From under the umbrella, I could see two teenagers walking side by side in front of me. They held their hands and swung it as they walked. I smiled to myself. They were so young and it reminded me of my pre-marriage days. Their periphery radiated love and obliviousness to everything around them. They walked in the bubble they had created for themselves.

A few minutes after, they stopped walking and kissed each other passionately. I cringed from where I stood. It was an unavoidable reaction. Okay, that was going a little too far. The auto drivers standing a few feet away sneered at them. Some threw glances at my way and laughed meaningfully. Or so I felt. I was embarrassed.

Now public display of affection is not exactly my cup of tea. Indians still have to come a long way to accept that. All this kissing and hugging is too personal an act to be put in public display. Of course, I think the guy who publicly displays his affection has guts and makes a girl go weak in her knees. Who does not want attention? But truth be told, it embarrasses the onlookers more than the doers.

But, it is better to wash ones private linens in private. Isn’t it?

Let me now say some of the arguments for supporting the cell phone as such:

“Our children may need to contact us and let us know where they are.” Quote a stupid uneducated parent. 

“I need my cell phone to stay in contact with my friends.” Quote a girl in my class.

“My cell phone makes me more free to do what I want.” Quote an older friend.

“We need to know whats going on when.” Quote a stupid uneducated parent.

“I don’t what my daughter/son to be the odd man out.” Quote a stupid uneducated parent.

“I can’t live without it. It lets me know whats going on.” Quote a guy from my class

Okay lets have a look at the validity of those arguments shall we. First off, I don’t own a cell phone and my parents forget me at school or have other things going that prevent them from getting there in a timely fashion about twice every week. I just use the school phones to contact them. Also, if your so worried about your child’s location and what they are doing there, why in the hell did you let them go out an about unsupervised. Did it ever occur to you that you actually don’t know jack squat even if you do call them and obtain information? They could just lie to you about whatever it is they are actually doing.

Secondly, you don’t NEED cell phones to remain in contact with your friends. I do just fine with email and calling from home and that proves to be an inconvenience for me not because its not instantaneous, but because I become obligated to return missed calls and respond to emails. Hell I didn’t get an email account till i was 12 and I still don’t have a Facebook or MySpace (neither of which will be coming anytime soon). Your friends and you alike will live just fine- probably better- if they don’t get three minute updates via texting. If they need to know every detail of your lives anyway they really aren’t that great of friends; so intrusive and rude.

Your cell phone lets you do what you want huh? And your glued to Mommy and Daddy through that thing? I don’t think so. Cell phones neither liberate nor relieve you. They do just the opposite. Instead of you being isolated from your parents and the rest of the world, the world and all its noise is now put directly into your palm. Your parents may call anytime and your friends may fire off a text message at any moment. That is not free. Rather, you are a slave to the machine that never stops bleeping and ringing.

The third argument supporting cell phones for children is not a well thought out one. It only seems logical to me that you should have your day coordinated ahead of time, not as the day goes and especially don’t leave it to a selfish teenager. That is one of the dumbest propositions ever.

This one is by far the worst. “I don’t want my child to be the odd man out.” I never thought i would say this to someone 20 years older than me but GROW UP, YOU BRAINLESS IMBECILE! That is the worst possible reason for ANYTHING. By doing that, you are giving the impression to your child that you will cater to their every want and desire. They will become dependent on you and the stupid phone. Let them go without. A little suffering is good for them and good god, if we are becoming discriminatory over whether or not you have a cell phone them, we need to seriously re-evaluate the the importance of things in our life. The world as i see it because of this mentality is eerily like Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. People listen to whatever their friends and machines tell them to do.

Okay sure your phone may help you know whats going on. I cant dispute that, but you can’t live without it? Not by any means the truth; you just don’t know how to live without it. You have become far to dependent on that thing. That just goes to show how pathetic cell phones actually are, especially in the hands of a teenager. They become glued to it and can’t put it down. The world got along plenty fine before these remote communications devices entered the picture.

My last argument against cell phones is the horrific and despicable stuff that they have helped create. Sexting, phone sex, gossip networks. The list goes on and on. All that children have made out of these machines is a playground of immorality and a cesspool of lies and deceit. Hundreds upon hundreds of cases where they have been used and abused. 

And that is why I say, “Its never to old to buy your child a cell phone.”

