Author: Teacher Toni

Last night, I attended a symposium, sponsored in part by The Nation magazine, focused on the current economic crisis.  The moderator, John Nichols, stated that the decision to come to Detroit was easy.  FDR came here when he was campaigning against Hoover.  The modern labor movement was born in Detroit.  Malcom X came to Detroit and Dr. King first gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in Detroit.  Finally, the collapse of the auto industry has had a devastating effect on the city and the surrounding communities.

The panel consisted of six highly regarded activists, both local and national.  The local activists were Dianne Freeley, a retired UAW worker; Joann Watson, a city council member; Elena Herrada, a community organizer in the Latino community; and the legendary Grace Lee Boggs.  The national voices included John Conyers, author Barbara Ehrenreich, and economist/author Robert Pollin.

John Conyers spoke first (and he stayed the whole evening).  The speech was a bit rambling, but the essence spoke to the notion that President Obama is a smart man, but that not everyone around him is not, including advisers.  Of course, in my mind, that begs the question why did such a smart President pick a bunch of dummies to advice him.  But, I digress.

The rest of the evening saw the various panelist answering a specific question from the moderator.  For example, the first question went to Robert Pollin.  It was a nice, simple question – What went wrong?  His answer to this question was truly an eye-opener.  

According the Pollin, in the 1970s, our political system turned itself over entirely to capitalist.  This is marked by two “events”  The first is that “full employment” ceased being the central premise in politics.  In 1972, the average, non-supervisory worker made a little over $19 an hour (adjusted to current values).  By 2007, before the current crisis really took hold, that wage had fallen to $17.40 an hour. This represents about an 11 percent decrease.  In the same time period, U.S. productivity rose a whopping 90 percent.

The second thing that began to happen in the 1970s was the slow dismantling of the Glass-Steagall Act which separated commercial banking and investment banking interests.  The bill was full repealed in 1999 (thanks a lot Bill).

It was important to hear from Barbara Ehrenreich that her book, Nickled and Dimed, was published in 2001 (pre-9/11).  Her research was done during the boom years of the 90s.  That means all the low wage workers she met were not seeing any noticeable boom.  That was, of course, due to the fact that housing costs were sky rocketing out of control.

City Council woman Joann Watson reminded us that corporations have never voluntarily done the right thing – including stopping child labor.  Grace Lee Boggs said that we have to re-image both ourselves and our planet as we attempt to rebuild.  We can no longer afford to be crass consumers, the planet can simply longer sustain that type of behavior.

There was so much good information that it’s hard to piece it all together.  The most important feeling I took out of this symposium was the realization that there are people out there fighting for the poor, the planet, and our future.  It was good to get my hands on information about actions that are currently taking place in the city or will be soon.  For example, from June 15-17, CEOs from a number of giant corporations will meet in Detroit.  To counter all that unfettered greed, a People’s Summit and Tent City has been organized and will take place near the ballparks.  Additionally, from June 22-26, 2010, the US Social Forum will take place in Detroit.  One of the goals I had set for myself at the beginning of the leave was to reconnect with the activist I was in college.  These two events will give me a perfect opportunity to do just that.

X-posted at Tunnel Traveller

I am sure that most of the news outlets have been following Hurricane Gustav and pregnant teenagers, but I took part in an amazing event today and I think that more people should know about it.

Barack Obama came to speak at the annual Detroit Labor Day Parade.  Considering Detroit’s history, one might think that the Labor Day Parade would be a big deal.  I have attended the parade for the last few years and the crowds are generally pretty small (perhaps 1000 people).  I knew however that Obama’s appearance would bring out a bigger crowd.

I took the tunnel bus from Windsor to Detroit at 8:00 in the morning.  An e-mail I received on Friday explained that the gates at Hart Plaza would open at 8:30, so I figured that I would have to wait in a line.  A radio reported from the CBC accompanied me, to get the story from an American living in Canada (Sadly, the story didn’t air). We walked to Hart Plaza and found a line that snaked down Jefferson Avenue, reached all the way to Cobo Hall and then back towards Griswold.  In all, the line snaked around for almost a mile.

