David Berliner, one of the nation’s most eminent education researchers, says teachers across the nation should walk out on May 1, to protest low wages, legislative attacks on their profession, and a hostile environment,ent for teachers.

“Enough! Enough B.S! Enough excuses! This must all end now. It is time to ensure the dignity of all who teach! May 1st would be a good day for teachers all over our great nation to walk out of schools and demand better from their legislators. May Day reminds us of two things. One, it is the day to commemorate the Haymarket massacre, where workers were striking for an 8-hour day, and many of them lost their lives. Workers are rarely given their dignity peacefully!”

Time to resist! Time for solidarity!

He writes: MAY DAY!

MARCHING FOR DIGNITY ON MAY DAY

When I was about 8 or 9 I overheard my mother crying, and begging my very gentle and dutiful father to cross the picket lines, since we had run out of food and could not pay the rent. He said he couldn’t do that. He had to fight for what was right. He had to stand with his fellow workers. I was scared, but even then, I remember being impressed by his resolve.

As I grew, strikes occurred a few more times. But when he retired after 30+ years from his clerks’ job in a drug store chain, he received time and a half when he had to work weekends; he earned two weeks off every year; he had a basic medical plan which was once used to save his life; and, when he retired, he had a small pension to accompany his social security. Most of all, what he had was his dignity.

He took his job in 1930, lucky to have any work at all during the great depression. And because jobs were scarce at that time, the chain store for whom he worked casually exploited its workers. But as 1930 gave way to the 1940s, the workers unionized and demanded (often through strikes) better working conditions. Pay and benefits were, of course, front and center—but what my father and his fellow workers were actually fighting for was their dignity. The pursuit of fair wages and benefits for their labor was, in large part, so that they and their families had a chance to lead a stable, decent enough, working-class family life.

Because of my history I am sure that were I a public-school teacher in West Virginia I would have marched for increased salary and benefits. But, just as importantly, I would have marched to maintain my sense of self-worth, my self-esteem, my self-respect, my dignity! I know I cannot be the role model I’d like to be for the children I have raised, or the youth that I teach, if my work is considered less worthy than that of many others by my governor and state legislators.

Do legislators and our governor here in Arizona know that some student teachers at Arizona State University asked not to be placed at a particular high school that serves the students of wealthy families? Was that because of violence at the school? No! Inadequate facilities? No! Inadequate tech support or training? No! Poor role models among our cooperating teachers? No—just the opposite!

The shunning of this school by our student teachers was because the students there called our student teachers “chumps”! The students at this public high school gloated that they had better cars, more stylish clothes, went to better places on vacations, had nicer houses to live in, and so forth. Their teachers, clearly, were chumps!
When our teachers are so denigrated by the offspring of the rich because they cannot afford even a middle-class life style for themselves and their families, it is way past time to worry a lot about our country. It was teachers who personified the middle class in so many of our towns and cities, throughout so much of our history. Firmly middle class was OK. Everyone who taught came to grips with that. All of knew that we weren’t going to get rich teaching.

But now, too many teachers are using food banks to help feed their families (I found this in New Mexico recently). Too many teachers are couch-surfing, and a few must occasionally live in cars because they cannot afford decent housing (go ahead: google homeless teachers!).

Enough! Enough B.S! Enough excuses! This must all end now. It is time to ensure the dignity of all who teach! May 1st would be a good day for teachers all over our great nation to walk out of schools and demand better from their legislators. May Day reminds us of two things. One, it is the day to commemorate the Haymarket massacre, where workers were striking for an 8-hour day, and many of them lost their lives. Workers are rarely given their dignity peacefully!

But the second reason to pick May 1st is that it is called May Day. We all know that May Day/May Day, is the internationally recognized call for help. Our American public education system needs help. May Day! May Day!

In my state of Arizona, in Oklahoma, and elsewhere, I would be proud to march with our teachers on May 1st or any other day chosen. I believe that parents across the nation would be supportive as well, despite the disruption to their lives that such a walkout would engender. We citizens need to stand in solidarity with our teachers and remember that they walk for their dignity, not merely for salary, benefits, and pension protection. The last thing Americans should ever want is for our children to be educated by beaten down public-school professionals, having trouble buying homes, and food, and day care for their own kids, as we ask them to educate the rest of America’s children. I cannot help but believe that if we support the teachers as they walk out, just as we supported the kids of Parkland this past weekend, something wonderful will happen: On May 1st I suspect that the ghosts of Woody Guthrie, Tom Joad, and my father, will march with teachers across the nation. If we stand in solidarity with our teachers we can help them regain the respect they deserve, and the pride they might again feel for the profession they have chosen.

David C. Berliner
Regents’ Professor Emeritus
Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Arizona State University