AND THE AWARD FOR THE BEST COMEDY SERIES GOES TO…

…Only in the Philippines; where the set/stage is every part of the country, where the audience is a mixture of citizens and foreigners, where the directors and producers are influential billionaires, and where the powerhouse cast includes the ensemble of politicians and showbiz personalities. (Note: Sometimes it’s impossible to distinguish one from the other—for some showbiz personalities enter the political arena and some politicians make their way to be under the showbiz spotlight.) Only in the Philippines is like the king of comedy shows. Its actors are diverse yet unified because of their natural acting. Its script (i.e. including all punch lines or jokes) is original and downright funny. Its plot is unique and unpredictable. What else could be asked for? Only in the Philippines is indeed a comedy show like no other.

THE BEGINNING OF AN ALL-NEW SEASON: THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN

The premiere episode of a new season of a TV series has always been made to be extra special so as to immediately seize the attention of the target audience. This technique has been noted to be an effective move in maintaining, if not enlarging, the viewership within the duration of the season. American Idol, despite being branded over-all as a talent show, is partly a comedy series. With hopefuls such as William Hung singing “She Bangs” and General Larry Platt singing “Pants on the Ground” during the audition period; American Idol, now on its 9th season, continues to bring out on-the-spot talent-based comedy.

In contrast with American Idol, Only in the Philippines is a comedy series that is partly a talent show. Only in the Philippines began its 15th season by allowing hopefuls to submit their certificates of candidacy during the audition period that ended the first week of December 2009. By January 2010, the official list of participants was released and broadcasted nationwide. Almost every other season in the past started with the same type of activity (i.e. auditioning then releasing of finalists). But what actually made this season more exciting and more interesting than the previous ones is the aggressiveness of the chosen candidates most especially those fighting for the lead role of president. With approximately two months left before the automated elections; the disparaging, bickering and backstabbing among the participants in the race to own the main political spotlight is becoming more and more intense.

BENIGNO “NOYNOY’ AQUINO: THE RAPPING PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

YES. You read it right! Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, one of the two leading presidential candidates, rapped about his future plans in one of his less-than-a-minute political campaigns. Perhaps the advertising staff consulted by Noynoy’s political party found the concept as something catchy—something that can immediately seize anyone’s attention. And true enough it did. But not everyone viewed the gimmickry as something that brought about a positive output. Many found the commercial quite bothersome maybe because they cannot envision the next president to have won the coveted position by performing such a seemingly desperate move. In fact, one of my friends in an acclaimed social networking site posted a message of how disturbed he was in watching a rapping political candidate, especially one whose father is considered to be a hero and whose mother was a former president of the country. Many thought that Noynoy made a fool out of himself for singing a few unrhymed lines. But despite this dilemma, Noynoy still appears to be at the top of his game. Or will another major character snatch the lead role?

MANUEL “MANNY” VILLAR: THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WHO SWAM IN A SEA OF GARBAGE

Ask anyone in the Philippines right now for any novelty song and several, if not most, will probably come up with Manuel “Manny” Villar’s political jingle.

Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura?

(Have you ever swam in a sea of garbage?)

Nagpasko ka na ba sa gitna ng kalsada?

(Have you ever celebrated Christmas in the middle of the street?)

Yan ang tanong namin

(That is our question)

Tunay ka bang isa sa amin?

            (Are you really one of us?)

Nalaman mo na bang mapapag-aral kanya?

            (Do you know that he can make you study?)

Tutulungan tayo para magkatrabaho

            (Help us get jobs)

At ang kanyang plano’y magkabahay tayo

            (And his plan is to give us homes)

Si Villar ang tunay na mahirap

            (Villar is a true member of the poor)

Si Villar ang tunay na may malasakit

            (Villar is the only one with real concern)

Si Villar ang may kakayahan

            (Villar has the ability)

Na gumawa ng sariling pangalan

            (To make a name)

Si Manny Villar

            (Manny Villar)

Ang magtatapos ng ating kahirapan

            (Will end our poverty)

Although pre-campaign political commercials are forbidden by the law; the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), a government institution that seems to disobey most of its rules, allowed candidates, mostly those bidding for the presidential position, to present and advertise themselves ahead to the public. Manny made great use of this exception and paid giant networks with billions of pesos to play his political jingle. In fact, one of this first quarter’s surveys focused on the time consumed by a candidate’s advertisement in a single day during the pre-campaign period (Nov-Jan). Manny was discovered to have used a total of 183.5 minutes (as what I have heard in a news program) within 24 hours of public programming for his commercial. This means, that if played continuously, Manny’s jingle will run for about three hours!