I met several kindred spirits while waiting for tow hours.  One man, originally from St. Lucia, brought his whole family, including a nine-year old daughter who had watched all of the debates.  I met another couple who had worked for the Obama campaign in Indiana.  I watched a young man register to vote for the first time. All around, I saw people of all shapes, sizes, ages, and hues.  As a native of the Detroit region, I was thrilled to see so many blacks and whites together in a happy atmosphere.  The good vibes in the diverse crowd were a joy.  

Unfortunately, my queue mates and I never made it inside of Hart Plaza and had to try a listen to the big screen set up on the street.  Sound quality was poor and he spoke for only 10 minutes.  I don’t think that anyone had planned for a crowd of this magnitude.   It took several hours before one of the local media outlets announced an estimated crowd of over 100,000 people.  Anytime a crowd that size gathers to hear a politician, it should be news.  If that crowd is in Detroit, someone should shout it from the hills.

As we all know, Michigan is one of the states that moved its primary date up, hoping to have a bigger say in who the nominees are.  Both national parties have  punished the state parties – taking away convention delegates.

The Michigan primary is January 15.  I am looking at my absentee ballot application and I need to make a decision, do I register Democratic or Republican?

In the Democratic primary, my choices will be Hillary Clinton, Mike Gravel, and Dennis Kucinich.  If I voted in the Republican primary, my choices, as disgusting as all of the are, would be numerically greater and I could mess around and cast a ballot for a dark horse – like Ron Paul.  Or vote for someone who is lagging behind after New Hampshire and Iowa.

Of course, my third option is to boycott the whole broken primary system completely.  Since moving to Canada, I have been fascinated with how the nomination process happens here.  Conventions are more than week-long pep rallies and commercials.  There is potential for them to be gripping and suspenseful.

Please vote below and then leave me some words of wisdom.

Gone are the days of the school marm, who couldn’t get married and remain a teacher.  No, teachers of today are faced with issues that would curl the school marm’s toes.  We are, however, backed by two unions:  The National Education Association(NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers(AFT).

The American Federation of Teachers

 (Full disclosure, I am on the executive board of an AFT local, as the PAC Chairperson)

The mission of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, is to improve the lives of our members and their families, to give voice to their legitimate professional, economic and social aspirations, to strengthen the institutions in which we work, to improve the quality of the services we provide, to bring together all members to assist and support one another and to promote democracy, human rights and freedom in our union, in our nation and throughout the world.

The AFT was founded in 1916 and is affiliated with the AFL-CIO.  It has 1.6 million members, not all of whom are teachers.

It is the smaller of the two teachers unions in the country, but its history has seen its share of hard won battles and controversy.

Just a few of its main battles have included:
Yellow-dog contracts (a contact in which the teacher promises to not join a union)
Tenure (thanks to AFT efforts, 17 states had enacted some type of tenure law by the end of the Depression)
Academic freedom
Segregation (in 1948, the AFT ceased the existence of segregated locals and by 1957, it expelled all locals that refused to desegregate)

Any conversation about the American Federation of Teachers must include a look at the life of Al Shankar.  Shankar was the longest reigning president of the AFT, from 1974-1997.

Shankar was a born and raised New Yorker of immigrant parents who started his union activity in 1959.  He had watched his mother work long hours in a factory, a fact that ultimately influenced his decision to become a union organizer.

As an organizer, Shankar is best known for his role in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville conflict of 1968, during which Shankar called for a strike over the transfer of 18 teachers; the strike lasted two months.  As I have read through the the history of this conflict, I have to admit that I can’t tell you if I agree with his decision.

Towards the end of his tenure (and his life), Shankar sought to create a bond between the AFT and the NEA.  He died in 1997 without having bridged the two unions.
National Education Association

Mission Statement

To fulfill the promise of a democratic society, the National Education Association shall promote the cause of quality public education and advance the profession of education; expand the rights and further the interest of educational employees; and advocate human, civil, and economic rights for all.

