Inspiring a new teacher union movement – Thank you Chicago teachers

The seven-day Chicago teacher strike was historic. 

It showed the nation that despite months of bullying by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and others, educators will not remain silent. It also signaled that a new teacher union movement is in the making.

In the spring of 2011, tens of thousands of Wisconsin teachers surprised the nation with weeks of massive protests at the state capital. A year and a half later, the Chicago teachers built on this momentum when they raised picket signs and struck in favor of their students, their profession, and public education.

In both struggles, teachers and their allies defended public education. They stood against pro-corporate, pro-privatization educational “reform” agendas. A key feature of those agendas is to scapegoat teachers and vilify their unions.

As the teacher union president in Milwaukee just 90 miles north, I was proud to go to Chicago last Saturday with two busloads of teachers and supporters to stand with Chicago teachers. We received a warm welcome and a chorus of thank-yous. The feeling of gratitude is mutual.

Thank you, CTU, for standing up to corporate education reformers who are attempting to privatize the public schools of our large cities.

Thank you for demanding that children not suffer from an apartheid-like educational system. Whether in Wisconsin or Chicago – Little Rock or Los Angeles – students deserve the same resources as their affluent counter parts. Our students deserve an education that is rich in the arts, strong in physical education and rigorous in study. They do not deserve a dumbed-down, data drenched, test driven curriculum.

And thank you, Chicago teachers, for providing an example of an activist, democratic union that works closely with parents and community, fights for equal, quality public education, and is part of the larger movement for social justice.

I believe that the Chicago teacher strike of 2012 will be looked back on as a turning point in a new kind of teacher unionism, something that rank and file union activists have been advocating for years. Some people describe this new unionism as an “organizing” model, rather than a service/business model. Others have called it “social justice unionism” or “social movement unionism.” Regardless, the Chicago teachers demonstrated its main features:

• Unapologetically defending wages and working conditions of public school educators
• Standing up for students, the teaching profession, and an equal and humane education that educates the whole child
• Defending public education – the only educational institutions in our communities that has the capacity, commitment, and legal obligation to serve all children
• Forging alliances with parents and community organizations to work for better schools and for social justice in the entire community.
• Building a democratic union structure that encourages members to be organizers and active participants in their union.

Teachers from Chicago stood with the teachers of Wisconsin in the spring of 2011. Wisconsin teachers stood with the Chicago teachers this fall. 

It's time to use the energy and lessons from Wisconsin and Chicago to transform the national narrative on education, strengthen our union organizing work, and broaden the fight for quality education for all.

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Bob Peterson's short solidarity speech that he gave at the Chicago solidarity rally on September 15 can be downloaded for listening or for reading.

Stand in Solidarity with the Chicago Teachers Union

On Monday I am wearing red in solidarity with the Chicago Teachers Union. I hope thousands of other teachers across the country do so as well.

I support the Chicago teachers because their union, under the leadership of CTU President Karen Lewis, is standing up and saying what teachers throughout this country would like to say:

Enough is enough!

Enough scape-goating and bullying of teachers and their unions.

Enough of legislators and policy makers who know so little about classroom realities, but have so much power to determine what goes on in the classroom.

Enough of business and government leaders refusing to adequately address the social and economic factors that weigh so heavily on our students.

Enough of laws and policies that reduce student success to scores on questionable standardized tests, while limiting rigor and deep learning, and ignoring art, physical education, social studies, character-building, and social skills.

Enough of over-crowded classes.

Enough of private charter and voucher schools that siphon money from public school systems – the only community institutions that have the capacity, commitment, and legal obligation to serve ALL students.

Regardless of whether the CTU actually strikes tomorrow, I will be wearing red in solidarity with my colleagues to the south.

Their actions remind all educators that we must use multiple forms of collective action to win what is best for our students, our communities, and our profession.

We have been too quiet for too long.

On Monday, stand with the Chicago Teachers Union.

Honor Labor Day – On Teaching Who Really Built This Country?

Chanting “We built it,” thousands of delegates to the Republican National Convention provided a distorted bumper-sticker summary of U.S. history. 

Like the chorus in a Greek tragedy, the overwhelmingly white crowd embraced unrestrained free-market ideology and cheered the inaccuracies of keynote speakers.

The crowd was particularly fired up by vice presidential candidate Paul “Pinocchio” Ryan’s speech. One Fox News commentator described the speech as an attempt “to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech.”

The Republican Party’s “We Built It” mantra inevitably leads to two key questions: Who is “we?” What is “it?” These are important questions for children and teachers to examine together.

As these questions are studied, the “we” should not be limited to famous business people. Equally important, the “it” should go beyond railroads and factories and include our country’s all-important democratic institutions.

Stepping beyond the textbook

Teachers have a responsibility to teach the story of our nation in all its complexity and contradictions. That’s not easy, considering that most social studies text books at best obfuscate and at worst lie about the role enslaved Africans, immigrants, and working men, women and children of all races have played in building this nation.

As a teacher, I try to teach my students to not automatically believe everything they read or hear. I have them consider multiple points of view, investigate a variety of sources, and ask questions such as: “In whose self interest is one version of history versus another?” “What assumptions underlie a particular point of view?”

