General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTeacher: I won’t ‘teach and shut up’
I remember the moment I stopped resenting the deduction in my paychecks that went to my union. It took me three years, and happened suddenly.
Halfway through my third year of teaching music, in 2007, administrators in my St. Louis district decided to cut student time in the arts by 64 percent at the middle-school level as part of a plan to improve student test-scores. Appalled, I sent an email to my fellow arts teachers across the district asking what we were going to do.
The response from my colleagues? There is nothing you can do; this has been happening for the past 20 years. Nonetheless, unwilling to let the arts programs go quietly, I circulated petitions among staff, acquiring signatures from several hundred teachersarts and non-arts teachers alike. It didnt do anything.
Out of ideas, and with no sense of what it might accomplish, I called my union. The response was immediate: The union would help mobilize teachers and parents opposed to the planned cuts.
more . . . http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/teacher-i-wont-teach-and-shut-up/2012/01/28/gIQAnaXyZQ_blog.html
mdmc
(29,069 posts)Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
YvonneCa
(10,117 posts)...read, even on WAPO that covers this issue well.
Thanks for posting this here, proud2BlibKansan. Education is an issue that affects all of us. I agree teachers' voices MUST be included in this debate.
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)DiverDave
(4,886 posts)That says alot of whats going on negligence, in the name of giving more money to the rich.
Who cares about poor kids?
This guy.