Double the size of the AFT at 2.8 million members, it is the best known and the most reviled by many non-educators.  Its formation pre-dates the AFT by 59 years, starting in 1857 with 100 teachers and called itself the National Teachers Association.  By 1870, it had changed its name to the NEA and merged with 3 smaller education groups.

A look at the NEA’s timeline reveals an impressive history of a focus on progressive issues, in particular in the area of women’s rights in the early 1900’s.  The NEA had a woman president, Ella Flagg Young, in 1912, eight years before women had the right to vote.  In 1914, the NEA passed a resolution which supported the very modern and yet unrealized notion of equal pay for equal work.

In 1966, the NEA and the American Teachers Association (an association of African-American teachers) merged, after some 40 years of dialogue.

So What?

What does all this mean?  Don’t teachers’ unions stand in the way of real change and progress in “failing” school districts?  I work in one of those school districts and I’d have to say – NO.  Our local union has done much to attempt to effect positive change in our schools and have met with administrative resistance.  That, however, is a rant for another diary.

Why are politicians always going on about how bad the public school systems are?  If you ask me, they’d like to complete the process started with the firing of the air traffic controllers, to break these two powerful unions with 4.4 million middle class voters, who mostly vote on the Democratic side of the ballot.  But, we also don’t want to face what is really ailing “failing” schools: poverty.  Sure, my school doesn’t have the type of resources I’d like to have to really present 21st century lessons.  But the cycle of poverty in a child’s life and family history is devastating.  Our school resources are too few to really offer my students the assistance they need to focus on academics (my Bosnian students have experienced war, I have taught students who have witnessed parents murdered, etc.).  My lessons on Walt Whitman don’t necessarily resonate the way I’d like.

We live in a society that mocks Presidential candidates for speaking several different languages and overall pays our teachers fairly poorly – go ahead, look up your state’s average, I’m pretty sure that I could work in retail management for a higher pay in some of those states.  

We can try charter schools, but research has shown that these “free” and non-unionized schools are generally fairing no better than their traditional public school counterparts.  According to a NYT August 26 editorial (sorry, no link, registration req.)

A federal study showing that fourth graders in charter schools score worse in reading and math than their public school counterparts should cause some soul-searching in Congress. Too many lawmakers seem to believe that the only thing wrong with American education is the public school system, and that converting lagging schools to charter schools would cause them to magically improve.

Even better, charter schools run by traditional school boards (and therefore, more likely to be unionized), tend to perform better than independent charter schools.

On average, charter schools that were affiliated with public school districts performed just as well as traditional public schools. That may be a disappointment to advocates who expected them to show clear superiority. But the real stunner was the performance of free-standing charter schools, which have no affiliation with public school systems and are often school districts unto themselves. It was this grouping that showed the worst performance.

Well, I could go on and on.  What teacher doesn’t love a captive audience?  If you haven’t read the other parts in this Labor series, please so.

Working Together: Part 1 – The Circle of Law by Kahli
Working Together: Solidarity Through The Arts by Man Eegree
Working Together Part III: Joe Hill, A Myth of a Man by shirlstar

I’ve got to grade some papers, so remember, if you can read this, thank a teacher.

The past Sunday, a small group of Michigan Tribbers got together for a little picnic that included pies and tin foil hats.

Kidspeak, moi, keepinon, GKMscot (not pictured), Mrs. keepinon (not pictured – how did that happen!!! it was her birthday), my husband, and of course, the world’s cutest baby, Andrew were all in attendance

Sadly, our other BooTribbers, BostonJoe (still here?), wolverine writer, ejmw and Street Kid, were unable to join us, but I think that we all decided that this would not be the last time for a Michigan meet-up.
The funniest thing about the whole day is that all of the adults were educators, some current and some retired.  It was wonderful to sit down with other like minded teachers to exchange stories and to bemoan our pitiful choices for governor (Granholm has been disappointing, but DeVos is Cheney with a pyramid scheme).

If you can make a meet-up, do so.  This site is a nice e-community.  The meet-ups help to make this community tangible.  The people you meet can help spur us on to greater activism.

Sadly, these are almost all of the pictures we have.  All of our digital cameras died at the same moment.

A small but happy group of Michigan BooTribbers have chosen their meet up date and would love it if any of you could join us.

The date is (trumpets blaring)  Sunday, August 13 at 1:00 P.M.  We will meet at Kensingston Metro Park , about 34-40 minutes northwest of Detroit.

So far, we have me, Kidspeak, keepinon, and emjw (I think).  It sounds like people will be bringing family members.  We’ll be in a great park and I’m pretty sure that the food will be delicious.
Sadly, the league leading Detroit Tigers will be out of town, but should you care to visit our fair state, you can have an international experience.  How often can you go away for the weekend and tell people at work on Monday that you went out of the country for the weekend?  You’ll sound just like a jet-setter.

If you are a Michigander who can join the party and I didn’t include your name above, just let me know.

Please recommend this at least for a little while, so all interested parties can see it.

I have been very envious of all the meet-up diaries that have been written in the last few months.  Envious because I don’t think that I’ll be able to make any of the meet-ups this year.  That was until the very little gears in my brain started turning and I began to ask my fellow Michiganders if they would be interested in getting together.  So far, the response has been positive, but limited.  I know that I haven’t had contact with all the Michigan froggies -so this shout-out is for you.  Actually, this is for anyone who would like to come to our lovely state for a weekend.  I’m pretty sure that Andrew will be at the picnic.
From what I know of our home bases, I thought that Kensingston Metro Park might be a good location.  If people are okay with that, all we need to do is to nail down a date.  I hope to come up with a date that accommodates the most people.  Please pick the date below that best fits into your schedule.  I’m probably missing something, so feel free to tell me in your comments.  Please recommend this diary so it stays up for a couple of days.

A little over seven months ago, my life (and my husband’s) changed drastically.  As many of you know, I have a beautiful son named Andrew, whom we adopted from China.  Several people have asked for a diary about that trip and I finally have the time to do this, so let’s go back in time, to see how we got here.

We left on the last Thursday in August and flew to Vancouver, where we spent the night before the big trip.  I treated myself to a little spa action, and tried to sleep as peacefully as I could.  

The trip to Beijing was about 11 hours long.  We were treated to three fairly forgetful movies, including The Wrath of Khan.  Air Canada did offer a cool feature throughout the trip.  Occasionally, a map would be displayed on the screen, showing the passengers where we were at that moment.  I remember  seeing miles of mountains as we flew over both Alaska and Russia.

We arrived on what would be the worst pollution day of our trip.  It looked like we were still in the clouds.  Our guide, “Jenny” was waiting for us and took us back to the hotel, which was really quite nice.  We spent only one day, at the beginning of the trip, in Beijing, as we (and the five other couples with us) were receiving our children in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.

That flight was truly awful.  We had turbulence the whole time and I think that I squeezed the blood out of my husband’s hand.  By this time, my body was beginning to feel the fatigue of the stress and the journey.  

We were to pick up Andrew the next day, and we had no diapers or formula.  I am so glad that we had top-notch guides, “Jenny” (who stayed with our group for the entire two weeks) and “Sophia” (who was only with us in Nanjing).  They had contacted the orphanages to find out what kind of formula the babies had been drinking.  We went to a small grocery store very close to the hotel to pick up the provisions.  Diapers were easy, but the guides did not see our formula (it was there, they just didn’t see it).  The guide announced that we would be heading to…Wal-Mart.  I am not kidding.  I looked at my husband and said that there was no way in hell that I had come all the way to China to shop at Wal-Mart.  He went, while I walked in the rain, alone, back to our room.  By this time, Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans, but it hadn’t yet hit.

The next day was the big day.  The bus trip to the provincial office was very quiet as all of the couples were thinking about the first time they would hold their little ones.  I never pried, but I am sure that most of the couples (unlike us) had been through many fertility treatments before they had decided on adoption.  This trip was the culmination of many years of heartache for most of these couples.