But seriously, such one-of-a-kind bombardment has resulted to a positive result. Although nowadays several Filipinos’ (especially those belonging to the A to C social classes) ears fold, or worse, fall-off upon hearing the start of Manny’s jingle; the masses (members of the C to E social classes) seem to feel uplifted with the song especially when the lyrics somewhat embody Manny’s rags to riches story. Now and probably until the end of the campaign period; most members of the masses have this outlook that if they vote for Manny, they too can rise from poverty and be prosperous as him. Pulse Asia’s recent survey revealed how Manny caught up with Noynoy’s rating in the presidential bid. With Manny’s rating rising to 35% and Noynoy’s falling to 37%, Pulse Asia declared a statistical tie upon applying a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.

A ONE-ON-ONE BATTLE

With less than two months left before the national elections, Filipinos begin to assume that the race for the presidential post has eventually led to a one-on-one battle between Noynoy and Manny. At this stage of the competition; if Noynoy will not be able to come up with an effective plan (aside from the rapping), Manny’s new jingle (YES. He has a new song and its starting to become popular as the first one) will swallow him [Noynoy] whole.

AN ATTACK FROM BEHIND

But then, two months is still plenty of time. In the game of Jeopardy, it is possible for the player with the least money accumulated in the first and second rounds to win after a good move at the final round. Maybe, just maybe, one of those whose ratings are far from Noynoy and Manny’s will come up with a competent strategy, attack from behind and eventually, emerge as a victor.

Note: Forgive me if I have to cut the write-up at this point. Longevity often begets Ennui. I believe that it is most appropriate if I present this season’s other major and minor characters in a follow-up article so that you may be able to get to know them better.

Kosanya~

Kosanya~

1.    You know you’ve been reading too much when: the words start blending together.

2.    You know you’ve been reading too much when: you start seeing letters floating in 3d in front of you.

3.    You know you’ve been reading too much when:  you have to reread each paragraph because your mind is wondering.

4.    You know you’ve been reading too much when: you can’t understand what the writer is trying to communicate. Either the hidden meaning or the obvious meaning.

5.    You know you’ve been reading too much when: you start dreaming words.

6.    You know you’ve been reading too much when:  you start writing letters to the editor in your mind.

7.    You know you’ve been reading too much when:  you get fed up and put the book down. “I don’t agree with most of the stuff this author is writing about.”

8.    You know you’ve been reading too much when: you feel cabin fever.

9.     You know you’ve been reading too much when: you start to wonder if taking a library book into the bathtub would be alright.

10. You know you’ve been reading too much when:  you wonder how you are going to explain your wet logged library book.

11. You know you’ve been reading too much when:  you start having dreams about the book.

12. You know you’ve been reading too much when:  you decide to give up your subscription to the New York Times from reading overload.

13. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you get stressed out by the littlest noise interrupting your reading.

14. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you start to research the author.

15. You know you’ve been reading too much when:  you start to research the author to see if he wrote any other books.

16. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you need to buy a reading magazine glass.

17. You know you’ve been reading too much when:  you need to get a prescription for reading glasses.

18. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you have to read a how to read book to keep reading.

19. You know you’ve been reading too much when: your teacher encourages you to keep reading.

20. You know you’ve been reading too much when: your mom is happy to see you reading.

21. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you fall asleep reading.

22. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you wake up reading.

23. You know you’ve been reading too much when:  your shelves are full of 1000 books.

24. You know you’ve been reading too much when:  you can’t understand how people find movies better than books.

25. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you have to read even more at school.

26. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you wear out the cover of the book.

27. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you wear out your hands reading books.

28. You know you’ve been reading too much when: the doctor says to cut back on your reading of books.

29. You know you’ve been reading too much when: your wife says, “Enough with the books.”

30.  You know you’ve been reading too much when: you start critiquing other writers in your class.

31. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you text people everywhere you go.

32. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you write in text.

33. You know you’ve been reading too much when: can’t stay away from your cell phone because there could be new messages from your friends.

34. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you can’t stay away from the internet because there is so much information to read.

