“The California Federation of Teachers has invited Apple CEO Steve Jobs to either attend an annual CFT convention next month or offer a public apology for his ‘insulting comments’ to California’s teachers,” MacNN reports.
“Should Jobs fail to apologize or neglect to attend the conference, where he is encouraged to speak with the people who educate California’s children and hear from them what the situation is like, the CFT will create a new award specifically for Apple’s chief. ‘We’ll call it the Rotten Apple, for the individual who best personifies the need to think differently about public education and teacher unions,’ California Federation of Teachers president Mary Bergan wrote in a letter to the executive,” MacNN reports.
Full article here.
See, if you’re not with the union, you’re part of the problem. Unless you agree with the unions’ point of view, you’re not thinking correctly. Therefore, you can expect an invitation to another worthless conference that accomplishes nothing. While you’re stuck there, a bunch of proven education failures will inexplicably attempt to educate you. When that fails (because they’re wrong and you have a mind of your own that’s not susceptible to reeducation), they’ll give you an “award” seemingly named by a kindergartner (private; 8th grader, public) that’s meant to generate publicity while ridiculing your ideas because they differ from the union’s official stance. Isn’t it strange that “thinking differently” to people like Mary Bergan means “think like us or else?”
Related articles:
A clearer picture of Steve Jobs’ thoughts on public education and teacher unions – February 21, 2007
Steve Jobs & Rush Limbaugh agree: U.S. public schools are ‘unionized in the worst possible way’ – February 20, 2007
Apple CEO blasts teacher unions, says US schools are ‘unionized in the worst possible way’ – February 16, 2007
Shame on teachers that support this union. I’d never have my kid in public education.
I’m with Mactivist. I’d never have kids…..
Re: MDN Take.
Boom!
The MDN Take writer was obviously not educated in the U.S. public school system (he can write).
Yeah, fsck those underpaid, college educated role models that educate and inspire our nations youth.
Yes, there are bad teachers out there, but also many more good and great ones that do deserve our respect and admiration.
That is shockingly crappy.
A sizable portion of Apple’s business is education-based. Could this affect their sales?
blahger,
youre missing the point. we all know there are good and bad teachers out there. Jobs was criticizing the inability to fire or penalize the bad ones. whats wrong with that?
Boy… if I were Steve, I’d be weeping and gnashing my teeth in fear about now.
THEY’RE COMING AFTER YOU WITH A BIG, NASTY AWARD!! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
My mother teaches in California, she is forced to join the union and doesn’t agree with most of their policies. They take money from her check and use it to fund political issues she doesn’t agree with. I think their way out of control, and I think they are scared that Jobs is talking truth to power. Unions can be good, but this is a perfect example of when they go very, very bad. I hope Steve shows how a corrupt few union leaders are abusing their power and obligations to the thousands of good teachers in California.
MacDailyNews Take = Tony Snow
Not in a bad way or a good way . . . . . . just an observation.
Hey, I went to a LAUSD public school and I just finished my MBA so there’s nothing wrong with the public school system. It’s all about mentality.
The real issue is that the public school is full of children that see the older people in their neighborhoods who’ve rejected school and either are making money or are “cool” and they think to hell with school, fsck it. Now, you have kids showing up and not taking it seriously. The key to improving everything is to show that education really is the key to making something of yourself. We need to stop telling kids to “Be like Mike” and be more like Mike’s lawyers – the people that really make the money. But, until you have teachers that all truly want to be there and aren’t going through the motions, we’re going to continue with this bullshit. Of course no one wants their kids to go to public school – there’s far too much reality that you can’t shield them from.
But, to white people/anyone that isn’t directly affected by any of this, they don’t care. It only bothers people when it affects them and their families. Like cocaine – wasn’t an issue until all the little senators and rich people’s kids started doing it – then there’s a drug problem. Like Columbine. Oh, what a travesty, blah blah blah. Minority children are killed every day but never makes the news. But, when it happens in a white area, it’s national news, headline news!!
Anyway, unions as a whole suck. There’s no point for them anymore. They ruin businesses and hold shit up from progressing.
Unions in America have a long tradition of being penetrated by the Communists. The Soviet Union and it’s operatives had a decades long affair with American unions. So far, they have destroyed American steel, the American automobile industry, the textile industry, and more. Education would have been destroyed if it didn’t have unlimited amounts of tax money, MONEY THAT IS TAKEN BY FORCE, BY THREAT OF A PRISION TERM, from all of us suckers.
The answer is to get rid of all public education, and treat education as it ought to be treated, in that, Education is nothing more than another commodity, a service.
I recently attended an affair where there were about 100 teachers. What a bunch of low-lifes! They looked and dressed like x-cons, dirty clothes, unshaven, and really, really stupid. Low IQ’s would be the best description.
America is going down, and it’s forced education by Commie low-lifes that is leading the way.