If I were in my fifth grade classroom this year, on the first day of school I’d probably show photos of the “We Built It” manifestations at the Republican National Convention. After explaining the context, I’d pose the questions: Who is the “we”? What is the “it?”

In hopes of whetting my students’ appetite for a year-long study of U.S. history – a requirement in most 5^th grades – I’d lay out questions we would likely cover in the coming year, tying the questions to that day’s issue of “Who built it?” Some of questions I might ask:

• Who were the first ones to cultivate the land in North America?
• Who continues to harvest the vegetables and fruit of our nation?
• Who built the plantations in the South?
• Who built the skyscrapers of New York?
• Who built the U.S. Capitol Building? (FYI, for teachers who might want to pursue this topic: the United States Capitol was built by enslaved Africans. See PBS, VOA and Politifact.)
• Who fought for the rights of women to vote?
• Who fought for Voting Rights and Civil Rights?
• Who fought for the right of workers to organize unions at their workplace? For the eight-hour day? The right to collectively bargain?

As I tell my students as we study U.S. history, there have been great movements for social justice in the past, they exist now in the present, and they’ll exist in the future. Each of us must decide whether to participate in such movements to help make our nation and our world a more just place.

As we celebrate this Labor Day, I encourage teachers to be a part of our country’s strong tradition of social movements for justice. A first step is to teach about such movements — and about who really built “it.”

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A few sites for resources and ideas on teaching labor history:

Zinn Education Project

Wisconsin Labor History Society

American Labor Studies Center

For teaching about social justice movements see www.rethinkingschools.org

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In case you missed it. According to the New York Times, the platform of the 1980 Republic Party supported the right to collectively bargain, while the current one does not. Other rightward shifts were made this year as well.

  

1980: We reaffirm our commitment to the fundamental principle of fairness in labor relations, including the legal right of unions to organize workers and to represent them through collective bargaining ...

Current: We salute the Republican governors and state legislators who have saved their states from fiscal disaster by reforming their laws governing public employee unions.

A question teachers might ask: Whose interests are served by the change in that particular platform?

We are one with the Sikh community

I join with thousands of other Milwaukeeans to express my grief at the shootings today at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek.

As president of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, I am confident that I speak on behalf of all educators to express our heart-felt sorrow for the individuals, families, and communities that have been affected by this tragedy.

We are one community. We stand, united, in respect for diversity and in condemning senseless violence.

For reforms to work, listen to the teachers

The Milwaukee teachers union is committed to working with any and all community members who believe in public education.

We welcome the support of the GE Foundation, which has set an admirable standard for the business community's involvement in Milwaukee Public Schools. We are actively partnering with both the GE Foundation and the MPS administration to ensure that the GE grant not only helps MPS students develop a love of learning but also prepares them for college, careers and their civic responsibilities.

Many reforms are being discussed: the Common Core State Standards, a new teacher evaluation system, new curriculum and a longer school day. All these reforms have significant potential.

They also share a common denominator: Their success will depend on ensuring that classroom teachers are intimately involved - from the planning of the reform to the final implementation.

In this era of Act 10, it is more important than ever that teachers are respected, valued and included in reform discussions.

Traditionally, the contract has provided a mechanism for ensuring teacher input. Under Act 10, most collective bargaining is prohibited. Unfortunately, some school boards have used Act 10 to adopt a top-down, do-what-I-say-or-else approach to education. That's a recipe for educational failure.

The teachers union and MPS administration have had their differences. But we also have worked together on important and contentious issues. The TEAM program, a contractually negotiated agreement, is a good example.

TEAM stands for Teacher Evaluation And Mentoring and is a collaborative effort between MPS and the teachers union. For more than a decade, we have worked together to assist struggling teachers, helping them to "realize their maximum potential" in either the classroom or some other career.

Because MPS teachers will no longer have a traditional contract in another year, it is more important than ever that collaboration be built into any reform effort.

One of the reforms under discussion is a longer school day. It is a perfect example of the need for teacher input.

I do not know of any teacher who opposes the idea of children spending more time with caring and competent adults. But the devil is in the details.

Will a longer school day ensure that students will now receive physical education, art, music, and library classes taught by certified specialists? More hand-on projects that challenge them to think? More field trips to explore the city and broaden their experiences?

Or will a longer school day mean more drill-and-kill test preparation, given the excessive pressures that are placed on teachers and principals to raise test scores?

If a longer school day means more time for teachers to prepare, more time to collaborate and learn from colleagues, more time to help children learn to love learning - great. But if it means more of the same, only faster and longer at the same pay, then the reform is merely a form of speed up and burn out.

These are just a few of the questions that need to be addressed.

I have been a teacher for more than 30 years. Teachers want children to succeed. They want a successful school district. They want reforms that are actual reforms. And they want to use their knowledge of children and classroom realities to help ensure that reforms succeed.

Teachers are an invaluable resource. Let's make sure that we listen to them, respect them and involve them in reform.

This opinion appeared in the August 2, 2012 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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In case you missed it, internationally acclaimed author Jared Diamond tells Mitt Romney to do his homework. Check out Diamond's New York Times essay where he challenges Romney's recent statements about world history. 

