Teachers often feel powerless in the face of the assaults against their profession. Often they are directed to do things that they know are educational malpractice, and they have no choice but to comply.
The best way to resist is through collective action, like the testing boycott of the Seattle teachers. One person standing alone is admirable but will be fired. What is necessary is for entire faculties to speak as one. Think of the Chicago Teachers Union. Their detractors changed the state law to prevent them from striking, raising the requirement for a strike vote to 75%. Their enemies, organized by Jonah Edelman of the notorious Stand for Children, and paid for by the equity investors of Chicago, thought that 75% would make a strike impossible.
But CTU patiently educated, mobilized, and organized. When the vote came, more than 90% of the members authorized the strike. And the strike was supported by parents, who understood that the teachers were fighting for their children.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us all that mass protests could defeat big money and political power. He taught us not to be afraid. He taught us the power of collective action by the powerless. Together, in concert, when justice is on your side, mass action cannot be defeated.
A new book gathers stories about stories of courage in response to the attacks on teachers and on public education. This article profiles one teacher who organized his colleagues to resist a merit pay plan in New York City. Why resist a plan that would produce more money for teachers? Because it would harm students.
If all of us showed courage whenever possible, if all of us worked together to alert the public to educational malpractice, we could stop it.
Oh, and the merit pay plan that the city designed and implemented, the one described in the link? It failed and was canceled after a three-year trial and more than $50 million wasted.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you for your inspirational message. It looks like a David and Goliath confrontation.
Once again, I offer my stone for the slingshot.
http://signon.org/sign/repeal-no-child-left-1
I also want to thank DIane for this inspirational message, and I too offered my stone for the slingshot, by signing the petition. Hopefully we can get the numbers needed to sign on to this sooner rather than later!
Thank you for this topic. When you urge collective action, I agree. You cite the Chicago Teacher’s Union as an example of how local rank and file teachers can mobilze for justice. But what happens when your local union is controlled by the mayor and his appointed superintendent and school board?
An individual teacher who steps out of line or goes public will soon be gone and will not, as someone I know was told by the then district’s HR manager, find another job in education again.
In fact, you have sat in a meeting with these kinds of education “leaders” while everyone waxed eloquent on public education–perhaps you remember appearing with the education power elite in New Haven, Ct.
No disrespect intended, but what do you do when you are faced with having your ability to provide for your family unjustly taken away because of a corrupt school system?
Dan Ariely wasn’t wrong about incentive pay? Imagine that. An academic researcher being right when the aggregate *feelings* of the conservative policy elite were simply wrong!
@brutus:
I’d say you then organize collective action outside the union. The current incarnation of CTU began as a dissident caucus that overthrew the previous corporation-friendly version.
Count me in to overthrow UNITY caucus in NYC!…..They are the ones who threw us in the river in 2005 and they are still doing the same thing with the so called upcoming agreement on teacher evils…….We deserve MORE!
It is quite sad that we live in a day when we call those who hold our children’s education hostage as admirable and inspiring. Adults need to figure out how to behave like adults without putting the students in jeopardy. Doesn’t anyone realize that the only people who suffer are the kids? This is what our world has come down to: adults using kids to advance their own agendas. Now how sad is that.
I read “Editor’s Farewell: This is Your School”. Excellent article. Thanks for the link.
I know that, as a teacher, I am putting the needs of my kids at the forefront when I criticize the national and local educational agenda(s) of the last decade and more.
I’m putting their needs first because I know that the system I (and the vast majority of my colleagues) used before the business world butted in was working extremely effectively with my student population. The new models have not and will not work.
I know this simply because I’m an experienced and committed teaching professional who has tried different tacts over the years and will continue to do so, based on the children in my classes.
It is easier knowing Diane Ravitch is behind us. Thank you.
The thing about the business model in education is that all of the business practices and their purposes (which most education policies are now based on), eventually come to light, like the FUD marketing strategy of instilling fear, uncertainty and doubt, and stack ranking of employees, aka “rank and yank.”