35. You know you’ve been reading too much when: your computer congratulates you on your 1,000th webpage search.

36. You know you’ve been reading too much when:  your computer congratulated you on your 2,000th stumbleupon.com search.

37. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you swear you saw your favorite author on the city bus.

38. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you start reading biographies instead of watching the program biography.

39. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you have to escape to the library to read.

40. You know you’ve been reading too much when: you have to join Readers anonymous, “Hello Mark.” “It’s been 3,000 hours since my last read.” Good Mark.” What the Frake?”

This SIM chip has never been used other than in my computer to connect to the Internet.  I can understand
my provider having a gang texting, so that all subscribers are informed of their new rip off schemes, but for
a private person to continually dial a number which is never answered; that requires a special level of stupid.

So here is my application, showing me that cute little envelope, meaning not that I won anything, but that
some moron has dialed my computer’s SIM.  Okay. Delete.  The same moron dialed the computer’s SIM six
times in twenty minutes. Hmmm.

There is now a ‘voice message’.

Okay.
I’ll bite.

Get your hankies.
Here is a guy telling a gal that because she’s put him on ‘block’ he’s leaving.  He goes into the
antecedents of the argument they had last week, and that he was going to apologise. But as
she won’t take his calls….

For about 15 seconds I thought of calling the guy, explaining to him, in the nicest possible terms,
that he’s been dialing a wrong number for a week.   But realising that this is a really stupid guy,
the gal is probably better without him.

As everyone else, I’ve dialed wrong numbers.  I tend to verify the number when it happens.  Just
to make sure that I haven’t made a mistake.  In most cases, I have made a mistake.  Were I to
keep dialing the same number and expecting a different result I would, like my heartbroken lover
above, be insane.

As there are many insane people with cell phones, shutting off the phone at night is the wisest
course.  This last call, for example, arrived at 4:28 am.   My computer was off and unplugged, I
was sleeping, so no one was disturbed.

Perhaps cell companies need to have a clever little advertisement; “If you’ve called your party’s
number and gotten someone else, please check your party’s number.”

However, the stories today have been stepped up not just on the big screen but are now literally available in audio visual and even 3dimentional, surround digital effects. This takes us further where no worded print has done before it leaves us awash at the end with such emotions which threaten to break the barrier of the 5 familiar sense into uncharted and unfamiliar territory of a sixth sense. This iconic feat is not necessarily achieved in a vacuum but like a projector screen what has been achieved over the space of time and evolution can now be linked with one word which is “Hollywood!” However, there is a paradigm of change which has turned the tides of the way stories are told in Hollywood. To understand this novel paradigm, it is proper to first put a lens over the old one. I do so by quoting Lee Masterson in his article, “Creating memorable characters”, and I quote:

“When you are creating your characters personality description, decide what his great strengths are. Give him several strong traits and then add one major glaring weakness.

“Your character must still be likeable but the glaring weakness must form the underlying tension that drives his behavior.

“Now create a staggering problem that preys on that weakness. It must be a difficult or fearsome problem for your character to overcome, so that the story can recount his struggle to turn his weakness into a form of victory at the end.

“Above all, never let the protagonist know he is going to succeed. That way he cannot win unless he surrenders something of inestimable value to himself.”

But no-where did Lee Masterson say that that thing of inestimable value must be the protagonist’s life! The purpose is so the protagonist can overcome that weakness to drive him to victory at the end. Alas! How things have changed from “once upon a time.”

This paradigm where the protagonist claims a victorious end is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Is it that Hollywood is bored with endings which have become so predictable? Where it is expected that no matter how gargantuan the staggering problem before the protagonist is, would his eventual victory ever be ultimately ensured? Is it that the Hollywood script- writers, due to the uncertainty of the success of sequels in the box office, tend to search for a quick and terminal end of the protagonist thereby prematurely ending any likely hood of a continuation?

What ever the reason, one thing is certain that the age where the protagonist gives a ceremonial dance in celebration of his eventual hard- earned victory is now in its twilight.

