From a teacher, who read this advice and added more:
Dear teacher sister/brother, as I read and absorb your advice, and wish you well for all of it, may I respectfully add one more idea for your consideration? It’s a big part of my school year:
“I will be mindful that next door, down the street, and across the country thousands and thousands of teachers like me are trying to do the same thing, for the same reason. Because children are our focus. Because we love and care about them and their families and our communities. Because we have to protect them from the suits, who are trying to spread darkness over the areas where we are devoted to bringing light. And since there are far more of us than of them, despite their billions and their government support, when we join together, we can turn around the darkness and take back our profession and build our schools. So I pledge to build bridges to my colleagues and to the parents and communities that care, so that we can become a mighty force on behalf of our children. For example, I will embrace the courage and determination of the Chicago teachers as they prepare to do battle for all of us. I know this year will present challenges, but I am not alone. And I know in my heart that right is on my side, on our side, and because we do this for children, we must and will prevail.”
Thank you, dear colleague. I will think of you as I welcome my middle-school children into my classroom, knowing you are bringing the same spirit to your younger, lucky students.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you for writing this. We must appreciate and support each other. This made me get choked up about my profession and my fellow colleagues all over the country fighting for our profession, our students and our communities.
LikeLike
Beautifully stated! If we maintained this attitude, we would all be better and our workplaces would run like clockwork.
LikeLike
Amen. We must remember to keep on doing what we do.
LikeLike
If only Americans had the moxy of Europeans. We would have a general strike the day after Labor Day. Imagine if the majority of teachers in this country, union and non-union, staged a walk-out? Imagine if we could get other workers to do the same? How about parents and students taking to the streets with us.
LikeLike
Dinosaur, that’s exactly what it would take, but where I teach, we would be fired on the spot. For some more research about the plight of strikers in NC, take note of this information, giving special attention to Ella Mae Wiggins. Her grave is 5 minutes from my house.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loray_Mill_Strike
LikeLike
It would be more symbolic if the walkout was on “Labor Day.”
LikeLike
Here in Austin, Texas on Saturday, August 25th 7:00-9:00 pm we’ll be having a rally to support the Chicago teachers. Parents supporting teachers. Solidarity!
LikeLike
Sure hope you are letting those Chicago teachers know. Their facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chicago-Teachers-Union/137764189586887 Leave them a message. They need to hear from you.
LikeLike
Texas Parents:
That’s great. You are doing more for Chitown than our own unions. God Bless you!!
LikeLike
Teachers will prevail because they are the ones in the classrooms. None of the “reformers” wants to be anywhere near a school and that is basically why their movement will fail. Just wait a few years when the baby boomers are all retired and the captive women are no longer there.
LikeLike
Surely after 7 to 10 years, when the international benchmarks have cycled through, and RttT has shown to be failed policy, the States will take the power back. But we have to live with this for at least a decade, I think. By the way, I see RttT has having no effect on PISA or TIMSS outcomes, and these two international tests are what drive politicians. If NAEP outcomes improve, which they have been for some time (especially in Math), it will be a matter of first, determining how statistically significant the improvements would be compared to the past, and, second, determining what caused the improvements. You can bank on the fact that state-level data will improve, as they already have in TN, because teachers will either teach to the test, teach THE test, or downright cheat (along with some administrators). Initially, I think we will see victory dances from federal and state officials as state-level data improve for the next few years. Then the international benchmarks will probably sink these same officials. In fact, I see the data from future international assessments as the most important factor in sinking RttT, because that is, more than likely, going to be the best data sets that I believe will show we have not improved. Surely the American people will not put up with ANOTHER round of reforms in another decade. Surely they would be smarter than that – fingers crossed.
LikeLike
Good luck and blessings on your new school year. I guess you have tenure and a good union so you can say what you think even publically which is extremely excellent. Will you be able to continue writing your blog as prolifically once you are back in the classroom?
I know you teach your children good self advocacy skills, how to do it the right way. We did that a lot with special ed kids in Georgia and the high school orthopedically impaired students knew well how to speak their minds appropriately . Nowadays, I think self-advocacy is going to become an important skill for students.
I just found out in our local paper that there is an administrator with Teach for America on our governing Board, BESE. A judge just ruled that she can keep both jobs. They are just trying to take over. That is on top of one of Jindal’s appointed members being and administrator in the parochial schools. Conflict of interest never seems to enter the minds of the executive branch of Louisiana’s government.