I think it might help the public to better understand what’s been going on in public education if educators can collectively demonstrate how these business practices permeate education and are there for the benefit of corporate interests.
For example, all the attention paid to the “reform” of public education is really just a straw dog, the business plan to set something up so it can be seen as mediocre and knocked down, so that people will then accept what businesses really want them to buy, in this case, the “choice” of privatized schools, low-paid teachers with little training and no experience, etc.
We teachers are usually pacifists, but at some point I predict that there will be violence.
rskbins: That’s not who we are and I hope it’s not who we ever become, because teachers must always serve as models to the community and, as we teach children, there are humane methods for resolving conflicts effectively.
It’s also out of character because we are mostly women and females are more likely to be internalizers –we’re inclined to become depressed and suicidal, taking out our frustrations and pain on ourselves, rather than on others.
Collaborate with others, so you don’t feel so alone in the struggle and so you can work constructively with like-minded people towards finding resolve.
I predict that, at some point, there will be Congressional hearings.
+1
Except I’ve sparred with some women in my judo dojo who are anything but internalizers , taking out their frustrations on themselves, lol. They’re brown and black belts and true physical forces to be reckoned very seriously with.
Please take that in the humorous vein which it’s intended to be delivered in. I like your post. And know that it’s true, too.
As I said, we are usually pacifists. But I fear that one day some teacher will be pushed to the breaking point by some insane principal and a system rigged against teachers, especially veteran ones. This would hurt our profession as a whole, because it would embolden the likes of Bloomberg and Rhee to get rid of us all.
Cos’,
with respect, we’re not serving as community models by hiding in our classrooms and venting on blogs about the woes of public education.
There is no recourse to “humane methods” where the absolute corruption, money, disregard for humanity and social justice of the ed-reformers and their political whores is concerned. Even our teacher unions have been co-opted.
The people at Tahrir Square lit the fuse, and others like Karen Lewis and CTU, OCCUPY, the demonstrators in Europe and Greece the Zapatistas in Mexico, etc. have kept the fuse burning. Teachers need to act collectively both locally and nationally, to strike our own match and put fire to the system as well.
I hear you, rskibins. Loud and clear. They’ve made no attempt to hide their contempt and many of us with years of service fear that we’ll be given that “U” rating one too many times for one or two “omissions” from our classroom walls or bulletin boards. Such a shame that Obama shares the same views.
CommunistTeacher: I did not say hide your head in the sand and take the pummeling. I said collaborate with other like-minded people and work constructively to find resolve. The point is that if we want to be treated as professionals, then we need to remember that teachers ARE models to the community and seek resolution in a professional manner, such as by collectively petitioning the government for a redress of grievances, demonstrations, strikes and other forms of civil disobedience, NOT by violence.
It won’t be violence from us, but non-violence in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King. That could be interesting: Freedom Rides and sit-ins. Last spring the JIndal administration in Louisiana was so afraid of the teachers that they would not let them into their own state capitol to talk about the draconian education destruction bills he was pushing through. Would not let them in to their own Capitol! Those that did manage to get in were shuttled off to a side room. They had extra security and everything. Like teachers are going to get violent.
The violence, however, might come when kids start realizing that they are not being educated.
There is an interesting add-on here. BESE, the state school board that makes policy is about to do a tour of the schools in Louisiana. It will be interesting to see if they actually talk to the teachers or if they are protected from them, because they could get their ears filled up. BESE was packed with Jindalclones in the last election so he could get the bills pushed through and the policies he wanted. He appointed two of them as the constitution says he can and then he supported two other right wingers. This gave him a majority on BESE One was part of A+PEL and the other an attorney whose kids go to parochial schools. He was supported over a very respected former superintendent of one of the best run and highest achieving school systems in Louisiana, Ascension Parish. Yet he was defeated by this arrogant attorney. As a result the schools throughout the state are an awful mess and hodgepodge, not just the ones in New Orleans.
