Whining about a whiner whining about whiners

I've never heard of Chuck Muth until today.

It all began when I received an email from the NSEA (Nevada State Education Association) with an update on Nevada's budget crisis. One of the items causing a stir is the delay of a 4% COLA as a possible means to help balance the budget. The union has encouraged us to write our legislators to let them know our thoughts about the budget cuts. Of course, most republicans hate unions, unless of course they need an endorsement during their race. Anyway, writing our legislators seems like the notably American thing to do. Informing our elected officials of our position sounds like a reasonable way of informing a politician of his constituents' desires. On the NSEA email, they reminded union members to be careful about what they write because the emails are being posted on conservative blogs along with commentary. They posted two links to blogs that did just that. One didn't surprise me - Senator Bob Beers. He campaigned for allowing teachers to bring guns to school. The other blog belongs to a seemingly ultra-conservative columnist and political pundit named Chuck Muth: http://conservablogs.com/muthstruths/2008/06/23/parade-of-whiners/#more-829

With interest, I read his blog. The first thing I notice is...how is he getting these emails sent to legislators? He's not a legislator. Seems akin to stealing the US mail out of someone's box. But they are being shared with him, and he is probably sharing multiple chuckles with the recipient. I can see it now: "Check out this one, Chuck! They say they "deserve" our money! Ha! Ha! Ha!" "Thanks for sharing that, Bob. Can you print that out for me?" The next thing I notice is how completely mean Mr. Muth's comments are. As I was reading them, I thought "this guy obviously does not have an education beyond high school. His jibes, condescending tone, and lack of any empathic approach indicate that he is antagonistic towards those that make him feel inferior in personal circles." Then upon looking at his picture, I made up in my mind that this poor guy was bullied in public schools, hence his venom. Plus, Chuck sounds much more masculine than Charles or Charlie. So, he hates schools because they remind him of his horrible years of emotional torment and ridicule. Wow! He has sure showed them. At least, this is my imagination running wild. Don't get me started on Robert, I mean Robby, I mean Bob....

Of course, there are a couple of comments I agree with. I work with educators who tell me of their money woes, and I listen with frustration to their wacky spending habits. HBO and Showtime aren't necessary expenses. Some of them could be thousandaires if they'd just take my budgeting advice. I'm almost always speaking of 2-income families though. And the lady that insisted the 4% COLA was rightfully ours and we deserved it - that's toddler behavior. "Gimme that, it's mine!"

But he makes of couple of comments that I take issue with. First, he responds with a "publik skool" math comment and a calculation that the 4% raise signifies we are earning more. Really, Mr. Muth? Did your math skills really stop in high school, possibly junior high? Let's see: COLA means Cost of Living Adjustment. If inflation is 4.5%, and a COLA is 4%, does that make our salaries higher? Why, yes it does to the junior high student, but not the college educated economist. But then, we don't want to talk about college educated economists - they studied a non-academic subject...which then takes me to my next point. Band isn't an academic subject? Really? Then what does academic mean? Wow, your kids take private music lessons! Many kids do, especially those in bands, orchestras, and choirs. Are these lessons building skills? Are they being taught and is learning taking place? Hmmm....skills gained, lessons taught, learning taking place.......must be non-academic.

So then I Googled Chuck Muth, or Charlie, and he appeared on several posts. I felt sad for his 3rd child though who was mentioned in the blog but not updated in any of the bios he has posted around the web. Child neglect...oh wait, I read another blog on a CPS visit he received on this very subject. Ok, I'm just kidding...a little. I think the CPS story he related was a rather ridiculous and stressful scenario that no parent should have to go through. I didn't find out a whole lot more about Chuck except that he is very right wing. I kind of disliked him because he was so tactless, mean-spirited, and identifiably uneducated...in the academic sense of the word. Of course, I didn't disagree with absolutely everything he said. For instance, I understand that if a budget needs to be balanced, that cuts need to be made. And delaying the 4% COLA would have helped substantially...the state, not the teacher. Now, I really want the 4%. Our family survives on a teachers income and many excesses are not enjoyed because of it. My wife chose to stay home with the kids and I chose the profession (okay, I was inspired to do it, and I didn't feel like going against inspiration, but more on that later). It has been excruciatingly difficult to make do with a salary that does not justify the amount of work I put in to this job. And bozos like Muth are altogether too common to criticize teachers and their heavenly schedules. (Now, in another of his posts, he discusses relieving the Mrs. by taking his 2 children to the Boys and Girls club and visiting a children's museum. She homeschools them. Imagine if she had over 150 kids in a 6 hour period! You'd think that summer breaks would make more sense to them. Sanity is a nice thing, right Mr. and Mrs. Muth?) Anway, back to me. I work and work and work, get more education, employ more teaching strategies, gain better results in the classroom, and my salary increases by small bits, but not nearly enough to keep up with the rapidly rising costs of gasoline and food. Do I want the 4%? Absolutely. Is it rightfully mine? No. But I think I deserve it. I think teachers do. But what do you do when a budget is not balancing? You can't be irresponsible and spend more than you have. I have no solutions, because I don't know where all the money in the state is spent. But obviously, if our economy is not growing, then fewer services are needed and cuts need to be made, whether in pork or services. Oh, another thing - he criticized employees using government issued email accounts to write these letters, especially their timing. I assume he doesn't believe in breaks or lunch. Clearly the letter from the band teacher came during summer break. And why not use the school email account...that doesn't hurt anyone. Nothing is being neglected (pardon my insensitivity, Mr. Muth). In fact, I propose that we would save a whole bunch of money if they took away email altogether. No more replies to parents, administrators, parents, parents, parents, other bureaucratics, parents, etc. We could save substantial money and time, I bet.

Fast forward a little....

I tell my wife about this Chuck Muth dude. She asks me if I know much about him, such as does he have a couple of children that are homeschooled. I acknowledged, and she told me that she has heard of him before on the State of Nevada report on NPR. She then relayed a report she heard once from him that confirmed what I had already assumed - his education ended with high school. You gotta love it when those who haven't been challenged academically beyond high school have so many insights into education! She recalls him getting upset with people who place his family under that stereotype that so often follows homeschooled children. Mr. Muth - it's not as much a stereotype as it is a generalization. I am fairly confident that my wife and I, with a combined total of 4 college degrees, could homeschool our children well until about the 10th grade level. After that, most high school subjects are beyond us and we'd need the assistance of teachers (subject masters). And to have a high school graduate teaching their own children is just perpetuating another generation of workers whose education will be below that of their master teachers - do you remember what FOIL has to do with Algebra (an academic subject taught in public schools)? Yea, you'd probably need an Algebra teacher.

So why am i picking on Charly? I don't know. His response upset me. He had maybe 2 good points, but his title was about a parade of whiners and his whole article was written with a whiney tone. "You're whining too much, stop, or I'm gonna call you names and make fun of you." He just lacks understanding...which comes from knowledge...which is gained through education, which is an academic subject.