My Shame in Anger My Value in Humility

By Lee Culpepper - Staff Wrtier

When my dad died in 1993, my friends’ father, Mr. Ripol, drove over an hour one way – after midnight – to pick me up from Marine Corps Officer Candidate School. The Corps had put me on emergency leave to deal with my family’s loss. To articulate just how much I respect Mr. Ripol, I need only one word -- awesome. He is a great father, and he recently wrote to me expressing concern about my writing’s undertone of “anger.” Because I admire him, I listened to his wisdom.

Digesting his comments, I realized the anger he uncovered is my contempt for teachers’ unions and teacher-credentialing programs – keep in mind I am a teacher. I see unions like I see bullies. Bullies stir most everyone’s anger by picking on smaller, weaker people. In my rowdier days, I had a bad habit of stepping in, too eager to fight them. The bullies who were bigger than I was, who reveled their size advantage, were the ones I couldn’t wait to knock down a peg or two. Similarly, unions behave in the same arrogant and intimidating manner as bullies. They’re emboldened by their numbers and size. They anger me with all their scams. They claim to benefit teachers, and they boast about looking out for students. However, they actually jeopardize students’ learning and attempt to sedate competitive teachers. Many union members are not competitive people. These individuals fear standing alone. They stir my anger because they should just be thankful to have a job. They often lack ability, and the idea of holding them accountable for their students’ successes or failures causes them heart trouble. (Mr. Ripol’s wits are probably beginning to tingle again.)

Read The Full Ariticle >>