No not violence, at least not violence initiated by teachers. Rescuing our students from corporate/government education reform agenda will take time, organization and courage. Using our brains, not brawn will help us re-educate the people in our communities who have been fed a steady diet of propaganda that was designed to malign public education and the teaching profession here in the United States. We can not depend on our elected representatives to support change because both political parties are beholden to big business interests who contribute to their political campaigns. That does not mean that we don’t lobby our legislators because it is important that they understand the issues from our perspective. If groups of teachers regularly visited representatives at their district offices, and began to develop a relationship, it could be to our advantage down the line. The only thing that beats money in politics is votes at the ballot box. In the mean time, we can talk to our colleagues, the parents of our students and anyone else in our community who cares about our children. We can take action like the teachers in Seattle and the teachers in Chicago took action. We are only powerless when we believe that we are powerless.
I agree with all of this except for one thing: the ballot box matters most when the politicians and officials who are involved are concerned about the needs of their constituencies AND their own future in politics. When neither of these needs is of concern, we often see lies and misrepresentations which get the person into office, followed by propaganda campaigns which further their own personal agendas.
I’ll continue along the path you’ve prescribed here, Betsy, but experience has shown me that people with extreme wealth who are in positions of power are often less likely to listen to the voice of the people.
The sentences that stand out most in your post, and the one non educators can not understand, is when you asked, ” why would teachers resist merit pay?”. ” Because it harms students.” Corporate types don’t understand there is more than money, and that’s why we teach.
Spoken by a true teacher. It’s not a job but a calling. The money is what allows us to pay the bills while pursuing what God called us to do.
Thank you for getting this message out to teachers. Many teachers fear being fired or at least reprimanded, and therefore, hide their identity when they speak out. In my district, Douglas County, CO, they also fear that our ALEC agenda board and super will bring in bus loads of non-certified teachers to fill our positions if we protest in any manner. I can only hope that we, an educated population, will get it together soon because if not, the negative result will be devastating for our children, and hence our country. It’s past time to take a stand for what we know is best for kids, otherwise it appears we stand for nothing. What a terrible message to send to our kids.
This is why the president needs to understand that using uncertified teachers is a bad thing and the money that is paid to Teach for America needs to be going to scholarships for Education majors who will then teach for a minimum of 5 years.
Most teachers cannot afford to lose their jobs. Therefore, the retired teachers are going to have to take up the banner.
If all the teachers stood together, all would be protected. ALEC has no teachers to bring in. It consists of state legislators and corporations. Together is the answer.
What’s distressing to me is that this onslaught has been going on for over a decade. Many of the young teachers who are coming in don’t have the sense of a strong union and are either forced to work outside of their contractual
…sorry. Pushed the enter button to soon:
…agreements or agree to do so, simply because they know they’ll be fired, otherwise. It’s like a waiting game on the part of the “reformers”.
Thank you for stating what many of us are thinking. Many of us are teaching in fear…fear of being targeted for speaking out as educators who know what to do in a classroom instead of following some irrelevant instruction from people who have never been in a classroom. We are being blamed for society’s problems. The morale in my school is at an all-time low. We are being asked to do things that we are not suppose to do and are afraid that there will be severe repercussions when we don’t hand the work in. This has caused such anxiety. This work is taking away from our classroom instruction. Don’t get me started on the special education situation.
Perhaps someone could pick up on this (?). I’ve just started researching it, but could use some information:
About 17 years ago, there was a huge uproar about how NYC had scored dead last in the state tests, compared to all other NY State cites. The headlines were ferocious and we, the teachers, were to blame.
A couple of days later, on a back page of the Daily News, it was disclosed that NYC was the ONLY city that included all test scores from Special Ed students. When these scores were removed, the average put us 3rd in the state. The media left us alone for a little while after that.
If my memory serves me right, the major impetus for the NATIONAL reform movement came about when the media started trumpeting the news that the USA was ranked somewhere in the teens, when compared to other industrial nations in the world. The war cries were and still are being raised, regarding the faults of our teachers and public schools, in general.
I’m wondering about the origins of this data. What was the name of the study? Who commissioned it and who compiled the statistics? Was there a “level playing field”, when comparing the data from nation to nation?
I think it would be worth our while to research this. If there are any similarities to the smear campaign that was thrown at us in NYC, then we’d gain a strong foothold by exposing it.
Does anyone know or remember anything about these studies that exposed our nation as so “lacking” in the international educational arena?
It started in 1983 under Reagan with the publication of “A Nation at Risk” by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, which cited low scores on national and international tests.
However, just as today, the real issues then were poverty and the inequity of under-resourced schools in low-income areas. For example, one claim was that SAT/ACT scores had plummeted, but subsequent reports on disaggregate data demonstrated increased numbers of students from low-income groups had been taking the tests.
See, The Manufactured Crisis by Berliner & Biddle: http://www.amazon.com/Manufactured-Crisis-Attack-Americas-Schools/dp/0201441969
Thanks for this. I would think that this information would be used by our unions to combat the smear campaign against us.
Seems to me that if [so-called] “teachers” want to be treated AS “teachers”, then they need to start treating education as a PROFESSION instead of a blue collar OCCUPATION. It’s extremely difficult for anyone – let alone the powers-that-be – to respect a group that seems to continually put it’s own greed above the interests of the children they’re supposed to be educating.
Rightly or wrongly, due to the attitude of the public school teaching community today, teachers are awarded essentially the same level of respect as trash haulers. The difference is that they see the trash haulers accomplishing something when they come off strike; in terms of getting the trash hauled, they get the job done? The “teachers” however? There the public isn’t so sure.
I’m sorry that you feel this way. I’m sure you have your personal experience to guide your opinions, as do I; a greedy, slothful hauler of educational trash.
Ken, your comments are insulting to the nation’s teachers. If people feel that way, they are misinformed. Nay, ignorant and anti-intellectual. A nation that despises teachers is in deep trouble.
I agree 100%. The problem is I live in NC with no teachers union and come from NY wth a strong teachers union. I can’t seem bring home that point to folks who have never known it any other way. They say here in the south that the first words a baby learns are “mama” and the second is “unions are the devil”. I can’t tell you how many times my colleagues have said to me, “why don’t YOU do (or say) that at a meeting”. I’ve spoken up and then benn hung out to dry. After 10 years, I still can’t get everyone on the same page here to speak up as a collective group. It’s absolutely maddening. And, there are teachers who are anti-union as well. Go figure??
It’s uncanny how much indoctrination against the supposed “evils” labor unions that people accept, when our society is so highly stratified. The six Walton heirs alone have more wealth than the entire bottom 40% of our country, yet they pay their employees a pittance and give them brochures on how to apply for Food Stamps. There are few workers left in unions today, and people wonder why the middle class has eroded and there are so many working poor.
Most Low-Wage Workers are Employed by Large, Highly Profitable Corporations: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/low-wage-workers-_n_1687271.html
These companies can well-afford to pay their employees a livable wage, but they don’t do so precisely because they are not unionized.
I live in the south too, and have also been a teacher in the north with a union. What southern teachers don’t understand is you don’t need a union to come together and stand for justice. You just need unity!
When my classes were being used as a means to get kids graduated who didn’t have enough credits to graduate–what I mean is, the student names would appear in my electronic grade book and they were given credit, even though they physically never took my class–I went to one of the core teachers considered a leader in the school. I told him what was happening and his response, “Organizations always need their scapegoats.”
Nice, huh? I quite a couple of months later, and now teach higher ed. If the teachers would unite, change would happen. They are just so complacent.
One of us needs support vs former NYC-TFA Director candidate!
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/candidate-mark-otto-practices-teaches-article-1.1258479