Madison conservative group Reforming Education And Demanding Excellent Results-Wisconsin, or READER-WI, recently put up a billboard on US 12-18 (the Beltline) that uses a quote purported to be from the late Albert Shanker, a former head of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The quote?
"When schoolchildren start paying union dues [...] I'll start representing schoolchildren."There's only one problem: He never said it. If you do some digging on the quote, this is what you find:
The incident in question occurred during a speech Shanker delivered at Oberlin College, while he was still president of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers (probably during the early- to mid-1970s). Although nobody recalls the exact wording, it went something like this:
I don’t represent children. I represent teachers... But, generally, what’s in the interest of teachers is also in the interest of students.
LP - Why let the truth get in the way of a good story?
No comments:
Post a Comment