Why it's Hard to Side With the Wisconsin Protesters...

Okay, so I hit on this a little on “I’m With Stupid” but my good friend AverageChick encouraged me to expand on it a little here.

So I’ve been watching the protests in Wisconsin for what seems like months now and I think I understand where most Americans stand on this whole thing. In general, most Americans like me support collective bargaining rights and the right to unionize.  And, most Americans like me support the right to protest and organize and petition one’s employer. 

But, the problem here is we’re talking mostly about teachers and that just changes things a bit. 

See, first of all, teachers always like to call themselves “professionals” much like doctors and lawyers and such.  But, just as my old friend from college Brian pointed out after the Fayetteville, AR teachers lost a local vote that would have increased taxes to pay for pay raises for teachers and the teachers responded by all refusing to show up for work, teachers aren’t really professionals. Not like doctors and lawyers anyway.  And, as a high school drop out who was assistant manager of a pizza joint at night and cashier at a Stop and Go during the day, he was clearly an expert on the subject.

But it goes further than that.

And I’m not talking about how overpaid and under worked teachers are either.  You know, they make a big salary for only working 8 am til 3:15 pm five days a week for only about 8 months out of the year thing.  Yeah, that’s a problem. And given how they all get at least one free hour during the day and in general have pretty cushy jobs.  Not to mention all those holidays, plus two weeks at Christmas and spring break. 

I see that, but even that it isn’t it.

Oh sure, there’s also tenure. If they work for just a few years they suddenly can’t be fired no matter how bad they suck.  And after that they never do a new lesson plan again. I mean, you can change the book every year if you want, but 2+2 will always = 4, right? Not that most of my teachers knew that. 

No, that’s not even it really. Basically there’s one big thing that stands out as the reason most Americans can’t really come out in full-throated support of the teachers.

Teaching is basically women’s work.

Since teachers are mostly women, it only stands to reason that they would make less.  Women not being as important as men and all.  Also, most women only go into teaching to give themselves something to do during the day while their husbands are working at real jobs. 

Teaching is the perfect job for women. They don’t have to be there until after they’ve made breakfast for everyone and gotten the kids off to school and can then pick the kids up after school and be home in time to have dinner ready for their husbands when they come home after a hard day of actual work. 

This short work day schedule makes it easier for women to have time to keep the house clean and do their .. uh … “womanly duties” keeping the man of the house happy and relaxed so he can focus on his very important and busy job that allows him to take care of the family.

So, when you look at things in this sense and keep all this in perspective, you can see how it’s difficult to take sides with the teachers protesting in Wisconsin.

But, I do want to thank the teachers for support of “I’m With Stupid” every Thursday night at 11 pm EST!!  Thanks guys. Y’all rock!