Chicago Teacher: Why I Am Striking

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1. WordsMatter says:

   September 10, 2012 at 7:25 am

   Sending support to all the Chicago teachers. I wish this letter could be front page news in every newspaper in the country. This teacher says it all so well.
   This retired New York teachers stands with you.

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2. Jon Awbrey says:

   September 10, 2012 at 9:45 am

   She Says, He Says …

   ❝You see, even though back then Barack was a Senator and a presidential candidate … to me, he was still the guy who’d picked me up for our dates in a car that was so rusted out, I could actually see the pavement going by through a hole in the passenger side door … he was the guy whose proudest possession was a coffee table he’d found in a dumpster, and whose only pair of decent shoes was half a size too small.❞

   ❝And understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I’ll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself, I’ll walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America. Because workers deserve to know that somebody is standing in their corner.❞

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   • Teacher111 says:

     September 10, 2012 at 5:44 pm

     As far as the “she says…”

     Obama went to an elite private school in Hawaii. He is a Harvard educated lawyer. That might not matter in today’s economy, but I’m sure it mattered in his beginning years. That whole “he was poor” stuff was ludicrous. Maybe he chose to be frugal, which is an admirable trait. But he definitely wasn’t impoverished.

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3. Cheryl Dinnie says:

   September 10, 2012 at 9:55 am

   I am awed by the strength of those teachers- not easy to do in this volatile time. I taught for 35 yrs. in an inner city and have seem the erosion of unions leading to CEO types running the systems. Our current superintendent has never been a teacher. The problems are myriad and are not easy to fix. Teachers get all the blame for kids not ready, cared for, absenteeism, lack of motivation. Systems spend millions on ” new” ideas every yr. instead of letting teachers do what they know to do. Good bless and hope they resolve it soon.

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4. philalisa says:

   September 10, 2012 at 11:24 am

   Chicago teachers are walking for all of the kids who are being subjected to the “reform” which benefits only the edu-investors and their political cheerleaders.

   We are grateful. Stay strong.

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5. Dufrense says:

   September 10, 2012 at 1:48 pm

   From reading half the comments posted in response to CNN’s articles on the strike, I have the impression large swaths of Americans need educated on the realities of education reform, not to mention the disparities in cost of living between a city like Chicago and some small town.

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   • Teacher111 says:

     September 10, 2012 at 5:44 pm

     The media is making it all about pay and benefits when it is about much much more.

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     • Kathy1 says:

       September 10, 2012 at 5:57 pm

       Don’t they always!?

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6. Maeve Greenvue says:

   September 10, 2012 at 6:15 pm

   I was listening to the report on NPR about the strike and how Chicago education administrators were keeping some schools open with support personal, so that working parents will have a place to send their children, at least until 12:30 each day. It was reported that they had expected about 2000 children, but only 40-50 showed up. I don’t know what their assumption of why so many stayed home was, but I think it sounds like parents are supporting and showing solidarity with the teachers in keeping their children home.

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7. patriciahale says:

   September 10, 2012 at 8:55 pm

   Thirty five years ago, as a young teacher, I was on a picket line in Arizona. I am an administrator now, but the Chicago teachers are my new heroes.

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