Teachers can create an environment in their classrooms to a point - but if they are unsupported and threatened with job loss, how are they to make a difference? I can't change the union when I'm unemployed.
But your aim is not to change the union. Your aim is to change the situation. And since when has it been true that the only way to change an institution, or the situation it creates, is from inside that institution?
At this point you might reasonably say, "Gee, I really want ____, but it seems I don't have the political savvy to make it happen. Where can I find someone who does?" Or: "Who are my friends outside this little system?" Our TAs' friends were, I believe, an electrical workers' union. Your friend might be a powerful voucher supporter. I don't know, I'm not in your area.
As far as being in a position to do something, the last school I was in had an entire department rise up against the administration. The result? I was - in essence - forced to quit, one administrative transfer, one left for another job after the semester (this was out of 5 teachers, BTW).
You're missing the point completely. Five teachers is not helpful. The admin can go find five new teachers tomorrow. You want a proportion of teachers over a wide geographic area that can collectively throw a stick in the spokes.
The result? Nothing. The union would not support us because it was beyond their scope (their words).
Sure, why should they throw political capital behind five teachers? That's not big enough unless it's a cheap and straightforward steward/lawyer job.
Additionally, there ARE teachers who want to coddle. These teachers undermine the others.
Well, if there are enough of them to prevent you from organizing a school-stopping force, then you have a big problem, and you'll have to go compete with the public school.
And yes, teachers aren't always willing to risk their jobs over this issue because they have children. Can you blame them?
Not a bit, and I never said I do.
Finally, I'd like to point out the example of Chicago Public Schools. The teachers union, which was pro-admin at the time of the contract (and got themselves ousted for it a few weeks after the contract), snuck in a clause on the contract which allowed the admins to non-renew any teacher for no specified reason with no documentation. That year, 1600 teachers - including me - lost their jobs, and most of us were teachers that were trying to further accountability.
Again, I'm not at all surprised, and frankly the teachers shouldn't have been surprised either. Allegedly the teachers can all read. Unions don't exist to serve workers, there's a long labor history demonstrating that. The union exists to serve itself. That's why I don't belong to one. But it has tremendous organizational resources which, if you're a good politician, you can use. If you're a terrific politician, you can do better than that.
Scheherezade, it sounds like you were passionate about what went on in your school and really tried to do something about it. But it also sounds like you did it naively and with the idea that various groups should be supporting you, regardless of whether their interests have anything to do with yours. You have an idea of what good education is, and you want to impose it. In that you're no different from any other politician.
It's not just official politics, either. We have here a county organization that is -- without quite acknowledging it -- attempting to take 3- and 4-year-olds from immigrant and underclass parents and turn the children into middle-class white people like themselves, people who do well on standardized tests and sit politely in meetings. The mechanism is full-day preschool. I happen to think it's a noble goal, and that their middle-class white life is nice, but that they've got a very bad idea, and that they'll have their asses handed to them on a plate for trying it. Not right away. But eventually these families will notice we're stealing their kids and and sending back little foreigners (while helpfully giving the parents colored handouts that tell them they're idiots who can't look after their own children). I don't think it's going to go so well, even though they have all the official thumbs-up they need.
Me, i'm in quite a different situation. I'm not out to educate America, that's not my work. I have one kid to bring up, and I'm happy to write nonfiction for kids who are interested and show up of their own will. I can walk. I have no reason to try to fight K-12 machinery effectively. It appears that you do, though.
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