LikeLike
So many teachers here are suffering economically and their own families lives are suffering. Overloaded classrooms, overloaded grading and stress get carried home to families. The furlough days are now moving into furlough week(s) and any new expenditure from the system is met with fatalistic response from teachers, oh well, that will get covered by more furlough days.
Teachers who can retire have done so, several said that they it cost them a great deal of money to stay on since their salaries were going down.
It is hard economic times- but only for some. The banks are doing better than fine, the petro chemical industries, the chemical companies and the insurance companies are doing better than fine.
Teachers have families of their own to look after and if the teachers of the children are stressed out it hurts everyone, if the teacher parents are likewise, then it doubly hurts.
Education is a profession and sacrificing for the kids is not professional, that is marytrdom. .Something that the powers that be will be more than happy to keep on happening. Stand up for Chicago, Stand UP for teachers.Let them do their jobs.
LikeLike
Family’s not families and other assorted errors due to lack of caffeine and plan irritation that education is not more valued for it can do for society.
LikeLike
I am the teacher who wrote the entry which began this chain, though not the original piece. What I wrote (above) was in response to a pre-K teacher’s excellent piece (https://dianeravitch.net/2012/08/19/good-advice-for-teachers/). This (above) was written as a respectfully-suggested addition to her good thoughts.
Indeed, I am a tenured teacher with union protection (I’m a member of the PIttsburgh Federation of Teachers). Twinkle1cat is absolutely correct in assuming that teachers who are represented by unions are in a qualitatively different position to be public with ideas and actions than are our beleaguered colleagues without union representation.
I do believe this is one of the biggest reasons for the focused, highly-funded nationwide attack on the AFT and NEA, and on the public schools where teachers are union members.
I also believe this is one of the many reasons why all of us should do all we can to support the brave, well-organized, and critically-important work of the Chicago Teachers Union today. While they have a very particular struggle in Chicago, truly they are fighting for all of us. They are easy to find on Facebook, and their webpage has a point of entry for people like us looking for ways to help (https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4013/c/468/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=7204).
Truly, we who seek to serve our children in the public schools around this country (and the world) — we need one another now more than ever. In our hands IS placed a power greater than their hoarded gold — and now is the time to recognize and use it, together with our parents and communities — for those beautiful faces which soon will fill our classrooms.
LikeLike
Thank you for this beautiful message. We have more power than we know. THE PEOPLE UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED.
LikeLike
Hello. This format is part of the problem. Who do you think is going to read it except school teachers? I came into the industry later than most so I might have a different perspective than most. As I enter my 41st year as a teacher I am again amazed at the naivety of our peers. I suppose we became teachers because we are naive enough to think that we can make improvements to society through logic and caring with out stepping on some toes. But,we have been sold out and so have our children. We have been sold out by politicians and the 1% who want to make a profit from the $300 billion plus we spend every year and we are doing nothing at the national level. It is illogical to blame them, that is what corporate raiders do. They also believe that they are right and we are wrong just like Adolph Hitler when he wrote “the world will be better off when we are done with our work!” He really believed that his victims deserved their ends and educational deformers really believe they are doing good and we are wrong.
I had a public school employee tell me last week that her grandchildren will go to charter schools in California because her family wants a better education than pulbic schools will give. How is it possible that people including district employees do not know how poorly charter schools perform? How is it possible that the segregationism and elitism of charter schools is not in the public forums? How is it possible that the average folks believe charter schools perform better? How is it possible that Stanford U’s report on American students reading at the highest comprehension level in the world when the rate of free and reduced lunches is 10% or less is not news? How is it possible that I see national advertisements for private,for profit, colleges and newspaper articles about how poorly we are doing in the public sector with out any response at the national level?
If the NEA can take my money and promote political campaigns for selected candidates why can’t the NEA use my money to inform the public about the truth? The public really believes that we are bums incapable of doing our jobs and in response we just sit here and wring our hands and preach to the choir. It is almost as if some individuals care but the industry does not. I have serious doubts that Washington Education Association and the NEA have any plans or desires to save eduation and I wonder why this is. Am I angry? You bet! Do I keep it to myself not a chance! We will lose this fight and it will be our fault because our organizations do not have to political will or even care enough to do something.
LikeLike