Boortz distorts, misrepresents and intentionally misleads. On top of that, he's downright lazy when it comes to fact checking. I don't suppose Boortz actually looked over the entire list of workshops. That would require doing a little fact checking, something Boortz cares little for. Here is a link to the workshop guide: http://www.massteacher.org/teaching/conferences/09scguide.pdf. Topics covered include autism and school violence among others. Boortz distorts once again.

If you think this is bad, you should check out what Ga teachers are getting credit for during their summer training for their 6 yr. certificates.

Ballon twisting is fun, and the way you learn more about it is to READ books and search the internet. It is safe, blah, blah..
The reason it isn't done more often is that the balloons cost money. Who's gonna pony up ten bucks for an hours lesson?

Every teacher has to be recertified as a teacher every five years. You can become recertified by attending workshops and earning points for attending those workshops. Every five years, you need 120 points. Problem number 1 is that each workshop is a descent into socialism. Problem number 2 is that each workshop earns 10-15 points, so you need anywhere from 8 to 12 workshops over 5 years. Problem number 3 is the moronic beaurocrats who cannot keep the paperwork straight literally scare the sheep dip out of people who earned the points but do not have it recorded. If they get the paperwork straightened out after your expiration date, you are screwed through no fault of your own. The part that makes it interesting is that the beaurocrats arbitrarily assign your points earned -as mentioned above, somewhere between 10 and 15.

There is an alternative that I use all the time. Instead of attending the workshops, I attend two classes that are related to the subject I teach every five years. Each 3 credit class is worth 60 points. The first workshop during my last year of certification, I show up at the school district's home office with my official transcript and they process the paperwork that day. The renewal does not arrive until my current certification expires.

The county office cannot argue with a transcript. Points are earned for any curriculum related class with a passing grade. And, I don't have to suffer through childish demonstrations of teaching techniques.

The only drawback is having to pay tuition for the two classes. To me, it is worth every penny to avoid the indoctrination sessions and the arguments over points earned at the indoctrination sessions.

It may not be perfect, but it is the least painful.

There are "administrators" and bureaucrats who tell teachers "what to teach", "when to teach", "where to teach", "how to teach" and "who to teach". Most of these administrators and bureaucrats don't know, and worse yet, know not that they don't know.

There are the teachers unions - whose job it is to maximize their membership, and who mandate "how much" to teach and "how good" (or how bad) a teacher to be.

By definition, half of all teachers are "below average" (read the definition of "median" - one possible meaning of "average" - in any introductory statistics text)

Now, if I could only figure out how to fix the situation ...