TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

What's in a name?

ADVERTISEMENT

Roy Dettwiler

Published: November 5, 2009

There are so many disturbing things going on that it is difficult to choose what to tackle next. It's no wonder so many books are being written to try to educate the public.

Today I would like to deal with two organizations that often are designated by the same acronym: NEA; they are the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Education Association. As far as I know there is no connection between the two, but I have no love for either one of them.

The National Endowment for the Arts is an organization that receives large amounts of taxpayer money, which inevitably makes them suspect in the very beginning. Various projects that have received the support of this organization are of dubious worth and have been a concern for many. Since artists maintain their right to call anything they please "art," I maintain that I have just as much right to say that some of it is not art! There seems to be no standard criteria to determine what worthwhile art is and what is not. So anything goes!

As for the National Education Association: With apologies to the teachers who belong to this union, you have my sympathy! It is a typical union, with a radical liberal tendency. I believe there are many good teachers who find themselves under duress to go with the dictates of their political correctness.

Believe me, I am not bragging when I reluctantly confess that I have for many years been a lifetime member of both the Michigan Education Association and the National Education Association. It is also true that I have not heard from either of them for years. I suspect that it would be difficult to find my name in their records. I have long been too conservative for their tastes, but I still have the evidence of membership. I became a member before they were so radically left wing.

Roy Dettwiler
Avon Park

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT