Many of us (teachers) may see ourselves as basically
apolitical. Maybe even “aunion.” I know
I did.
When I entered the profession in 1985 I was full of
confidence in my ability as an individual to transform education one student at
a time. “Why in the world would I need a union for that, I thought.” Not only
did I think it; I said it. I remember
telling a colleague in my department (and also the Vice-President of our
district’s union) that I believed that, while unions had once had their use, we
were in a new time and that perhaps unions were no longer needed.
Plus, I was a professional who had been raised by
professional parents. Weren’t unions for
blue collar workers?
And I was pretty sure I didn’t need politics either. My life was fine. Things were good. While I
was interested in politics in general, (I followed Presidential politics) I saw
no reason to be politically active as an individual. I was here to help kids. That's all that mattered.
As I gained more experience, my attitudes changed. That experience included:
- Working with some good principals and superintendents, and working with some very bad ones as well.
- Watching elected policy makers lurch from one educational fad to another
- Seeing the end of meaningful professional development replaced by a focus on testing, parsing the results, more testing and more parsing of the results
- Seeing my purchasing power eaten up by inflation, health care expenses and pay cuts
- Watching expectations for my performance and workload increase while resources to accomplish the task decreased
- Witnessing a Corporate-backed education reform regime that stresses testing and firing teachers as a form of “accountability” while continuing to refuse to invest real money in making educational opportunities equal for all students.
And all of these things occurred while I worked as hard as I
could to be the best teacher I could possibly be.
But how come that wasn’t enough? When and why did teachers become the enemy in
some people’s eyes?
As I’ve become clearer about my role as a teacher, I am beginning
to get some answers to this question.
Yes, I am a teacher of children, but I’m also an advocate for justice.
Advocating for justice has never been
popular. Ever. As we organize to change the status quo that
I have outlined above, there are many forces who want to keep things just like
they are, or make them even worse if it suits their economic or ideological needs. Teachers and our unions are one of the few
organized groups left to resist injustice in education, and that makes us a
target of the powerful. We’re solidly in the way of those who would like to
reduce teachers to a kind of interchangeable part on an education assembly line
and who see public education as an untapped opportunity for profitable privatization.
The irony is that those with the most power are charging
teachers with being an obstruction to progress.
To this I plead guilty; especially if that “progress” is unjust and
ultimately, hurts my students’ education and opportunity rather than helping
it.
I’d like to believe that the privileged, naive kid who
began life in the classroom at age 22 has learned a thing or two about
expanding his understanding of what it means to be an educator that fights for
justice.
Political activism is one way we work for justice for our students and for our own families. I hope you will join me this fall in the fight for what is right.
