A reader responded to my roundup of the good news of 2012 and chided me for not mentioning the courage of teachers in Hawai’i, who have stood up and spoken up for their profession. And then I received this comment from a teacher in Hawai’i:
Aloha! Hau’oli Makahiki Hou — 2013! Thanks for a terrific blog, Diane! As well as being an Inspiration! Remember… you’re always welcome to come visit, speak, stay with us in Hawai’i ! What started out as a one-school grass-roots Hawaii-Teachers-Work-To-The-Rules Protest in mid-November grew to a every-Thursday Statewide-effort involving nearly 100 schools by mid-December… and though we resisted the (tremendous!) temptation to rally/protest/bring-national-attention-to-our-woes during President Obama’s Christmastime-visit (out of repect for his precious Family’s privacy), the movement is already gearing up again in earnest! Keep your eyes peeled for news of the enormous Statewide Rally for Teachers (and their myriad Supporters!) planned for Thursday, January 17th at the Hawai’i State Legislature…. or…. hmmm… better yet? Come Join Us!https://www.facebook.com/CampbellWorkTheRulesProtest
How I wish I could join them!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Contact Save Our Schools for information and support. Building a coalition to end the privatization of our schools. http://www.saveourschoolsmarch.org. http://www.geauxteacher.net
You didn’t protest out of respect for Obama’s family? How much respect has he had for the families of the thousands of teachers who have lost their jobs because of Race to the Top?
Teachers are too nice. This is why Obama and other politicians abuse us. They know they can get away with it because we won’t do anything in return that will really hurt them.
No, the Hawaii teachers are right for two reasons.
First, his precious family did none of those things. It’s a vacation.
Second, there is never any need to harden our own hearts. The human impulse to kindness and care is precious to teachers, and we hone it over the years so it can be a reliable shield for anyone in our care. Then, as we grow older and stronger, we take ever more the world into our care.
Zounds. I’ve just described the arc of Homo Sapiens’ life cycle. It’s what makes us human, and it has molded our history all this time, counterpoised always against war and greed and sheer stupidity. Evolution relented for us, in its remorseless program to turn over every generation, and our lifespans extended because our children’s children need our love and care, as well as our intelligence, experience, and moral strength.
“The human impulse to kindness and care” will not feed our own precious families once we’ve been replaced by Obama’s TFA recruits, or by Bill Gates’ computers.
I guess it’s a matter of priorities: The comfort of Obama’s family in taking a luxurious vacation most of us could never afford, or the ability of teachers to feed their own families. I put feeding my own family first.
The some (all) teacher unions in IL supported Obama for re-election. Anybody know why?
Joe, this is a great question.
The American two-party system is so profoundly broken. There were no choices (Obama versus Romney provides no true, progressive choice).
Until there are choices, you have bad (Obama) and somewhat worse (Romney). By the way, Obama’s policies are so far to the right, that you could call him a fiscal Reaganite.
It would be interesting if unions and more Americans had the vision to support third party candidates.
Except that there was a choice: Jill Stein. If everyone who was so upset about the “choice” between Obama vs. Romney had made the choice to vote for her instead, we might actually have a voice now. Instead, we cut off our own choices by claiming that there wasn’t a choice.
I agree that Jill Stein was a worthy candidate. But, I was referring to Joe’s point that unions didn’t support her. AFT, for example, supported Obama.
Working only contractual hours is a great idea. No one realizes how much time we teachers put into the job to help children achieve. All we hear is that we are not doing enough. How many teachers spent part of their winter vacation in their classrooms? A retired colleague of mine told me once how, when teaching in Vermont, they worked for quite a while without a contract. They were going nowhere on this until the teachers began arriving and leaving school en masse according to their contractual hours. They soon got their contract.
It would be interesting to have the schools and teachers who were part of the Presidents
childhood stand to the front of the line while they protest in Hawaii.
The children of Hawaii deserve a chance to be President someday unless the job will
carry the title of CEO. In either case, to attain such a job you need a good well rounded
education. I believe the teachers of Hawaii will always have this Presidents eyes and ears and now is the time to let him read and hear the message that they wish to
send on behalf of their children, America and the world’s children.
