Episodes
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Students Should be Grouped by Intelligence and Ability (Episode #11)
No one in their right mind would criticize a coach for creating a homogeneous team entirely made up of top-notch athletes rather than a heterogeneous football team comprised of a mixture of poor, medium and great players. Yet educators are vilified when they even suggest something similar. One of...
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There are no Group Rights (Episode #10)
As a libertarian I am tolerant of all individuals no matter what religion, sexual orientation, sexual identification, etc. But when the National Education Association and others look to protect the "rights" of certain minority groups, they are actually creating special privileges for those…
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Emotional Committments vs. Facts
There are three different topics on this podcast. The main one revolves around the fact that you are wasting time trying to convince people on social media of a point of view. Why is that? Because most people are so emotionally committed to their ideas that facts don’t matter. So stop wasting…
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Do Millennials Really Support Public Schools (Episode #8)?
The National Education Association posted an article entitled: What Do Public Schools Need? More Money and Strong Unions, Say Millennials. Really? Millennials support public education? That sounded fishy to me so I checked out the survey upon which the NEA article was based – Education in…
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Legalize Heroin (Episode #7)?
As a libertarian, I have always been in favor of choice when it comes to taking drugs. But when pressed, I still had difficulty when asked about hard drugs like heroin. The typical response from family members and friends was: “You mean you want heroin available just like alcohol or marijuana?…
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"Teacherism" - The Victim Mentality in Public Education (Episode #6)
Unions are HUGE advocates of what is called social “justice.” The essence of social “justice” is the idea that everyone is potentially a victim. Why not add teachers to the list of the oppressed? We can call it “Teacherism.” After all, haven’t we heard the stories about how many teachers have to...
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The Artificial Market for Public Education (Episode #5)
When most people think of government intervention, they have in mind burdensome rules and regulations that harm businesses and the economy. But not all of them work this way. Some interventions establish a set of “artificial conditions” which actually help certain companies and industries. The...
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Life Imitates Seinfeld & Teachers and Traffic Tickets (Episode #4)
Have you heard the expression that life imitates art? Well, if you consider the Jerry Seinfeld show a form of art, this statement turns out to be true. What am I talking about? Fans of Seinfeld will certainly remember an episode called “The Maestro” where: “George decides that he should help a...
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Public Education and the Taxi Medallion System - Ominous Parallels (Episode #3)
When I started doing research about this issue, I was struck by the parallels between the taxi industry and public education. My immediate question was: “If Uber and Lyft have destroyed the government monopoly taxi system, does the same fate await the government monopoly education system?” Taxi...
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Climate Change is not "Settled Science" (Episode #2)
This podcast deals with two topics: 1) Real Bravery 2) Climate Change Really brave people stand up for an opinion under political, social or cultural pressure which can potentially destroy their lives. For example, take the early Abolitionists who spoke out about the evil of slavery before the US...
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Introducing the Libertarian Teacher Podcast (Episode #1)
I introduce the new Podcast – a merger of my Anti-NEA and Anti-NJEA blogs into one unified podcast. A perspective on the public school system from the point of view of a libertarian public school teacher. I discuss the NEA’s injection of politics into a serious issue – bullying – during...