Catholic School Teachers Wrestle With Obedience in Contract Talks - NYTimes.com

Catholic School Teachers Wrestle With Obedience in Contract Talks - NYTimes.com:

Catholic School Teachers Wrestle With Faith and Obedience in Negotiating a Contract

Angel Franco/The New York Times

Rosemarie Beitz, a teacher at a parochial school in Manhattan, handed out leaflets last week.

By MICHAEL WINERIP

Published: September 4, 2011

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Wednesday morning, on the first day of the new school year at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic School in East Harlem, Gertrude Zagarella expects to arrive, as always, at 7:05. By 7:45, the children — mostly Hispanic, black and poor — will be done with breakfast, and then it is Ms. Zagarella’s responsibility to lead all the students, from kindergartners to eighth graders, into the gym for morning prayers.

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The rest of Wednesday she will spend in Room 11, teaching the new first graders where to find the bathroom, when to wash their hands and how to properly stand in a lunch line. That first day, they feel smaller than they expected, but lucky for them, no one is more experienced at calming first-grade jitters than Ms. Zagarella.

Of the 56 years she has taught in Catholic schools, 55 have been in first grade. At 77, she can think of little that she does not love about it. First graders learn to read. First

HS News Pays Tribute to The American Worker this Labor Day - Hispanically Speaking News

HS News Pays Tribute to The American Worker this Labor Day - Hispanically Speaking News:

HS News Pays Tribute to The American Worker this Labor Day

Labor Day: How it Came About; What it Means

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Founder of Labor Day

More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.
Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”
But Peter McGuire’s place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

The First Labor Day

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.
In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central

Modern School: Today in Labor History—September 5

Modern School: Today in Labor History—September 5:

Today in Labor History—September 5

by Michael Dunn

Execution of Robespiere

September 5, 1793 – The revolutionary government began the Terror. (From the Daily Bleed)

September 5, 1794 – Radical democrat Jacques Roux was arrested in France. (From theDaily Bleed)

September 5, 1863 – Bread riots occurred in Mobile, Alabama. (From the Daily Bleed)

September 5, 1882 – The first American Labor Day was observed, with 30,000 workers marching in New York City. (From the Daily Bleed)

September 5, 1887 – Labor Day was first observed

Schools Matter: Mathews Turns on Accountability? (Sort of) pt. 1

Schools Matter: Mathews Turns on Accountability? (Sort of) pt. 1:

Mathews Turns on Accountability? (Sort of) pt. 1

by P. L. Thomas

WaPo's Jay Mathews appears to have turned against accountability, "We may have accountability wrong," but I'm not sure if this is a sign of some hope or yet more evidence how many people simply don't get it. . .


Ultimately, we must recognize that the national standards movement (and the inherent increase in standardized testing) are distractions, wastes of time, and redundancies. My own commentary on national standards:


A case against standards


While I appreciate the invitation to respond to the draft version of the NCTE/NCATE Standards, I must offer a blanket rejection of the standards and the process.


My nearly 30 years in education and my scholarship in the fields of education and literacy have led me to view

Mathews Turns on National Standards? (Sort of) pt. 2

by P. L. Thomas

About national standards WaPo's Jay Mathews is now saying, "It sounds great. But it won’t help and won’t work," in "Good riddance to new national standards."

But momentum, blind momentum, keeps the national standards and national testing not just on the radar, but a reality facing our public schools destined to increase the harm done by thirty years of accountability, standards, and testing spurred by A Nation at Risk. While it sounds compelling, calling for core standards and higher standards must be rejected:

A case against standards

While I appreciate the invitation to respond to the draft version of the NCTE/NCATE Standards, I must offer a blanket rejection of the standards and the process.

The White Shadow: Bill Gates, Charter Schools, & The Evil Twins « Living Behind the Gates

The White Shadow: Bill Gates, Charter Schools, & The Evil Twins « Living Behind the Gates:

The White Shadow: Bill Gates, Charter Schools, & The Evil Twins

by livingbehindthegates

Someone commented about the graphic nature of the photos in my last blog post where I draw an analogy from Bill Gates/Pearson’s Common Core Curriculum to “The Blob”.

This blog is being written about a serious topic in very dark times. “The Blob” was a B-Movie cult classic that was considered by the masses to be far from reality.