Good luck Hawaii and thank you for the civics and human dignity lesson you are
about to give your students, your state, and your country.
I would guess that most of the teachers involved in Obama’s education have long since retired, if not died. In any case, I don’t think any educators have his eyes and ears. During the letter writing campaign, Ms. Katie talked about Ms. Ruby, whom Obama wrote glowingly about in his book. She talked about what conditions are like in Ms. Ruby’s school under the current “reforms” and how hard Ms. Ruby is struggling and how she despairs every day. I don’t even know Ms. Ruby and I was crying. Yet Obama didn’t bat an eye. Probably he didn’t even read the letter, any more than he’ll ever actually see the teachers of Hawai’i. But even if he did read it, apparently nothing gets through his “neoliberal” shell these days.
All of which is not to say, however, that I’m not thrilled with what’s happened in Hawai’i or that Hawai’i teachers shouldn’t keep it coming. I’m just saying we need to stop focusing on Obama because he’s a lost cause anyway.
Obama describes his education at some length in his book, Dreams from My Father. He attended an excellent private school on scholarship. He understood, and felt deeply, that this gave him an advantage not shared by most children of his color, as it surely did.
So, there is an aspect of heartfelt hope, I think, in his embrace of the eduventurists’ false promise that they intend to somehow make such an opportunity available to the children he encountered in the projects in Chicago. In any case, they sponsored his political career. We are now asking him to break loose from them.
It’s a fine book, and you should read it. His mother was a person of tremendous courage and vision, for whom I feel sisterhood, and this is her son before he belonged to any political faction. Therefore, I can’t escape the feeling he’s mine too.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dreams-from-my-father-barack-obama/1100832650?ean=9781400082773&itm=1&usri=obama+dreams+father
That’s our dog the DFER tail is wagging, and his mother’s son, and his father’s, and he holds the most powerful office in the world for one more term.
Everything said about Obama is true but the GOP has morphed into a radical far right wing crazy party beholden to the Tea Partiers and allied with the NRA, amongst others. Many Democrats are in fear of the NRA and beholden to corporate interests but at least they are not pushing creationism, are not rabidly anti-gay and are not climate change deniers. Sadly, Jill Stein didn’t stand a chance; she was unknown to most Americans and couldn’t even be a part of the debates. Nader was right about everything. How do we break the power of the duopoly?
I love what you are doing in Hawaii concerning the “working to the rules.” If they want to play that game more than one can play the game. After all, those are the agreed upon “Work Rules.”
Let’s face it- money = power. Teachers and other educators (I work at a state department of education, one of the states where reforms have been rammed down our throats) need their jobs to survive. That’s why we can’t overly protest/refuse to go along. If we had the money the reformers do, we could afford to quit enmasse.
Our agency has been turned upside down and we are following the exact path that our Superintendent brought from NYC. Everyone has been “repurposed” and we have to pretend we drank the koolaid and keep our mouths shut. Valuable, experienced educators are retiring in droves.
Please tell us (educators) how to fight the big money while keeping our jobs and trying to remain true to what we know is right. I worry about the world my grandkids will be educated in and live in and I already realize I reared my own kids for a kind, gentle world that no longer exists.
Thank you for recognizing their efforts.
First of all, it was their union who told them not to demonstrate. And now teachers are questioning that decision. This protest was not started by the union, and so far the only support they have gotten is with signs and t-shirts. These teachers know they need to go above their union representation. They already suffered a 5% pay cut, and now with the payroll tax reinstated, many were shocked to see their checks this Friday. Teachers in Hawaii are among the lowest paid in the nation. If they are not living check to check, they find themselves at a deficit. Like one teacher on their FB page stated “And I got a PhD–for what??” Teachers are leaving the profession because they can’t afford to be a teacher. This country has lost its respect for teachers. But isn’t this the Big Goal–to make ed course extinct so Gates and others can start on-line schools and charters?? If you want to destroy public education, destroy the teachers and would-be teachers. Make it impossible for them to pay rent, utilities and buy food for the table.