Ocean Hill-Brownsville showed that demonizing teachers unions doesn’t work
You decide: Either view teacher unions as enemy or work with them to achieve mutual goalsBY Jerald Podair
Dignity. I heard that word a lot when I was researching the 1968 Ocean Hill-Brownsville schools crisis. I heard it from parents of black and Puerto Rican children in the schools of the impoverished Ocean Hill-Brownsville section of Brooklyn, who were part of a trial project in local control of public education in that community. Their kids' white teachers didn't think they could learn, the thinking went. They didn't treat their children with dignity.
That is why, in May 1968, the local board charged with running the Ocean
Dignity. I heard that word a lot when I was researching the 1968 Ocean Hill-Brownsville schools crisis. I heard it from parents of black and Puerto Rican children in the schools of the impoverished Ocean Hill-Brownsville section of Brooklyn, who were part of a trial project in local control of public education in that community. Their kids' white teachers didn't think they could learn, the thinking went. They didn't treat their children with dignity.
That is why, in May 1968, the local board charged with running the Ocean
