Teachers Are Not the Problem, They Are the Solution – So Work With Them

Teachers Are Not the Problem, They Are the Solution – So Work With Them

Teachers Are Not the Problem, They Are the Solution – So Work With Them

By Colleen O’Connor

Time to be blunt.  Teachers, students and children are the new electoral battering rams amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Just as I wrote in June of last year, the 2020 Presidential election it was “not Biden v. Trump, but COVID-19 v. Trump).”  And the GOP’s own confidential postmortem report (as quoted on Politico), confirms it.

“The autopsy says that coronavirus registered as the top issue among voters, and that Biden won those voters by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. A majority registered disapproval of Trump’s handling of the virus.

“Most voters said they prioritized battling the coronavirus over reopening the economy, even as [Trump] put a firm emphasis on the latter. And roughly 75 percent of voters — most of whom favored Biden — said they favored public mask-wearing mandates.”

Now, the Republicans hope to flip the script and blame all the COVID ills on the Democrats.

Thus, the 2022 Governor’s and Congressional elections will not be about Democrats v. Republicans, or San Diego’s Mayor, Kevin Faulconer v. Governor Newsom (plus the recall effort) but Democrats v. COVID-19’s effects on schools, children and teachers.

As GOP leader, Senator Mitch McConnell telegraphed the drive last week, “The obstacle is a lack of willpower. Not among students. Not among parents. Just among the rich, powerful unions that donate huge sums to Democrats and get a stranglehold over education in many communities.”

Back to being blunt.  New likely GOP bumper stickers.  “Save the Children.  Blame the Teachers.  Defeat CONTINUE READING: Teachers Are Not the Problem, They Are the Solution – So Work With Them

Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Black Educator Hall of Fame Member - Philly's 7th Ward

Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Black Educator Hall of Fame Member - Philly's 7th Ward

IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT, BLACK EDUCATOR HALL OF FAME MEMBER

E’ry day this month, the Center for Black Educator Development, in partnership with Phillys7thWard.org, will highlight a Black Educator Hall of Famer.

But, don’t forget, e’ry month is Black History Month…February is just the Blackest.

Today, our featured Black Educator is Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett was an activist in the truest sense of the word. Born in Mississippi in 1862, Well-Barnett was born into enslavement. However, her memories of childhood were of Reconstruction when her parents were politically active. Her parents also stressed the importance of education. Shortly after the Civil War, Wells-Barnett’s parents taught themselves how to read and she learned immediately after that.

Sadly, yellow fever hit her family, killing both her parents and her youngest CONTINUE READING: Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Black Educator Hall of Fame Member - Philly's 7th Ward

Why Does the Thomas B. Fordham Institute Control Education Policy in Ohio? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Why Does the Thomas B. Fordham Institute Control Education Policy in Ohio? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Why Does the Thomas B. Fordham Institute Control Education Policy in Ohio?

Writing in ohiocapital.com, Jeanne Melvin and Denis Smith denounced the central role that the Thomas B. Fordham Institute plays in directing education policy in Ohio. TBF is the think tank of the Ohio Republican Party; that party has controlled the state in recent years. It is curious that TBF directs education policy in Ohio since TBF is based in Washington, D.C.

Melvin is a parent activist, and Smith worked for the Ohio Department of Education.

In Ohio, TBF has been a strong advocate for high-stakes testing and school privatization. It has pushed charter CONTINUE READING: Why Does the Thomas B. Fordham Institute Control Education Policy in Ohio? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Thoughts on the Legacy of Karen Jennings Lewis - LA Progressive

Thoughts on the Legacy of Karen Jennings Lewis - LA Progressive

Thoughts on the Legacy of Karen Jennings Lewis

When I think of Karen Jennings Lewis, I not only think of someone who led the most important teacher’s strike in modern US history, but someone who did more to undermine the Obama Administration’s attacks on teachers unions and public schools than any other person in the country.

By going head to head with Rahm Emmanuel, Obama’s first chief of staff before he became Mayor of Chicago, and Obama Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who stood behind Emmanuel one hundred percent, Karen Lewis, a beloved chemistry teacher as well as union leader, challenged the “civil rights rationale” for school privatization head on.

Karen Lewis, a beloved chemistry teacher as well as union leader, challenged the “civil rights rationale” for school privatization head on.

