Adam Urbanski, head of the Rochester (NY) Teachers Union, offers this advice:
“In his letter from the Birmingham jail, Martin Luther King wrote, ‘There are just laws and unjust laws. And we are obligated to disobey the unjust laws.’ A nationwide movement of creative insubordination may be the only way to put a stop to the injustice now imposed on America’s public schools, teachers and especially students.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Better do it quick, while there is a profession of which to speak …
Just sayin’ …
Unfortunately, Jon Awbrey is absolutely right.
Totally agree, and need to add: creative insubordination must include clear and frequent messages about why we are doing it. When we protested for equal rights and against the Viet Nam war, the public knew what the issues were. Not true in education. Diane Ravitch, Yong Zhao and Alfie Kohn can’t do it alone. Let’s work harder at sharing information.
How about this for an issue:
When I had my informal observation by a peer teacher, she told me she couldn’t give me the highest rating on classroom management because my students were all well-behaved throughout the observation. In order to get the highest rating, she would have had to observe me effectively dealing with some inappropriate behavior!
There appears to be no ‘justice’ in America — America is a very unjust place.
It seems our contemporary jurisprudence is merely a means of social control of the ‘masses’, or more recently, ‘the 99%’, when a simple parking ticket or lack of registration renewal or insurance proof results in a fine/bail of thousands of dollars, not to mention failing to pay such fines/bail in a timely manner, or missing a traffic court date, that would impact many of us severely, yet Wall Street titans, including those behind the LIBOR and mortgage meltdown walk free for lack of law enforcement or legislative will to oversee such conduct….
Simple infractions have an entire industry of enforcement, yet the crimes, or what should be crimes, that bankrupted a nation and harmed MILLIONS of people, go unenforced, allowing a corporate Reno with virtually no oversight at all — THIS is why Wall Street and the corporate right knows it can get away with it…
Michelle Rhee is an agent of the corporate right — she is NO Democrat — and her enablers are of that ilk — corporations seeking to harm American learning, simultaneously keeping Americans of modest means poor, pregnant, and dumb, while profiting handsomely from doing so — wrapping themselves in the heartstrings tugging rhetoric, no doubt Frank Luntz inspired, of ‘doing it for the kids’….
While I hope for the assertion of progressive pragmatics like yourself and those you blog about, I fear the cesspool that has become whatever is American these days, including its laws, its economic and social and political equity, and its access to democracy itself, a key element of which is a strong and vital public education system, from el-hi through university….
May whatever forces of democracy triumph over what has become the formalization of corporate tyranny in our nation…
“May whatever forces of democracy triumph over what has become the formalization of corporate tyranny in our nation…”
Yes, that “corporate tyranny” is called FASCISM plain and simple. The current US FASCISM might be considered an oligarchical plutocracy or maybe the reverse a plutocratic oligarchy, certainly not a democracy. Those few who own the majority of wealth don’t give a rat’s ass about the vast majority of other humans other than viewing them as being servants to their obvious greatness (as shown by their shear wealth).
See G. Carlin about who owns what: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1iXXKmq58g
How about some advice and specific resources for public school teachers to be “creatively insubordinate” or as safe as possible in trying to change the warped reform efforts happening everywhere these days. Do we need some lawyers on board? Can teachers reach out to the parents of their students and tell them what the problems are, what is really going on or is that “insubordinate”?
The principals are enforcing these crazy mandates. Do they believe that these changes are right for American children -teaching to arbitrary tests- instead of reaching children where they are and creatively showing them the way forward? What is a principal thinking in telling a caring teacher that he/she cannot take a class on a field trip to learn in the real world because they might miss drill time for the standardized tests. Is there really anyone who believes that students do not learn from a quality field trip or that a young teacher is not energized and working harder to reach students when they propose one?
We are all trying to make a living for our families with our teaching salaries. I believe that most of us are proud to be working to make a better world one student at a time. When does the job become not a real teaching job but a sham? I say let’s ask the principals to be real and act with integrity in the face of these “reforms”. Do the principals tell themselves that this is all really OK? Are there any principals who have brains and backbone today?
To answer your last question: Maybe a handful but the vast majority definitely lack the backbone to do what’s right by the kids. At least 9/10 to whom I’ve spoken agree that what is being imposed is nonsensical and wrong yet they continue on doing it. The vast majority of them succumb to the lure of lucre and justify imposing these idiocies onto the teachers (and by extension and even worse onto the hapless students) because “everyone is doing it as it’s mandated to us, we are helpless to do anything against it”.
Although MLK’s letter from a Birmingham jail is probably the most well known, the speech that probably sealed his fate was “Beyond Vietnam”-“an address delivered to the clergy and laymen concerned about Vietnam”, at Riverside Church, New York City, 4 April 1967. Substitute Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, etc. . . for Viet Nam and terrorism for communism and it would be updated.
You can find a copy of the speech at: http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/MLKapr67.html I have sent this speech around to staff on MLK Day (yes we usually have school that day as it is the first snow make up day, Presidents Day is the second makeup-if it’s not snowing on those days). And I’ve been reprimanded for doing so-I’m too political, in other words I challenge the militaristic nature of the US.
A few quotes:
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
“War is not the answer. Communism [terrorism] will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons [drones and precision guided missiles]. Let us not join those who shout war and, through their misguided passions, urge the United States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations.”
“We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate.”
It can start with a simple statement: I am a highly effective, experienced educator and I know what my students need. This is not it. Please let me do what I do best, teach my children in a way that addresses their developmental and cognitive needs.
Here are some acts of creative insubordination:
http://coopcatalyst.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/top-ten-list-for-reluctant-teacher-transformers/
http://coopcatalyst.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/10-ways-to-fight-standardization/
Thanks, Tim!
