Today, teachers around the state of Washington held a walkout to protest lack of funding, class.sizes, etc. But rather than take an unbiased view, this is what the Seattle Times op-ed had to say about it:
The only clear consequence of Tuesday’s walkout by Seattle teachers is that students will lose one precious day of instruction.
The op-ed went on to further fan the flames:
For all the clamor from educators about standardized tests wasting instructional days, they are choosing to waste another. And they are intentionally inconveniencing tens of thousands of parents, including those in the Mercer Island and Issaquah districts, where teachers are also walking out Tuesday.
The piece carries on to simplify the entire situation by painting it in terms of "teachers wanting more" and attributes the problems to dislike of the "details of the Republican budget proposal". It neglects to mention the 11% pay increase legislators in Washington were just granted, or the fact that teacher pay in Washington ranks about halfway down the states, well below our nearest neighbors in Oregon, with school funding overall ranking about the same in comparison with other states.
This editorial was nothing but the usual mainstream (read "corporate owned") media attempt to vilify teachers and unions as a whole. Do any members of the editorial board of the Seattle Times have children in public schools in this state? Are they totally unaware of the egregious lack of resources in many schools throughout this state? I have a friend who teaches primary in a relatively wealthy district, but at a school which has a high rate of student poverty. She shops at thrift stores throughout the year in order to provide clothes for her students who otherwise might have nothing. She pays for many of her resources out of her own pocket. She is a dedicated teacher who is nonetheless thinking of leaving the profession because she is tired of the lack of support from administrators and the government.
By far the most inflammatory statement of this piece, however, was this one:
Closing down schools to air grievances is antagonistic to students.
It is "antagonistic" to students to protest the continued decline in school funding in this state? It is "antagonistic" to expect the legislature to finally acknowledge court decisions that determined -- three separate times -- that our state legislature is violating our state constitution by inadequately funding our public schools? Another friend of mine, whose parents were actively involved in the first court case, sums it up best:
In 1976 , Judge Doran ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in what is now known as the Doran I decision. In 1978, the state Supreme Court affirmed this decision. Since then, we have had the Doran II, Doran IIB, and McCleary decisions, all of which came to the same conclusion. And the legislature has been held in contempt over their failure to comply...and throughout it all, the teachers are being blamed for speaking up about the issues they face.
Below the Orange squiggly is my response to this egregious piece of propaganda.
My response:
So many comments in here seem to be intent on vilifying teachers. How many of you have been in a classroom during instructional time during the last 5-10 years? Given the content, one could believe that most people haven't a clue what teachers actually do in a classroom, how much of their own money they actually spend on school supplies, or what that "paid time off" actually is (I'll give you a hint -- in most cases it's neither paid nor is it really time off!) Most teachers these days not only teach, they also act as de facto counselors, advocates, parents in absentia, social workers, etc.
I have taught for over 20 years. I have been on the receiving end of many similar comments by people who base their judgment of what teachers do on their own school experience, colored as it is by childhood and adolescent memory. I have had to spend the bulk of that 20+ years educating not only the students, but also parents and the general public, on what it is we as teachers actually do every day.
You object to the fact that the teachers are striking to protest the increasingly dismal working conditions most teachers have to deal with? Well, in case you haven't figured this out, those dismal working conditions are also YOUR child's dismal educational conditions. Class size doesn't matter, according to the OECD? When was the last time you had to try and manage a group of 32 teenagers and actually teach them something? If you have teenagers, think of it this way: take your child on his or her WORST day, and multiply that by 10; then add 5 of your child at their most angelic; then add 10 that range somewhere in the middle. Finally, add 5 more (to equal 30) who have come into the system so scarred by life that they are unimaginable for you -- kids in long-term foster care, kids from abusive backgrounds, kids who were born here but whose parents have been deported -- kids whose ability to even minimally cope in an academic setting is non-existent. Your child is in this mix every day. Your child's teacher or teachers are striving every day to differentiate instruction and provide individualized learning support for every one of these kids, often without the resources they need to do so, and in the face of increasingly oppositional administrators and parents.
And before anyone says it: yes, I chose this profession. I chose it because it's who I am and it's what I do. I'm very good at it. But I have watched my profession be denigrated and dismissed by the public, I have been asked to do more and teach more with fewer and fewer resources, and I have watched my most damaged and my brightest students -- as well as those in between -- be defeated and demoralized by a system that should be exposing them to the joys of lifelong learning. I have a right to complain, and for my voice to be heard, because I am speaking for my colleagues, my own children, and all my students -- past, present, and future.