Pity us poor, dumb teachers who need DeSantis to save us from our unions

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a teacher. When I finally stood up in front of my own classroom, I had never felt so lucky. I loved it, and knew I had found my calling. Now, I am sad most days when I hear the news. I literally cry many days when I see how teachers are treated in Florida, and although I miss my classroom now that I am retired, I am so grateful that I am out of that maelstrom. Skylar Zander’s opinion article, published in the Monday, Feb. 27, issue of the Sun Sentinel, was but the latest attack on teachers. It makes me so sad to see those who serve our community, and whom we have all loved and benefited from, attacked yet again.

Zander focuses on attacking teachers while pretending to protect them. According to him, teachers are too dim-witted to know that their union dues, which they have signed up for, are being deducted from their paycheck, so teachers need the Legislature to enact laws to prohibit these deductions. The poor, dumb teachers! They don’t even know how to read their own paychecks, even after signing a request to have those funds deducted. They need Uncle Ron and his minions to save them — not by stopping school shootings, but by passing laws against books that have been taught for 80 years but are now suddenly destroying our democracy! Save them from discussing slavery and equal rights, lest the poor little children feel bad about actual facts and history! Save them from speaking at all! Save them from having a union that can speak for them!

“The [proposed legislation] would wipe out some practices that give teachers unions a stranglehold on their members,” Zander writes. I taught for 34 years, 28 in Broward public schools. I was in the union some years, out in others. I never felt the union had a strangle hold, or any hold, on me. Zander suggests the bill is to protect “hardworking educators.” That is reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s famous reference to the scariest words in the English language: “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.”

As a former hardworking educator, I can tell you what teachers need: better salaries, protection in the classroom from lawsuits and attacks from our own government, and honestly, not someone to watch how we choose to spend our money, but gratitude. Republicans used to stand for small government. Where did that go? Now it’s all “Stop this,” “Ban that,” “Don’t speak,” and “We’re the Freedom State!”

Zander’s comments are insulting and paternalistic — teachers are among the most educated in our society and know how to make their own choices and monitor their own paychecks. How can Zander and people like him attack those who wiped the tears in kindergarten and filled in for Mom when there was a bellyache or listened to the heartbreak when a teen just couldn’t perform because of a breakup or intervened many, many times when a teen threatened self-harm? I realize Zander has no idea what it’s like to be a teacher and that this bill has nothing to do with protecting teachers. I really wish it did! Teachers could use the support. He should at least own up to his true agenda. It’s not new to teachers to be underappreciated, but some honesty would be nice.

Marjorie Avery, of Oakland Park, is a third-generation Floridian. She retired two years ago after six years in private schools, two years at Hallandale High School, 19 years at Stranahan High School and seven years at Pompano Beach High School. She taught AP and dual enrollment English.