For those who don’t remember, the Obama administration, almost immediately after the President’s inauguration, launched a broad-based attack on public education with three key components:

• promotion of the Common Core Standards and universal testing

• the implementation of “test based accountability: for teachers, schools and entire school districts; and

• preferential funding for charter schools over public schools.

These measures were promoted with the argument that public schools had failed students of color CONTINUE READING: Thoughts on the Legacy of Karen Jennings Lewis - LA Progressive

One Nation Mumbles God (Is the Pledge Constitutional?) | Blue Cereal Education

One Nation Mumbles God (Is the Pledge Constitutional?) | Blue Cereal Education

One Nation Mumbles God (Is the Pledge Constitutional?)

You've probably heard that I'm working on a follow-up to "Have To" History: Landmark Supreme Court Cases because I mention it every chance I get and won't talk about anything else so why aren't more of you buying my book do you hate truth and America? Along the way, I'm posting rough drafts and ramblings that may or may not make it into the final version (working title: "It Followed Her To School One Day...")

The following is a case that started off as a one-page insert but keeps trying to grow beyond its word count. We'll see how that goes.

Worth A Look: Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow (2004)

The command to guard jealously and exercise rarely our power to make constitutional pronouncements requires strictest adherence when matters of great national significance are at stake. Even in cases concededly within our jurisdiction under Article III, we abide by a series of rules under which we have avoided passing upon a large part of all the constitutional questions pressed upon us for decision... Always we must balance the heavy obligation to exercise jurisdiction...  against the deeply rooted commitment not to pass on questions of constitutionality unless adjudication of the constitutional issue is necessary...

Consistent with these principles... {a} plaintiff must show that the CONTINUE READING: One Nation Mumbles God (Is the Pledge Constitutional?) | Blue Cereal Education

Teacher Tom: That's the Real Work of Being a Parent

Teacher Tom: That's the Real Work of Being a Parent

That's the Real Work of Being a Parent

When parents complain, "He doesn't listen to me" what they really mean is that their kid doesn't do what they want them to do when they want them to do it. Believe me: they are listening to you. They are almost always listening to you. You just disagree with what they opted to do, or continue doing, after listening to your words.

Of course, some of the time, they simply don't understand us, they're not ready to "get" what we're saying to them, like when I talk to young two-year-olds about knocking down other people's block constructions, but more often than not they are listening, then choosing something else.

We know they're listening because our own words come back to us, channelled through them, often days or weeks or even months later. I remember when my own daughter first cursed traffic from her carseat. We know they're listening because they repeat word-for-word, usually at a holiday party right in front of everyone, the mean joke we made about the harvest of hair growing from Aunt Millie's nose. I know a child's been listening when she can repeat, word for word, the argument her parents had that morning over a piece of dropped toast.

We know they are listening when they insist on wearing their unicorn bicycle helmet ice skating, like a four-year-old did, CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: That's the Real Work of Being a Parent

Chicago teachers union approves the reopening plan – Fred Klonsky

Chicago teachers union approves the reopening plan. – Fred Klonsky

CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION APPROVES THE REOPENING PLAN

The need to reopen schools safely is nearly universally agreed upon.

“Safely” being the operative word.

But these are uncharted waters and I don’t envy teacher unions in districts across the country as they try to represent the safety concerns of educators, students and their families.

And whatever the particulars are here in Chicago – which includes a very strained relationship between the CTU and Mayor Lightfoot going back to the last election – the issue has created difficult conversations between every teacher union and board or mayor.

Over the weekend the Mayor announced a tentative agreement with the CTU on reopening. The CTU rejected the term “tentative agreement”, although from my experience that is what it was. The executive team presented the terms to the CONTINUE READING: Chicago teachers union approves the reopening plan. – Fred Klonsky

Check Out this Fine New Book on Social Justice Unionism: “Teachers Unions and Social Justice” | janresseger

Check Out this Fine New Book on Social Justice Unionism: “Teachers Unions and Social Justice” | janresseger

Check Out this Fine New Book on Social Justice Unionism: “Teachers Unions and Social Justice”

Rethinking Schools just published an excellent new handbook, Teachers Unions and Social Justice: Organizing for the Schools and Communities our Students Deserve.  I call it a handbook because it was written as a guide for teachers union social justice advocacy and organizing. But it is also a handbook for activists, writers, and bloggers strategizing to confront the recent collapse of public education funding, the alarming growth of school privatization at public expense, and the message, spread for too long, that holding schools accountable according to business principles is more important than educating children.