However, our true situation with our public schools is a very graphic tale of public education where the

Don't Erase People With Disabilities From Our History Books | California Progress Report

Don't Erase People With Disabilities From Our History Books | California Progress Report:

Don't Erase People With Disabilities From Our History Books

by megan

By Katie Laackmann
River City High School

For me and other youth with disabilities, the “back to school” season has special significance this year. Over the summer, our state legislature passed a bill that will finally require California public schools to include the history of the disability rights movement in social studies and history lessons and on July 14, Governor Brown signed it into law.

In 2010, youth with disabilities led the effort to establish the second week in October as Disability History Week and on the heels of that victory, SB 48 (Leno), the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act will now ensure that our peers in K-12 schools learn about the contributions people with disabilities have made in our country.

read more

A labor icon’s thoughts on education | Thoughts on Public Education

A labor icon’s thoughts on education | Thoughts on Public Education:

A labor icon’s thoughts on education

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Albert Shanker's ideas still resonate

Posted on 9/04/11 • Categorized as Pay, Pensions, Teacher Development, Tenure, Unions

By Kathryn Baron

On this Labor Day, in lieu of our regular column, we leave you with some words from Albert Shanker, who served as president of the American Federation of Teachers from 1974 to 1997.

Albert Shanker speaking at the 1968 United Federation of Teachers Delegate Assembly, Local 2, AFT.(Courtesty Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University.)

Professionalization of Teaching: In aspeech to the National Press Club on January 29, 1985, Shanker called for a national exam for beginning teachers and a national board to improve the teaching profession.

It would be a group which would spend a period of time studying what is it that a teacher should know before becoming certified, and how do you measure it? And it would seek to have instruments established.

Before someone finally gets the ticket, [there] ought to be an internship program. Teaching is the only profession that I know of where a person begins the first day with the same responsibility that he or she will have

Returning to School: Education for a Livable Planet « Cooperative Catalyst

Returning to School: Education for a Livable Planet « Cooperative Catalyst:

Returning to School: Education for a Livable Planet

by zoeweil

For my blog post today, I’m sharing a recent post I wrote for Common Dreams, a progressive news site. Here’s an excerpt from“Returning to School: Education for a Livable Planet”:

“Students and teachers are returning to school. I know few in either group who are genuinely excited at the prospect. This is a travesty and a tragedy.

Humans are, by nature, passionate about learning. It is truly extraordinary that in a few thousand years our species has learned to create elaborate shelters and to heat and cool them so that the temperature is always comfortable. We have turned minerals and ores into metals that we’ve shaped

Why “who” is more important than “what”

by stevemiranda

Here’s a peek inside a staff meeting at PSCS, the school where I work. We have only four teachers, three administrators, and an administrative assistant, so the conversations are always very intimate.

PSCS founder Andy Smallman led a conversation that was inspired by Parker Palmer’s book A Hidden Wholeness. He started by drawing a map.

The traditional way of looking at school is from the outside-in. So, when schools are hiring new teachers, they

Labor Day by Timothy Riley |

Labor Day by Timothy Riley |:

Labor Day by Timothy Riley

by bluecheddar

This is a guest post by Timothy Riley. I must confess, that although I was aware of the history of the Labor movement, including the fact that there were those who sacrificed their very lives for the cause, I really did not fully appreciate it. Labor Day was just a long weekend with a few parades I never attended and a telethon. I quite simply did not get it. I do now, I do now. Now I know that most of the basic rights we take for granted,safe work conditions, a living wage, weekends, health insurance,retirement, workers’ compensation, unemployment compensation,and so much more were all realized through the labor and union movement. As the right wing has waged its war on the unions the standard of living for all middle class Americans has declined. First they decimated the private sector unions and now they have set their sights on their public sector brethren. I have never been a member of a Union, yet I have enjoyed the fruits of their struggle against often unconscionable odds. As I have joined this new fight against seemingly unconscionable odds, I have met some of the finest, most uncommonly decent people of my life [...]