NEA leader says social justice key to teacher unionism

Calling for the National Education Association to deepen its commitment to social justice and equal opportunity, NEA Executive Director John Stocks, received an enthusiastic reception from the nearly 9,000 delegates gathered from across the nation at the organization’s 150^th annual convention.

Stocks recounted a long history of progressive stands taken by the NEA, and encouraged local and state leaders to continue that the tradition of standing on “the right side of history” and to "make America a more just society."

“We as a progressive labor union and social justice organization have to say, “No more” [to injustice,] Stocks declared.

He called on the audience to “challenge our country to be better, but also challenge ourselves as individuals to do better” and become "social justice patriots."

Covering a range of issues including voter suppression laws, Citizens United, inequality and poverty, immigration, stop and frisk police practices, and racial profiling, Stocks explained how the union has begun to deepen its ties to national civil rights and faith organizations to act against injustice.

At one point in his 28-minute speech after explaining the problem of racial profiling Stocks asked members to think about three questions:

“Does racial profiling start in our schools?”

“Does the pipeline to prison for minority students begin in our schools?”

“And if it does, what are we going to do about it?”

He recounted his and other NEA members’ participation in a recent march in New York City against the NYC police policy of “stop and frisk.”

 “It’s wrong, it’s unjust, and it’s not just happening in New York City,” Stocks declared. The NEA is developing in conjunction with the NAACP a racial profiling curriculum for educators, students and community leaders. Stocks added, “We must ensure that this topic is discussed responsibly and constructively in American schools so we can begin to end this behavior.”

He ended his speech to a thunderous applause saying, “It’s time now for another generation of NEA leaders and activists to … defend democracy, to fight for equal opportunity, to create a more just society to be activists for social justice and equal opportunity in America.”

To hear and view John Stock's entire speech click here.

Teacher Unionism: Standing Up for Children and the Teaching Profession

Teachers and educational workers throughout the country are standing up for children and the teaching profession.

How we do so varies from state to state, locale to locale.

In Chicago, teachers are engaged in a struggle against privatization, gentrification and an attack on basic working conditions. Recently the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union held a strike authorization vote and nearly 90% of the teachers voted yes.

In Milwaukee educators and many other public and private sector workers and community members got out the vote and registered voters in unprecedented numbers for the recall election of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Even though the grassroots organizing was unprecedented, Walker and his financial backers from around the country, survived the recall attempt.

For us in the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association the recall election means a recommitment to our work to reimagine and reinvent our union around the following principles:

• Move from collective bargaining to collective action
• Reclaim our classrooms and reclaim our profession
• Build collaborative public schools that serve all students
• Work with parents and community to promote democracy and justice
• Improve our union’s internal communication, public relations, and capacity to organize and mobilize our members

We are moving forward on these fronts.

The MTEA has taken up the issue of reclaiming our classrooms and our profession. We are opening the MTEA Center for Teaching, Learning, and Public Education. We have launched a new e-newsletter “Re-imagine: the MTEA Teaching and Learning newsletter.” (Click here to see a copy. ) We have started a campaign to ensure that developmentally appropriate practices are used in early childhood classrooms. We are partnering with the MPS administration to improve professional development and teacher evaluation.

In our continuing work to support democracy and social justice, the MTEA Executive Board voted to donate $350 to the strike support fund of the Palermo's Pizza workers who are struggling for union recognition and safe working conditions. Our members have joined their picket lines.

Conditions (and collective bargaining laws) differ in Chicago and Milwaukee. Yet the the activism in both teacher unions flows from a belief that teacher unions need to be more than just service unions focusing on narrow workplace issues. We must move from a “service model” to an organizing model. We have to not only be concerned about issues of wages, hours and benefits, but also issues of teaching and learning, professionalism, our community and justice. Put simply, we must put children first.

A recent article describing the work of  the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) and their leadership within the Chicago Teachers Union sums up some of this new perspective. James Cersonsky writes:

“While the city shutters, charterizes, segregates, gentrifies, intimidates, and fires, the union has created a member organizing department where one didn’t exist before, trained over 200 shop stewards, held countless public meetings and protests against school closings, and organized in hand with parents, students, community groups, and other unions-altogether, a new vision for twenty-first century teacher unionism.”

A similar vision is taking take root in the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association. The MTEA is Reimagining and Reinventing itself, moving from a service to an organizing model.

This year saw an unprecedented level of activism among MTEA members. Hundreds mobilized for the recall campaign, including groups of teachers and educational assistants who canvassed the neighborhoods around their schools in the evenings and on weekends.

This year the MTEA also more systematically trained building leaders and expanded member involvement through school-based advocate positions including Teaching and Learning, Parent/Community, Social Justice, and Democracy Advocates.

In 1998 as a rank-and-file union activist I wrote an article "Survival and Justice: Rethinking Teacher Union Strategy" in the magazine Rethinking Schools, "Never in the history of our nation have public schools been under such relentless attack. Never in the history of teacher unionism has there been a greater urgency to rethink strategy."

Fourteen years later those words are now more true than ever.