“And we are obligated to disobey unjust laws.”
This is the heart of the matter for me.
Many teachers in my school appear complacent. They are in sort of a denial mode about the changes that are right before them and the ones that are right around the corner. Many think that I am overstating the concerns and I should calm down because it is not healthy to feel so agitated.
It is only with solidarity that we have a fighting chance against the rich and powerful.
How can we rally everyone? I wonder how the teachers in Seattle accomplished their 100% boycott of the MAP test? Incredible!
We already have examples of how to fight back with creative insubordination: the Garfield HS tchrs refusal to administer a state-mandated exam; the tchrs and others who occupied the Wisconsin state capitol bldg; the activist tchrs who have run RETHINKING SCHOOLS for 25+yrs in Milwaukee; United Opt Out and Parents Across America; the incomparable Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters in NYC; the NY Congress of Radical Educators, etc. Chicago teachers had the enormous advantage of charismatic Karen Lewis leading their local union in a militant strike with community support, only union local to to defend pub schl with organized insubordination; most other tchrs have been abandoned by their unions so the example of Garfield HS tchrs organizing their own opposition from the bottom up and parents in UOO and PAA are ways to go, imo.
With the recent example of Garfield HS as well as the numerous other excellent examples Mr. Socal just provided, I’m curious about the specific context (as in strategy and concrete issues) of this quote from Dr. Urbanski. Perhaps Diane Ravitch can clarify.
I often hear sentiment here from those, like Caroline, who blaim their principals for these policies. It is very frustrating to hear since principals, just like teachers, are mandated to put these policies into place. I don’t know what the laws are in each state, but here in Louisiana we are mandated by state law, and in turn by school district administrators. If you want to place blaim it is simple. Call your state legislators and governor’s office. The problem is that they aren’t listening. So remember that next time you vote. As a school administrator I stay awake at night trying to figure out how to balance what I know is great teaching, with these state mandates. It is BS to think a principal has any more control than the teachers. Yes, there are principals who don’t “get it”. But here in my school district we do our best in a difficult situation, because we are ALL obliged to obey those unjust laws. So, like Caroline, I wonder how can we be civilly disobedient, without actually breaking laws. I believe we can only do it with parental support. I am open to suggestions, but don’t tell me I don’t have to implement legal mandates. That’s not an option right now.
“That’s not an option right now.” Well, Bridget, when might it become an option? Might you lose your position, good possibility. And coming from one who has suffered the consequences of speaking up and out, I can tell you that prudence can have a place, but why shouldn’t we teachers, expect that you all, the supposed “leaders” (you all do make quite a bit more than the average teacher) lead us where we should be going and not in the opposite direction. And what I’ve read of what you have written here on this blog, there is no doubt that you are probably one of the few administrators I would trust.
Take the next step and lead your school in the right direction and not the wrong one, please!!
Duane, First of all, I don’t make that much more than the teacher’s here. Some with many years make as much, or more than I do. As a leader there is no doubt that I have the best interest of students always, but I refuse to break any laws. I appreciate your frustration but it doesn’t mean that I have any more power over this legislation than you do. I understand that there are different things going on in each state so we cant compare each other’s situation. I am exploring ways to support my teachers, but in the meantime I still have to follow the rules. I am always open to any ideas to help my staff and I am riding the Titanic with them. We will all go down with this sh together.
I don’t think the irony was lost on Mr. Urbanski in quoting King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” to make his case for resisting the reform agenda. It is that very same piece of non-fiction that Common Core apologist and new AP CEO, David Coleman, used to illustrate his stultifying and intellectually insulting demonstration of what he calls “close reading.” Coleman’s vision of reading instruction is entirely teacher centered, makes kids feel dumb, reestablishes the model of “teacher as font of all knowledge” and ignores at least 30 years of research on developing literacy. During this famous demonstration, in dialogue with Commissioner Johnny B. King, he also uttered his infamous “nobody gives a $%#t about what you think or feel,” pronouncement.
Thanks, Bill. I was just about to make the same point. King’s famous letter is reduced in the Coleman exercise to a bizarre vocabulary exercise. http://www.schooltechconnect.com/2012/12/the-discovery-of-age.html
It has happened before, it can happen again.
As a member of Dr. Urbanski’s union, I’m pleased to see
that he supports an idea many of us have been talking about for
some time. I think one form of creative insubordination classroom
teachers might well want to consider is the refusal to work with
area student teachers. For one thing, we cannot afford to cede
control of our classrooms to novices in such a high stakes
environment. For another, it seems disingenuous to encourage young
people to enter such a terribly stressful, disrespected, low-paying
job (n.b., my use of the word “job” as opposed to “profession” is
deliberate) where dozens of years of experience are subordinated to
canned curricula, poorly written, expensive and unreliable
standardized tests, unfunded mandates and one ridiculously rushed
reform after another. And finally, if we all take this stance, we
will create a logjam such as the university system has never seen,
and we may just be heard. I realize that this could merely result
in a rush to legislate more new reforms in which education students
no longer have to complete a student teaching component before
going to work in classrooms across the country, and this may just
be the best part of the plan: can you imagine what will happen to
the percentages of teachers leaving the profession in the first few
years of employment if they go in with NO idea of what to expect?
Urban schools already have close to fifty percent of new teachers
leaving teaching (not just their districts, the actual profession)
within the first five years. I’d be willing to bet we’d soon top
seventy-five percent if new teachers came in without having
completed student teaching first. Teaching is a hard job under any
circumstances, and now that all respect for our education,
training, experience and common sense has been removed, it’s darned
near impossible.