I read stuff like this and think it’s some kind of joke. That teachers in Los Angeles are required to spend one hour of the school day protesting outside school, or else, according to union president A.J. Duffy, they “will be crossing a picket line,” is just anachronistic and ridiculous. Students (remember them?) will be supervised by aides, administrators, and parent volunteers—although the district is concerned that pupils will not, in fact, be adequately supervised and that mischief will ensue. Too bad.

Also: What do students learn when they witness their instructors shirking their job responsibilities, marching around the schoolhouse’s exterior walls, banging drums and hoisting signs? While Americans puzzle over how best to instill some sense of discipline and respect for authority in the public schools, teachers engage in this type of irresponsible display, which puts forth a clear message: “Kids, challenge authority and don’t live up to your commitments.”

Teachers bridle when someone makes the mistake of not calling them “professionals.” Certainly many teachers are fine people and fine workers and provide an honorable service for which they deserve respect. But the fact is this: Public school teachers are simply missing in their jobs—by choice, I should add—huge chunks of what “professionalism” entails. They are not judged by their performance; they are paid in lock-step salary schedules that their unions favor; and many of them, it seems, find it completely permissible to leave their classrooms whenever they have a bone to pick with the governor, legislature, district leadership, or even their own union.

We wonder why our students aren’t prepared for the real world, but many of their teachers don’t actually operate in it.