         The beloved former president of the Chicago Teachers Union and a pioneer in social justice unionism, Karen Lewis died on Monday.  Please read this wonderful tribute to Karen Lewis by Chicago education journalist Sarah Karp.

The editors  have assembled more than 60 short compelling articles and stories by union activists and many of the nation’s prominent advocates for education justice, all telling the story of organized teachers confronting the blindness of the privatizers and the business-accountablity hawks. There is a 2012 interview with the great Karen Lewis, whose loss we mourn this week. And we hear from teachers union justice champions including Jesse Hagopian in Seattle; Jackson Potter and Michelle Gunderson in Chicago; Mary Cathryn Ricker in St. Paul; David Levine in Cincinnati; Eleni Schirmer in North Carolina, Arlene Inouye in Los Angeles; and Michael Charney in Cleveland.

The editors, Michael Charney, Jesse Hagopian, and Bob Peterson, introduce the collection of writings: “More than two decades ago in the first edition of this book, Transforming Teacher Unions: Fighting for Better Schools and Social Justice, we promoted a vision of social justice teacher unionism. We argued that such a vision was essential to improving our schools, transforming our unions, and building a more just society. Since then much has happened. Public schools, the entire public sector, and the basic notion of the ‘common good’ have come under severe attack. Wealth inequality has reached an unsustainable level. The scourge of white supremacy has been intensified by rampant xenophobia… But within our schools CONTINUE READING: Check Out this Fine New Book on Social Justice Unionism: “Teachers Unions and Social Justice” | janresseger

Frontline Dispatches: The struggle for Racial Justice in the Schools during the time of COVID–A conversation with Gerald Lenoir and Jesse Hagopian – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Frontline Dispatches: The struggle for Racial Justice in the Schools during the time of COVID–A conversation with Gerald Lenoir and Jesse Hagopian – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Frontline Dispatches: The struggle for Racial Justice in the Schools during the time of COVID–A conversation with Gerald Lenoir and Jesse Hagopian

I am beyond excited to join my dad, Gerald Lenoir, in an online conversation about the struggle for racial justice in the schools during the COVID era on Wednesday, February 10th, at 7pm EST/4pm PST. From racial justice in schools during COVID, to the fight led by teachers’ unions to ensure safe school re-openings, and the role unions can play in broader social justice struggles, will will have a lot to talk about.

We will be joining the Frontline Dispatches program, an Organizing Upgrade show intended to amplify the voices of organizers and activists who are engaged in important, lesson filled, on-the-ground organizing, protest, or activism. Whatever the work, these talks engage with those on the frontlines of the most current and urgent work facing our movements. 

My dad is a life long organizer for racial and social justice and recently came out with fire book of protest poetry. As a young college student, Gerald was part of the student strike at University of Wisconsin–Madison that shut the campus down to demand Black Studies. I’m excited to see what questions he has in store for me about how we build the Black Lives Matter at School movement and organize for racial justice in these times.

Join us for this conversation at this link–then join the BLM at School movement!

Gerald Lenoir is the Strategy Analyst at the Othering & Belonging Institute. He works with community, advocacy, labor and faith partners to organize the research, development and promotion of a strategic narrative that fosters structural inclusion and addresses marginalization and structural racialization. Gerald was the founding Executive Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, the Executive Director of the San Francisco Black Coalition on AIDS and a co-founder of the HIV Education and Prevention Project of Alameda County. He serves on the board of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Priority Africa Network.

Jesse Hagopain is a high school teacher in Seattle and a co-founder of Black Lives Matter at School, a national initiative. He is the co-editor of four books: Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice, Teaching for Black Lives, Teacher Unions and Social Justice: Organizing for the Schools and Communities Our Students Deserve, and More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High Stakes Testing. 