A Labor Day speech: Eugene Debs. « Fred Klonsky's blog

A Labor Day speech: Eugene Debs. « Fred Klonsky's blog:

A Labor Day speech: Eugene Debs.

by Fred Klonsky

Daily Kos: Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount

Daily Kos: Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount:

Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

So reads the title of this NY Times story by Steven Greenhouse. The problems of the Postal Service should surprise few: email, electronic bill paying, competition from the package delivery services, the ability to get catalogs via electronic delivery. What caught my attention, however, is some of the proposed solutions to the agency's severe financial problems:

They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers — nearly one-fifth of the agency’s work force — despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions’ contracts.

Nice to hear of laying off almost 20% of the agency's workforce - on Labor Day.

But it gets worse.

Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel

Mixed Messages, or Meaningless Labels? « InterACT

Mixed Messages, or Meaningless Labels? « InterACT:

Mixed Messages, or Meaningless Labels?

by David B. Cohen

California education writers and citizens are wondering what to make of the contrasting stories told by state and federal accountability measures. In short, the state uses an Academic Performance Index that sets a level of satisfactory performance and also targets for growth that are based on prior performance. The federal system under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) relies an a measure called Adequate Yearly Progress. (Kathryn Baron has a more detailed explanation at Thought on Public Education). Somehow, schools that are doing quite well by state measures are turning out to be failures on the federal

Inequity & Injustice in DPS? | DeFENSE

Inequity & Injustice in DPS? | DeFENSE:

Inequity & Injustice in DPS?

by defensedenver

by Ed Augden (community activist and retired DPS teacher)

According to the 14th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, all citizens are entitled to equalprotection under the law. If one group of citizens is treated unequally, then those citizens’ rights areviolated. Do inequity and injustice exist in Denver Public Schools?

Why is all this important to the average taxpayer who doesn’t have children in DPS? Schoolclimate is one factor that determines where a future business might locate. Future residents, who dohave children, won’t move to an area where the school climate is perceived to be unhealthy, or even ifthey do, may choose another school district (e.g., Jeffco). A healthy school climate contributes to ahealthy business environment.

Linda Darling-Hammond, in The Flat World & Education: How America’s Commitment to EquityWill Determine Our Future, makes the case that the achievement gap between poor students and theirpeers is growing as the nation’s ethnicity changes from majority white to a diverse nonwhite. Mostforetelling, is her contention that the

Growth of Hispanic Serving Educational Institutions Expected - Hispanically Speaking News

Growth of Hispanic Serving Educational Institutions Expected - Hispanically Speaking News:

STUDY: Number of Hispanic Serving Educational Institutions Expected to Boom

The number of Hispanic-serving institutions, (HSIs) nationwide has increased by 24 percent since 2004 and could grow by another 40 percent if “emerging” HSIs in 18 states and Puerto Rico continue to grow, a new study says.

The data from Washington, D.C.-based Excelencia in Education found 293 nonprofit higher education institutions in 2010 with 25 percent or more total undergraduate Hispanic enrollment, qualifying them as HSIs. Another 204 higher education institutions are “emerging HSIs,” with undergraduate Hispanic enrollment that soon may reach the 25 percent threshold.

Autism And The Inhumanity Of The Right Wing | Addicting Info

Autism And The Inhumanity Of The Right Wing | Addicting Info:

Autism And The Inhumanity Of The Right Wing

September 4, 2011

By Justin "Filthy Liberal Scum" Rosario

I didn't even know it existed until I saw Rain Man in 1988 and didn't hear the word again for at least a decade. We've come a long way since then.

Today I stumbled across an old acquaintance from my camp counselor days and found out that she has two children with austistic spectrum disorder and a third with developmental delays. As you may or may nor know by now, I have a child with ASD as well. Apparently this old acquaintance is a frothing liberal just like me. This got me to thinking: Is it possible to have a special needs child and still be a Right Wing ideologue? And if so, how?

There are millions of children and adults with ASD in varying degrees of severity and dozens of other kinds of physical and mental afflictions. Many, if not most, require some kind of special attention, whether it be home based services like my son received, a special school or a home for adults that cannot care for themselves. These services require special training and is not necessarily something

Save Seattle Schools Community Blog: TFA Updates

Save Seattle Schools Community Blog: TFA Updates:

TFA Updates

by Melissa Westbrook

Federal Way Schools, the other new TFA district, renegotiated their contract so that they could reduce the number of hires they were required to make. They are trying to find a donor to cover the $3k per year per teacher TFA fee (as opposed to the Seattle fee of $4k per year per teacher) but haven't yet so they cannot afford to hire the 10 they originally planned for. They will be hiring 4 but currently have hired only 3. It appears they are all math or science majors.