On the other hand it may be that the age of story telling has evolved and this eventual paradigm is the result of this evolution. If this is the case then permit me to ask, are we looking upon a new age signaling the evolution of Hollywood? The more I think of it the more the urge to see that evolution as the villain. If this then is Hollywood’s new look, how then should we explain the victorious out come of the protagonist(s) in J.R.R. Tolkien’s / Peter Jackson’s, “Lord of the rings?” Or is J.R.R. Tolkien a product of the old paradigm of “once upon a time?” If that be the case, where then should we place J.K. Rowling’s “Harry potter?” (Tentatively, I am tempted to exclude the latest Harry Potter movie “The half blood prince.” I leave that for you to decide). In these stories, while the whole world may be close to being annihilated, the tale of the protagonist is that of a victorious end. Such endings are evident in movies like Dennis Quaid’s / Jake Gyllenhaal’s “The Day after tomorrow,” John Cusack’s “2012”, Keanu Reaves “The day the Earth stood still,” amongst many other world-ending disaster movies. What then is wrong with Hollywood?

I shall give you time to ponder on this question but I shall not let your minds be too burdened. The answers shall all be brought to the fore in my next article, “What is wrong with Hollywood?” ­ 2.

To be fair is to be objective. That is why I would approach this defective cog in the gears of Hollywood with a bird’s eye point of view. This includes a lens over me as well. It may have occurred to you that for me to say there is a problem with Hollywood and its acclaimed writers may be regarded as arrogant and in pragmatic words, simply beyond my pay grade? To prove that I am not necessarily out of my depth, I will be analytically objective as I possibly can. The problem with Hollywood –this defective cog in its gears, may not after all be a fault with Hollywood. Nay, but in a reversal of roles it may be that I have become sentimentally attached to the real face behind the character(s) of my protagonist(s). Could it be that my affection for them may have turned my sense of objectivity a little bit askew?

In order to avoid rhetoric’s and for the absence of any doubt to subsist in this write up, I will try and quell the reason that my desire for any alternative sort of ending from Hollywood may be the defective cog. I believe that anything other than this will mean that I may have deliberately or unconsciously turned a blind eye on movies which elicit the general theme which this write up spot light’s on with a disapproving glare. Could this simply be settled as a flaw in the choice of style and/or genre? Is it simply an art of perfection achieved through the mean of tragedy? Could it be that I am so caught up in the wish for “snow white” endings that I have failed to appreciate the projection of reality in these movies? If this be the case, then it would be fair to say that I am in denial of the stifling reality which surrounds me. That would be at odds with the fact that I happen to think the world of Stephen kings and the way and manner some of his novels suddenly end tragically. An example of such a tragic novel would be his collection of short stories titled, “The skeleton crew.” The stories are especially famous for their ultimately tragic endings. In this novel, one story in particular stands out. Known for its gruesomely tragic end, I was “strangely” at peace with “The mist.”

But this is not about me, this is about the contention when movies are written in such a manner that the protagonist should not be denied at the very least, a ceremonial dance of victory. The endings are so stunning that for those few minutes after the cast comes on, you are left still sitting in awe thinking, “ what the hell was that?!”

To illustrate this point, here are twenty movies which leave you stumped with those exact words, on the tip of your tongue. The first 5 shall be ones I strongly feel are uncannily tragic while the remaining fifteen, I shall simply list. However, that does not necessarily mean that I distinctively feel less about the tragic nature these movies and by this I am referring to their tragic endings.

1.                The skeleton key

In this movie, a gorgeous looking Kate Hudson is trapped in the dark clutches of black magic, more specifically voodoo. She takes a job to nurse a mute, crippled old man. Feeling her life is threatened and a little bit curious she seeks out help and in the process receives advice from an old voodoo witch.

In a reversal of fortunes, she scribbles a voodoo charm for protection and ironically ends up trapping herself. Her trap is made whole by her growing belief in voodoo. As a result her body is later taken over and she is forced to remain trapped in a human prison, the aging body of her villainous employer. To make matters worse, she is unfairly made mute and cripple like the old man she was employed to nurse.

2.                The Ruins

A group of 4 fun loving young couples are invited by two strangers to search for their mission friend/brother. The trail leads them into a thick forest where they are subsequently trapped by the locals on the ruins of a pyramid. Unknown to them the pyramid is infested by a strange, evil, parasitic, blood sucking creeping plant which does so by taking root inside a persons body.

In the end just one of the four young Americans escape. As fate would have it, she is already infected with the blood seeking parasite plant thus depicting the futility of her escape.

3.                Man on Fire

In this movie, Oscar winner Denzel Washington brings his intense acting style to the big screen in which he acts as a body guard to a little girl played by Dakota fanning.