Of the six families, four of the babies were coming from one orphanage.  Our Andrew and one other little girl were from the orphanage in Changzhou.  When we arrived, four babies were already there, waiting, with orphanage workers, for their parents.  Andrew (and the other little girl) was not yet there.  He was stuck in traffic.  Fifteen minutes passed and I couldn’t bear to watch the other families, so I went into another room to try and gather myself.  I wasn’t long in that room before I looked out the window to see another car pull up and a little speck of a boy dressed in yellow being carried out.  Finally, we were parents!

All I remember are tears and a flurry of paperwork.  He was so small and had just gotten over the chicken pox.  Andrew looked around at everything else in the room and at us a little bit.  Now the fun would begin.  More about the rest of the trip later.

It has been quite a week for education here in Michigan.  Last week, I attended the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) Lobby Day in Lansing (our state capital).  The idea is that all attendees get the chance to speak with a legislator about education issues.

This year, the AFT set up Lobby Day in the town-hall meeting style, with about eight “town hall” meetings happening simultaneously.  Each meeting had both state senators and state representative assigned to it for a question and answer session.

Sadly, the state House of Representatives was in caucus all day, so we were unable to speak with any of them.  That left us with state senators.  We were to have three senators; we met only one senator.  The other two senators (one Democrat and one Republican) sent staffers.  The staffer sent by the Republican had been on the job for two whole days and education was not her area of expertise and she took no notes.  The Democratic staffer took no notes, but he could at least discuss the issues with a room full of teachers.

The AFT-Michigan asked us to focus on four main issues: the K-16 funding initiative, the School Employees Health Benefit Act, Defined Contribution System and Graded Premiums for Health Benefits (link unavailable), and finally the Michigan Merit Curriculum (which passed in the House while we were in Lansing).  Like any room of teachers, we focused in immediately on the legislation that would have the heaviest impact on our day-to-day lives: the Michigan Merit Curriculum.

As far a state standards, the state of Michigan sets forth standards and benchmarks that are designed to help teachers know what skills students should master at different grade levels (though I have to admit, these standards are not grade specific for high school English).  The only graduation requirement that the state ever mandated was that every Michigan high school student had to take a half-year course in civics.  Of course, no high school in the state requires so little, but the politicians felt that in an election year, this woeful requirement had to be supplemented.

The new high school requirements will look like this

AT LEAST 4 CREDITS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS THAT ARE

ALIGNED WITH SUBJECT AREA CONTENT EXPECTATIONS DEVELOPED BY THE

DEPARTMENT UNDER SUBSECTION (2) AND APPROVED BY THE STATE BOARD

UNDER SUBSECTION (3).

     (ii) AT LEAST 4 CREDITS IN MATHEMATICS THAT ARE ALIGNED WITH

SUBJECT AREA CONTENT EXPECTATIONS DEVELOPED BY THE DEPARTMENT UNDER

SUBSECTION (2) AND APPROVED BY THE STATE BOARD UNDER SUBSECTION

(3), INCLUDING COMPLETION OF AT LEAST 1 ALGEBRA I CREDIT, 1 ALGEBRA

II CREDIT, 1 GEOMETRY CREDIT, AND AN ADDITIONAL MATHEMATICS CREDIT.

IF A PUPIL SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETES A CREDIT IN ALGEBRA I OR ALGEBRA

II BEFORE ENTERING HIGH SCHOOL, THE PUPIL SHALL BE GIVEN HIGH

SCHOOL CREDIT FOR THAT CREDIT. AT LEAST 1 OF THESE CREDITS SHALL BE

COMPLETED DURING THE PUPIL’S LAST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL.

