's view on endorsing politicians. 

With little surprise my local and state union has endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States.  I have been receiving literature on a regular basis as to why I should vote for Senator Obama.  This is the same group that told me to vote for Blago the first time he was up against Jim Ryan.  It is as if Illinois teachers believe that the democrats will swoop in and save the education system that ranks 35th in the nation. (http://www.statestats.com/edrank.htm).  A ranking that has dropped 11 places since Blago became governer.  Locally, the democrats are not the answer to our education woes.

Because of the lack of performance by local democrats, I have no trust in my fellow teachers and am sickened every time I pull into the parking lot and see tens of cars with their Obama Biden bumper stickers as if he is the savior.   But what really sickens me is how our social studies department teaches the students.  A student of mine was having a conversation about Sarah Palin with a classmate.  The student is not well liked because he is openly conservative.  Within the conversation he defended Sarah Palin and was overheard by the department chair of the social studies department.  The chair ripped into the student for supporting Palin and told him that this hallway was a "no Palin" hallway.  How is that good for Academia and for a student.  He should be free to think his mind and express his opinion.  The teacher should be there to challenge him, but not belittle the student and demand that the student think as the teacher does.  The student was visibly shaken by the encounter when he arrived in my class, and I felt bad for him.  But as a good professional, I stayed neutral in my views.  Even though I truly wanted to tell the student that I felt his pain.  

As teachers, we need to look beyond our own interests and see whats best for the country.  We only continue to hurt or selves as we promote liberalism as the answer for educational success.  We need to be open minded and share both sides and let the students decide.  I hear the nation complaining about how the Republicans only concern themselves with special interest groups, but is not the teachers union a special interest group?  It is very frustrating to not be able to express my opinions without fear of ridicule or worse.  What we really need is a candidate willing to reform the whole system.  We also need to realize that this needs to start locally and build nationally.  The unions are fools to think that a president is going to put education at the front of his agenda with the economy where it is, the war in Iraq, and the near half a dozen hot spots in the world that are ready to erupt when the new regime takes over. 

If my fellow teachers truly value change, they should stop following the democratic party blindly and promoting their liberal agenda to the students.  If we really want to vote for change, we should look to change from within.   Get rid of the unions, get rid of tenure, focus on the curriculum, and raise the accountability levels of every member involved in an educational community.