In a shoot out in which he is critically injured she is kidnapped. Unable to bear the guilt and still injured he promises the mother to bring the wrath of hell on those responsible for the kidnapping of her little girl; this is an understatement of what he eventually does in this movie. He eventually tracks the kidnappers down and finds the distraught little girl. But to set her free he offers him self in exchange.

In a very tragic end while mother and daughter are reunited, Denzel’s character is left at the mercy of the kidnappers whose intention to kill him cannot be mistaken. He eventually dies of his initial injures and the movie ends most tragically.

4.                Children of Man

Here Clive Owen plays the character of a man whose tragic end is slightly similar to that of the character played by Denzel in “Man on fire.”

After protecting a young pregnant girl whose baby is supposedly the first ever conceived in a time when it is believed man kind is on the brick of extinction due to a genetic anomaly of sterility?

He successfully protects the pregnant girl at the expense of his life. He equally dies of his inquiries moments before help arrives.

5.       Knowing                 

In another world ending scenario, Nicholas cage plays the father of a young boy who randomly comes into possession of a piece of paper kept in a “time capsule” –a hot water flask, for a considerable number of years. The piece of paper has certain ciphered numbers written sequentially all over it. Cage’s character subsequently deciphers the sequential numbers and unravels certain dates of events past, present and future, all pointing to a series of disasters on those dates.

He finally unravels the final code (date) on the piece of paper. This is a recurrent code he perceives to be of great importance. A sort of memento-mori for human kind. This recurring date predicts the total destruction of man kind and life as we know it by a freak solar flare large enough to engulf our planet.

Suddenly, extra terrestrials appear and save a selected group of children amongst who is cages son. Alas! They decline to save him and thus separating father and child tragically, he who unravels the whole mystery!

He tragically meets his end along with the rest of humanity as the solar flare scorches every living thing on the face of the planet.

Conclusively it would be my distinct pleasure to give a little insight on the remaining fifteen tragic movies which I have personally selected for my list but if done, I would be guilty of emphasizing the obvious.

Life is like a stage where we all play our part, some with “snow white” endings, some with tragic endings. The movies which are like our little “Narnia” should not be tainted by such tragedy as to defy all reason while destroying all hope and faith in humanity. The loss of life if we can help it should have purpose and meaning.

I believe it can be helped when it comes to the movies.

6                          The Decent                                      14      The grudge

7                          I am legend                                      15      Valkyrie

8                          The messengers                               16      The Ring -pt.1

9                          Drag me to hell                                 17      Mirrors

10                     Memento                                         18      Jeepers creepers -pt.1

11                     Seven pounds                                  19      The quiet American

12                     Perfect storm                                   20      Prison break

13                     The cave  

Abstract

        The NEA, the nation’s largest labor union, is a strongly liberal interest group centered on public education, particularly the benefits of teachers, administrators, and other professionals in the education field.  In its long, 150 year history, it has improved the quality of education immensely and has proliferated public education to include equal opportunity for underprivileged minorities, and has grown in size exponentially.  It has merged with several smaller educational organizations, and today it is by far the largest educational organization in the U.S.  Today, it is largely concerned with educationally minded legislative acts such as the No Child Left Behind Act and the American Recovery Reinvestment Act (economic stimulus package).  The majority of its financial contributions go to like-minded Democratic politicians, and so they in turn receive much support from them.  The NEA also holds official positions on issues that don’t directly concern education.  For example, the NEA is pro-choice, and supports the legalization of same-sex marriage and amnesty to illegal aliens.

        The National Education Association (NEA) is a strongly liberal American interest group whose primary focus is the advancement of the quality of public education (Center for Responsive Politics, 2009).  It is the largest labor union in the U.S. (Center for Union Facts, 2006).  The organization was founded in 1857 after 43 educators from ten different state education associations united to form a cohesive, nationwide voice, which was then known as the National Teachers Association (NTA) (Holcomb, 2006).  Its first major legislative victory came in 1867, when the NTA successfully lobbied Congress to establish a federal Department of Education (Holcomb, 2006).  Some issues the organization (its name changed to the NEA upon absorbing three smaller education groups) focused on in the following years were the guarantee of free education for African Americans during Reconstruction, reform in the culture-stripping methods of American Indian education, and the prohibition of child labor (Holcomb, 2006).  The highlight of NEA’s history came about a century after the end of the Civil War, when the NEA merged with the American Teachers Association (ATA), an organization for African-American educators, in 1966 (Holcomb, 2006).  This merger was momentous in that it was made at the height of the Civil Rights movement, a bold statement of goodwill toward racial integration and equal rights to all, including women and other minority groups.  Today, the NEA holds a powerful legacy for having influenced the progression of equal rights for African-Americans, women, Native Americans, and all minorities through an indispensable and fundamental outlet:  the classroom.