I have always been a big fan of Jobs, and Apple Computer. But this is absurd! Sure there are a few crappy teachers, but most of them work really hard, are underpaid, underappreciated, and made to teach to state mandated tests, whether they want to or not. I agree than any union unchecked is a dangerous thing, and there should always be dialog and debate as to how we are doing things and how we can improve. But for Jobs to come out and blatantly attack a good portion of his user base is crazy! What does he think he knows about education? has he ever tried to teach in a public school system?! Bad teachers should be given the opportunity to improve, and if they don’t they should be fired. But for Jobs to come out on this random issue and lose his cool shows a lack of character and respect for some of the hardest-working people in our great country.
Stop demanding. Produce.
Just look at the example they are setting for the students they teach. Either agree with us or we’ll try to publicly humiliate you. Idiots. Last I knew they are supposed to be teaching things like history and the Constitution in which free speech is one of those rights..
Unions suck and I agree 100% with what Jobs said.
How about this:
“It’s time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybody’s role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. It’s no surprise that our school system doesn’t improve; it more resembles the communist economy than our own market economy.”
Albert Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers
I hope Jobs has the cajones to tell that teacher’s union to eff off and educate the kids like your being paid to do.
– Mark
So if you want to think “DIFFERENTLY” you’re immediately asked to apologise????
Teachers’ Unions like this are the scum of the earth, not fit to even take out our garbage.
I was abused (that is went to Government institutions) for the first few years of schooling.
Most of my teachers, however nice, were stupid. This does NOT mean that “ALL” teachers are stupid. It means enough people have run the majority of schools down and built their own power up enough to where they can run the schools to keep themselves in power. The Teachers’ Unions have become FAR to powerful to be even making demands REMOTELY like this.
Who actually realises that the FEDERAL Department of Education is UNCONSTITUTIONAL
Anyone??? Go look it up it’s called the 10th Amendment. Who gave the power to the Feds to run the schools??
Now go look up the FIRST Amendment, what does IT say? Make up your own mind.
MW: filled: The world is full of fools like these who think they can push others around.
War is Peace
THEY’RE COMING AFTER YOU WITH A BIG, NASTY AWARD!! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
Expect them to also be coming with recommendations to switch to Microsoft.
If Apple lets themselves get labeled as anti-union, this would have a very negative effect on their presence in education and other unionized markets.
Sometimes CEO’s just need to keep their mouths shut.
Do unions really accomplish anything any more? Back when employees has no rights I’m sure unions were sorely needed. But why do we need them now when there are federal laws that protect the worker?
Anyone?
If I were Steve, I’d wear the “Rotten Apple” award as a freaking BADGE OF HONOR. Teacher’s Unions are organized communism, the type the perpetuates mediocrity, rewards laziness, and erases accountability. I hate unions with a passion. They hold institutions and companies hostage and dictate and takes away control of management and along with it, sensibility at the expense of our children. Bad teachers need to go, and I’m glad Steve had the courage to say it!
The problems with our nation’s public schools go far far beyond ‘bad teachers’. Sure some exist, but that’s the least of our issues when it comes to kid’s educations in the US.
Steve should simply apologize, but this behind him, suck it up, and go out and sell more macs in the educational arena.
Whether he’s right or wrong is a moot point. Lets get rid of the drugs, guns, gangs etc in schools first. Most of the teachers in our inner city schools should be getting combat pay in my opinion.
I love ya Steve, but give it a rest.
I demand an apology from the teachers union for being an incompetent entity.
I wonder which part of, “If you can’t get rid of bad teachers, no amount of technology can make up for that” does the Union not understand?
GO, STEVE!!
You’re right on the money. The teacher union is now going to hide behind the skirts of all public school teachers and claim that Jobs was bashing “teachers”; in fact, of course, Jobs was bashing a terrible union bureaucracy. The sad thing, though, that if there’s one thing more harmful to public schools than unions, it’s the incompetence of public school administrators. They are just terrible. And NONE of it is going to get better until publicly-funded education is no longer governed politically (i.e., by politically-elected school boards), rather than by professionals. It would be like hospitals being governed by politically-elected local boards, rather than by professional managers and doctors–what a hash that would make of our medical institutions!!
I have two daughters in public school in Seattle. I have nothing but respect for the importance of and the dedication of the teachers we have encountered. They are human and at times flawed. They choose a profession where they know they will not get top pay because they want to make a difference in people’s lives. Some eventually get burnt out, I suppose, but, I have not yet seen them.
As much as I respect Steve, I think he is off base on this one. From what I have ready he hardly went to school after middle school. He has done well. He is the exception to the rule in very many ways.
Our schools do need to get better. Too many are being left behind. If we want our standard of living to improve in an increasingly competitive world we had better educate our young. If we want to continue being a democracy we had better continue to educate a broad base of our citizens so we continue to have a large middle class and the stability that comes with it.
Our public education is having a hard time for two reasons. One, many parents do not support it at home. Parental involvement is the biggest indicator of success. The next is class size. Smaller classes cost money. We need to support the schools.
This attitude of its my family against the world is sad. There really is an us and we need to grow and care for it together. The problem is not the unions. It is not the comunists. It is not them. The problems are ours and we need to work on them.