Share this: 

Frontline Dispatches: The struggle for Racial Justice in the Schools during the time of COVID–A conversation with Gerald Lenoir and Jesse Hagopian – I AM AN EDUCATOR

CURMUDGUCATION: This Is Not An Anti-Teacher Gotcha Moment

CURMUDGUCATION: This Is Not An Anti-Teacher Gotcha Moment

This Is Not An Anti-Teacher Gotcha Moment

So I posted this on Twitter, and drew the response pictured here

There's a special group of folks among those who hate teacher unions and the teachers who belong to them. You'll remember these folks from back in the days when we were going to use test-based teacher ratings to fire our way to greatness. Their story of the US public education system is something like this--

The whole system is a sham, a massive con perpetrated by the teachers union, in which they get a whole bunch of people who don't want to teach, don't even want to work, but just want to sit lazily in a comfy sinecure for which privilege they pay a kickback to the union, which is only interested in public education as its big fat fund raiser.

You won't find these people writing in any mainstream outlets, but you sure can meet them on Twitter. And as the battle over re-opening school buildings heats up, they are pointing their fingers with great fervor, because they are sure this is a gotcha moment. "Look!" they want to holler. "See? I told you! Teachers do not actually want to work. This (probably fake) pandemic gave them an excuse to sit at home and get paid for doing nothing, and they don't want it to end! I told you and told you--they're a bunch of lazy slobs attached to the public taxpayer teat. This proves it!!" And CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: This Is Not An Anti-Teacher Gotcha Moment

Mike Klonsky's Blog: The good ones are leaving us too soon.

Mike Klonsky's Blog: The good ones are leaving us too soon.

The good ones are leaving us too soon.

As everyone has heard by now, former CTU Pres. Karen Lewis passed yesterday, leaving a tear in my eye but also great memories for me to hold on to. Some of my fondest include our (Susan and my) occasional breakfast meetings at Meli's on Wells Street just to touch base and have a few laughs. 

Another was from an event we held for Jonathan Kozol back in 2012. Kozol had the crowd on its feet, applauding as he talked about the inspiring effect the Chicago teachers' strike was having on teachers and supporters across the country. Kozol said he first heard news of the strike at a book tour event in Los Angeles. When a teacher in the audience announced that teachers in Chicago had walked out, “the roar of the crowd delayed the program for several minutes.”

But the loudest prolonged ovation that evening was reserved for Karen Lewis. It broke out spontaneously as she entered the sold-out Thorne Auditorium and Northwestern Univ. Law School. Karen spoke briefly, introduced Kozol, and then embraced the author in a show of unity. 

Jonathan and Karen at Maggiano's in 2012

After the event, a group of us went out with Jonathan and Karen to CONTINUE READING: Mike Klonsky's Blog: The good ones are leaving us too soon.

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER #BLACKHISTORYMONTH

 Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

A VERY BUSY DAY

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/02/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos.html

Guidelines For The $130 Billion Schools Will Get In The Next Stimulus Look Amazing! What An Opportunity!

by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h

Matt Barnum at Chalkbeat has written an excellent and accessible summary of how the Biden Administration is proposing the $130 billion earmarked for schools in its extremely-likely-to-pass stimulus package be used. And it sounds amazing! It will be an average of $2,600 per public school student, but that’s an average. High-poverty schools will get more – it will be allotted using Title 1 formulas

“Implementing ‘Multiple Career Pathways to Engage All Learners’”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 4h

Implementing ‘Multiple Career Pathways to Engage All Learners’ is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Four educators wrap up a four-part series on teenage student engagement with several ideas, including providing noncollege options. Here are some excerpts:

lThis Week’s Resources To Support Teachers Coping With School Closures

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Wokandapix / Pixabay I have a number of regular weekly features (see HERE IS A LIST (WITH LINKS) OF ALL MY REGULAR WEEKLY FEATURES ). This is a relatively new addition to that list. Some of these resources will be added to The Best Advice On Teaching K-12 Online (If We Have To Because Of The Coronavirus) – Please Make More Suggestions ! and the best will go to The “Best Of The Best” Resources To

NY Times Learning Network Announces Winners Of Annual 15-Second Vocabulary Video Contest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

PDPics / Pixabay The New York Times Learning Network has announced this year’s winners of their annual 15-Second Vocabulary Video Contest. You can see them all here. Here’s one example: I’ve often used Instagram videos with English Language Learner students to create similar videos. In fact, The Learning Network used videos from my class as examples to introduce the first year of its contest. You

Wednesday’s Must-Read Articles On School Reopenings

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

geralt / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL : Schools plan for potential of remote learning into the fall is from The Associated Press. California school reopening deal could come this week, Gavin Newsom says is from The

 Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007