The TFA/Apple connection? Steve Jobs wife is on the TFA board.

TFA has a new website and boy, is it interesting.

• New mission statement: Teach for America is growing the movement of leaders who work to ensure that kids growing up in poverty get an excellent education.You'll note it says nothing about teachers. You'll

Modern School: Occupy Wall Street? For Democracy?

Modern School: Occupy Wall Street? For Democracy?:

Occupy Wall Street? For Democracy?

by Michael Dunn

Ad Busters has called for 20,000 people to occupy lower Manhattan, with tents, kitchens and barricades, and to put their “asses on the line,” to convey their simple message “. . .that Barack Obama [must] ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington. It's time for DEMOCRACY NOT CORPORATOCRACY, we're doomed without it.”

The problem is that we do have a democracy and it is functioning exactly as it was designed to function: as a system to ensure that the ruling elite maintains its wealth and power. The wealthy have always controlled the political system. The politicians have overwhelmingly come from the ruling class itself. Our laws are designed primarily to protect private property. The courts were

Nanny State Gone Wild: Kids Better Off On The Streets

by Michael Dunn

Jonathan Hoenig recently said the following on Fox News: “Government, which of course has a monopoly over the public schools, really has become the parent. If the reason for keeping this failed school system is day care, I mean honestly Tracy, believe me, it's cheaper for you to hire a baby sitter for your kids, than to fund this union dominated school system.” When his fellow right wing nuts challenged him, he went on: “They're not learning in the public schools. You want to keep them there more... an extra day? They'd do better on the streets!”

(Click here to see the clip)

Fact checking:

Public educators should go on the offensive | Defend Wisconsin

Public educators should go on the offensive | Defend Wisconsin:

Public educators should go on the offensive

by Itay

Nick Zweifel, a math teacher at DeForest High School asks us not to let Walker take credit for teachers’ good work. Writing in The Cap Times, Zweifel says that despite Walker’s efforts to damage public education in Wisconsin, teachers will still deliver the best education for the children of this state.

Walker’s budget has significantly damaged one of the best public education systems in the country. He turned half of our community members against us using false information, and now we will be fighting a public relations battle while also working harder to educate students with fewer

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… - How Can We Help Students To Act Like The Fonz?

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… - How Can We Help Students To Act Like The Fonz?:

How Can We Help Students To Act Like The Fonz?

by Larry Ferlazzo

I went to high school in Milwaukee at about the time the television series, Happy Days, was popular. Of course, everyone’s favorite character was Fonzie. And the clique I was a member of in those days had its own Fonzie-like character by the name of Eric.

My classmate Eric was the coolest of the cool. Everything and anything came easily to him. And he shared one other key quality with The Fonz (at least, in my memory of Fonzie) — he relished helping the rest of us look good. And that was the primary source of our respect for him. If we were hoping to take out a particular girl, he would use all his “coolness” to help us be successful. If we wanted our parents to hear how responsible we were acting when we went out at night, he would use all his charms and successfully reassure

GIVE THANKS ON LABOR DAY « Teachers Fight Back

GIVE THANKS ON LABOR DAY « Teachers Fight Back:

GIVE THANKS ON LABOR DAY

by alkleen

Eight hour day. Five day week. Job safety. Workers comp. Vacations. Overtime pay. Coffee breaks. Heated and cooled workplaces. Living wage. Nondiscrimination in the workplace. No child labor. Profit sharing. Lunch break. Employee health insurance. Pensions. Right to strike. Right to bargain collectively. Corporate accountability. Fire safety regulations. Drinkable water. Food and drug inspections. Consumer protections of various kinds. A large middle class. Sanitary conditions in the neighborhoods. Pollution controls. Civil rights. Voting rights. Womens’ rights.
A big thank you to the thousands of working men and women from 1870 to the 1960′s who achieved the above mentioned rights and dozens of others by forming labor unions and workplace organizations. Thanks to the