        Today, the NEA consists of 3.2 million members from every aspect of public education in America, including public school teachers, administrators, faculty members, retired educators, and even students who plan on becoming teachers (NEA, 2009).  An overwhelming 79% of NEA members are women, although they hold a comparatively small percentage of leadership positions within the organization (EIA, 2005).  Due to the NEA’s persistent advocacy of equal rights for minorities, the organization has a population of minorities fairly representative of the actual demographics of the educational field (Holcomb, 2006).  This immense member body contributes plenty of money to the organization’s endowment fund, and so the NEA has nearly $50 million in net assets, a formidable sum of financial resources (NEAFIE, 2008).  Since the NEA pushes a liberal agenda, the vast majority of these funds are given as contributions to Democratic politicians (Center for Responsive Politics, 2009), although research has shown that only 45% of teachers are Democrats (Center for Union Facts, 2006).

        One of the most significant issues that the NEA currently lobbies for is the salaries of educational professionals (NEA, 2009).  The NEA believes that higher salaries for educators are required to attract and retain qualified professionals (NEA, 2009).  They also support more flexibility in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which would not penalize schools so much when they don’t meet standards by taking on higher educational challenges (NEA, 2009).  They also support an increase in federal funding toward education, increased efforts to lower dropout rates, and the closing of the “achievement gap” between the rich and the poor and between ethnic minorities and whites (NEA, 2009).  One major legislative act of current concern to the NEA is the proposed regulations of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) (economic stimulus package) Race to the Top Fund, which would provide competitive federal funding to public schools (NEA, 2009).  The NEA supports the act’s commitment to improving public education, but is against the act’s use of student test scores to allocate competitive grants and the act’s emphasis on charter schools as a method of reform (Brilliant, 2009).

        The majority of politicians who support the NEA are Democrats, due to the NEA’s liberal stance.  One fascinating fact I learned about the NEA is that it holds official standpoints on non-educational issues.  For example, the NEA is officially supportive of same-sex marriage, providing equal benefits to its members who have married of the same sex and even speaking out for the cause (Smith, 2006).  The NEA is also pro-choice, and favors amnesty to illegal aliens (Schlafly, 2008).

References

Brilliant, Kay. (August 21, 2009). Re: Race to the Top Fund. Retrieved      December 16, 2009, from Regulations website:          http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#documentDetail?     R=0900006480a0f3f3

Center for Responsive Politics. (November 8, 2009). National Education Association Summary. Retrieved December 16, 2009, from Center for Responsive Politics website:  http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000064&cycle=2010

Center for Union Facts. (2006). National Education Association (NEA).  Retrieved December 16, 2009, from Union Facts website:  http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000064&cycle=2010

Education Intelligence Agency. (October 2005). The NEA Pyramid. Retrieved December 16, 2009, from EIA Online website: http://www.eiaonline.com/neapyramid.pdf

Holcomb, Sabrina. (2006, January/April). Answering the Call: The History of the NEA. NEA Today.

National Education Association. (2009). National Education Association. Retrieved December 16, 2009, from NEA website:  http://www.nea.org

National Education Association Foundation for the Improvement of Education. (August 31, 2008). Financial Statements and Independent Auditor’s Report Years Ended August 31, 2008 and 2007. Retrieved December 16, 2009 from NEAFIE website:  http://www.neafoundation.org/downloads/NEAFoundation2008-FinancialStatement-Final.pdf

Schlafly, Phyllis. (July 30, 2008). The NEA Spells Out Its Policies. Retrieved December 16, 2009, from Eagle Forum website: http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2008/july08/08-07-30.html

Smith, Peter J. (July 20, 2006). NEA Forcing Alternative Schools. Retrieved December 16, 2009, from The Endowment for Medical Research website: http://www.endowmentmed.org/index.php?Itemid=51&id=584&option=com_content&task=view.