     (iii) AT LEAST 3 CREDITS IN SCIENCE THAT ARE ALIGNED WITH

SUBJECT AREA CONTENT EXPECTATIONS DEVELOPED BY THE DEPARTMENT UNDER

SUBSECTION (2) AND APPROVED BY THE STATE BOARD UNDER SUBSECTION

(3), INCLUDING COMPLETION OF AT LEAST 1 BIOLOGY CREDIT, 1 CHEMISTRY

OR PHYSICS CREDIT, AND AN ADDITIONAL SCIENCE CREDIT. AT LEAST 1 OF

THE ADDITIONAL CREDITS APPROVED BY THE DEPARTMENT SHALL BE A CREDIT

IN EARTH SCIENCE. IF A PUPIL SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETES 1 OR MORE OF

THESE SCIENCE CREDITS BEFORE ENTERING HIGH SCHOOL, THE PUPIL SHALL

BE GIVEN HIGH SCHOOL CREDIT FOR EACH OF THEM.

     (iv) AT LEAST 0.5 CREDIT IN CIVICS, 0.5 CREDIT IN ECONOMICS, 1

CREDIT IN UNITED STATES HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY, AND 1 CREDIT IN

WORLD HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. THESE CREDITS SHALL BE ALIGNED WITH

SUBJECT AREA CONTENT EXPECTATIONS DEVELOPED BY THE DEPARTMENT UNDER

SUBSECTION (2) AND APPROVED BY THE STATE BOARD UNDER SUBSECTION

(3).

 House Bill No. 5606 (H-7) as amended March 2, 2006
     (v) AT LEAST 1 CREDIT IN SUBJECT MATTER THAT INCLUDES BOTH

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION ALIGNED WITH GUIDELINES DEVELOPED BY

THE DEPARTMENT UNDER SUBSECTION (2) AND APPROVED BY THE STATE BOARD

UNDER SUBSECTION (3).

     (vi) AT LEAST 1 CREDIT IN VISUAL[, PERFORMING, AND APPLIED] ARTS
 ALIGNED

WITH GUIDELINES DEVELOPED BY THE DEPARTMENT UNDER SUBSECTION (2)

AND APPROVED BY THE STATE BOARD UNDER SUBSECTION (3).

     (B) HAS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED AT LEAST 1 COURSE OR LEARNING

EXPERIENCE THAT IS PRESENTED ONLINE, AS DEFINED BY THE DEPARTMENT.

IF A SCHOOL DISTRICT OR PUBLIC SCHOOL ACADEMY IS UNABLE TO PROVIDE

THE BASIC LEVEL OF TECHNOLOGY AND INTERNET ACCESS REQUIRED BY THE

STATE BOARD TO COMPLETE THE ONLINE COURSE OR LEARNING EXPERIENCE,

THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OR PUBLIC SCHOOL ACADEMY IS ENCOURAGED TO APPLY

FOR AN EDUCATIONAL MANDATE ROLLBACK CONTRACT AS DESCRIBED IN

SUBSECTION [(9)].

This all looks very nice, but where will the funding be found?  Schools like mine already offer very few electives; I can just see us cutting some of those to hire more math teachers. I wonder about the Internet access required for on-line learning.  Notice how that eliminates the need for classroom teachers and probably benefits?  The last line of this section of the law is the best; schools or academies (charter schools) may apply for an “educational mandate rollback contract” if it is unable to meet that requirement.  This is a waiver.  The more I learn about what actually happens in charter schools, the more I realize that this waiver is aimed at them.  We hear that the charter schools in our community don’t offer music, arts, libraries, science, and social studies.  I would bet big money that their computer equipment is poor.  

On a personal note, I have no idea what I would have done if I had been forced to take all of that math.  I am not sure that I would have made it to college.  I look at the kids in my school and see so many struggle with math and I know that this will lead to kids not graduating on time and perhaps to increased drop out rates.

I wonder why our legislators have decided to go with stick, rather than carrot.  I wonder why our legislators have decided that all kids must be little clones of each others and take the exact same courses.  I wonder why they actually think that all children learn at the same rate.  Then I remember that the one senator who actually came and spoke to us told use that many politicians think that teachers are whiny babies who don’t work during the summer.  They want us to fail so they can place education in private, for-profit hands that will turn out good little worker bees who won’t ask questions.

Sometimes, it just gets harder and harder to stay in this business.