Are Future Teachers Fooling Themselves?

The headline read: "College Students to Veteran Teachers: Quit Telling Us to Avoid Teaching." You will find the link to that story below. Here is my reply to the college students:

Good! This is exciting, and not unlike the idealism, energy, vision, and hopefulness of other generations of new (not necessarily young) teachers. These young adults are, however, preaching to the choir if they are aiming their resistance at working teachers. It is the mind and the vote of the general public they should be trying to influence. 
The hypocrisy of boards and policy makers and the disrespect they have for the profession are way out of control, driving public education toward a crash and burn. These political bodies' negativity toward our profession implants feelings of powerlessness among educators and stirs misunderstanding and apathy among the public. If you, future teachers, are not taking that seriously enough, you, too will crash and burn sooner than you think. 
Schools are workplaces. When the pedal hits the metal, teachers must navigate not only such regular nuisances as supplies distribution, equipment repair, and facilities maintenance, but they also must negotiate workplace politics and power games. They must maintain equilibrium amidst co-workers, including administrators, with varying degrees of competency levels. Sure, dedicated teachers of any age are most exhilarated by the actual teaching, the engagement with students, the witnessing of learning taking place! But these same teachers, no matter how hard they resist it, are worn down by bureaucracies and insensitive voters. 
Young employees in any field are quick to judge and dismiss older workers -- so what's new? Stick to your advocacy for students, but let no one convince you that it is less important than advocating for yourself, your colleagues, and your profession. You will be a 30-year-old one day. You must earn a living -- an adult's salary, a livable wage. Loving teaching is never enough. The profession requires you to step all the way inside it, not with theory but with full application. Your workday never ends. 
Will you want to sacrifice a fair and decent living at the same time? Teaching will try to pull a fast one on you, tell you that you are a special kind while compensating you with a minor fraction of what the textbook salesperson makes. That question is something you won't want to put far into the back of your mind.

"College Students to Veteran Teachers: Quit Telling Us to Avoid Teaching." 
http://news.yahoo.com/college-students-veteran-educators-quit-telling-us-avoid-224350002.html?bcmt=comments-postbox?bcmt=1427457427834-8906cfab-9985-4bd7-ae59-d633173fb779&bcmt_s=u#mediacommentsugc_container

"Empire," A Rock Around Our Necks

Last week, the Fox network show "Empire" continued to gain popularity, breaking its previous weeks' records. This is the headline I saw in an online magazine: "Empire’ Ratings Hit New Demo & Viewership Highs In Final Numbers – Update." (link below)

Just moments before coming across this story, I watched a Fox News pundit pumping viewers to tune in to his interview with Wisconsin's governor scott walker (lowercase intended). So, one minute I'm watching a Fox-head declare scott walker the forerunner for the Republican presidential candidacy, and a few minutes later I'm reading about Fox's big score with "Empire" -- at which point, I am scratching my head.

Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard, and Lee Daniel ("The Butler") must be over the moon! And who else ... who else, I wonder? 

Why, Rupert Murdoch, of course!

When, oh, when will my people start putting our money where our mouths are? African Americans have a long, long haul ahead of us. It's a tiring thought, so tiring. We think we don't. We think we have arrived. Yet, we've set in motion our own future, with our laissez-faire engagement with government, politics, and power. 

Here's to the radical thinkers on whose boldness and courage we will rely. I hear them on WPFW often. Years later we will build monuments to them, no doubt, celebrate their conscientious stature and brag about their heroism, about how courageous and prophetic they were. One group among us, the rich and famous whom we call our nobility, will be counting their money ... while Ferguson burns on. 

I'm not alone in my concern. The link to a critical commentary of the show, by Boyce Watkins, also is below.

"Empire’ Ratings Hit New Demo & Viewership Highs In Final Numbers – Update"
http://deadline.com/2015/02/empire-ratings-rise-up-lee-daniels-danny-strong-fox-1201381970/

"Dr. Boyce Watkins: Why I Refuse to Support the Coonery of the Show 'Empire'"  http://financialjuneteenth.com/dr-boyce-watkins-why-i-refuse-to-support-the-coonery-of-the-show-empire/