Teachers’ Union Engages Community to Confront Cult of Efficiency Pushed by Politicians
This blog will take a short, early August break. Look for a new post on Tuesday, August 11.
In her recent article in The Atlantic, Using the Restroom: A Privilege—If You’re A Teacher, Alia Wong seems obsessed with one problem for teachers—particularly for elementary school teachers: There is little time in a school day for a teacher to have a few moments of solitude or get a cup of coffee or use the restroom. These problems were more serious back in the days before teachers’ unions grew their membership and their protections for teachers’ needs and rights.
I know something about this because my mother was an elementary school teacher. When we moved to Havre, Montana in 1960 in the middle of January, my mother immediately took a job to fill a mid-year opening. It was the rule back then in Havre that teachers took the children outside twice every day for recess unless the temperature dipped lower than 15 degrees below zero. My mother’s first purchases in that town were a much warmer coat and boots with thicker pile lining. Teachers’ unions have brought teachers some relief—lunchroom aides and recess supervisors in many places—so that teachers have a few relatively short breaks during the school day. Personally I think that is a good thing.
I am always puzzled by what has become a dominant belief—that teachers have it easy. In a recent commentary, Jeff Bryant describes what we hear all the time: “that teachers have ‘cushy’ jobs with short workdays and summers off. This attitude has become so run-of-the-mill that we actually have a political candidate running for president in the Republican Party—New Jersey Governor Chris Christie—who openly chastises teachers for being ‘part time workers’ who get ‘full time pay.'” I remember how hard my mother worked to keep her full time job in perspective as she fulfilled her other responsibilities in our family, and I also remember my friend Chelli’s mother—a truly dedicated elementary school teacher, whose crawl-space garage attic was so packed with lesson plans and projects from years of teaching that it took my friend months to empty it out after her mother died. The materials in that garage attic reflected a history of generations of our community’s children.
Jeff Bryant documents the impact of the persistent trashing of teachers by the media and politicians, along with the impact of sanctions-based school reform and funding problems, on the pipeline of school teachers willing to do this hard work of managing and nurturing groups of children year after year: “Many states are currently experiencing steep drops in Teachers’ Union Engages Community to Confront Cult of Efficiency Pushed by Politicians | janresseger: