I do believe, or want to, that most teachers are dedicated professionals who care deeply about educating children.
And, I believe that most Florida teachers certainly didn't stoop to encouraging last Friday's get-a-student-to-pitch-your-cause-to-the-Senate-Majority-Office stunt.
Still, evidence is mounting that at least a few of them did. Which, in my book, is misusing positions of trust to turn children into lobbying tools for their own special interest.
Consider this.
A ninth grader at a Palm Beach County school called the Sunshine State News office Wednesday morning to report that one of his teachers spent nearly a full period lecturing the class on "the economics of being a teacher" in Florida.
Speaking about his teacher, the concerned young man explained, "She doesn't make enough money, and the state is going to take away some of it."
That was about it. Not a long call. In fact, he hung up the phone before I could ask if he was one of dozens of students who e-mailed, wrote or telephoned Senate President Jeff Atwater's office on behalf of Senate Bill 6 and their teachers' interests.
The call certainly made me wonder. Why was this teacher grumbling about anything in front of her students?
I doubt Florida statutes have any vehicle to seek and destroy this kind of bad teacher. But I wish they did.
Certainly young people don't live in a bubble. They know what's going on in their world. They're well aware of their teachers' annual struggle to negotiate a better deal for themselves.
But for teachers to exploit that knowledge, to use their classrooms as bully pulpits -- now that really is among the worst kinds of professional misconduct.
Do these bad apples really believe it's OK to use children to argue for their personal priorities? Is no tactic off-limits?
This isn't to say a civics lesson in teacher contract negotiations, or in bills that affect education in Florida, should be taboo subjects in the classroom . Far from it. But, a line was crossed Friday, when children left voicemails for Atwater with adult coaches heard clearly in the background.
The teachers union, the Florida Education Association, has denied it played any part in encouraging the littlest lobbyists.
Teachers should never allow a cause -- some personal agenda -- to replace learning, or indoctrination to replace education.
To begin with, children are not fiscal conservatives. They have a highly evolved sense of justice, it's true, but not of finance. Not of macroeconomics. Or the economics that involve education-funding formulas, teacher salaries or so-called "merit pay."
And, these kids are hardly exposed to opposing arguments. They are pliable absorbers of a position designed to appeal to their sweet nature.
When I was a kid in school, my teachers told us stories about totalitarian countries where teachers would quiz kids about their parents' attitude toward the totalitarian state. That would never happen here, right?
Who is going to tell these children that their teachers are only being asked to ensure their students have learned something over the course of a school year? That's all. Nothing more. For that, they earn performance pay. That's the crux of SB 6 right there.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com, or at (850) 583-1823.
