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Monday, February 14, 2005 |
The Generation Gap and Teacher's Unions
I like what I see in an L.A. Times editorial
which calls for a new approach from the teacher's union. The UTLA, of
which I was a meember for the 6 short months that I was employed by
LAUSD, was once, according to the article, "a leader in the effort to remake urban schools. Now, union leaders spar
with the district over small-change pay raises, paperwork demands and
teacher assessment."
It points out that the educational landscape has changed and so the old
model of the union is no longer as relevent. The union needs to work
more for how to support teachers in meeting accountability standards by
imporving their craft, and less on just protecting retirement accounts
and getting pay raises--not that there is anything wrong with those
things. The current union elections apparently pit old union members
running onthe merits of what they did 16 year ago (whoopee!) versus a
new crowd who wants to fight for "social justice" by fighting against
class size increases and standardized testing. The article rightly
points out that we all know what the union is against, and it needs to better identify what it fights for.
In addition, one thing the article doesn't touch on, I think there is a
generation gap between older teachers and younger ones, a gap that
reflects the generation gap between baby boomers and Gen X, my
generation. Baby boomers tend to put a lot more of their identity in
their work. They came of age in a time when choosing a career was for
life. In this generation, one characterized by much more mobility and
transience, your job is not your life, so we're much less likely to get
all passionate about protectiong our pensions or how we're treated in
the workplace. We don't see any job or situation as permanent. And we
see our job as just one aspect of our life, or as a part that fits into
our whole life mission, but not our mission in itself. That outlook
makes a world of difference. We are much less likely to really "get"
what the union is all about. I am still a member of my local teacher's
union, though I am now in a state where unions are not really unions.
And I do see their value. They do have a much broader function than the
stuff that gets the headlines when educational reform is on the table.
Though they don't do as much as they can, and have the potential for so
much more. The Times editorial points out a case in Denver,
Colorado where "the union worked with the school district on a merit pay plan to promote good teaching and protect teachers' rights," and a case in Rochester, N.Y. where "the union created an internship program for new teachers and a peer intervention program for failing ones."
This type of positive cooperation with the district, rather than the
conventional knee-jerk reactionism against anything they might feel
threatened by, would be much more effective union practice. Some of my
colleagues from the baby boom generation may call this type of action a
compromise. My generation would call it practical. When I got my first
teaching job, I must admit I knew little about the union, and since I
was making real money for the first time in my life, I didn't think so
much about fighting for pay raises. Of course, I hadn't been employed
when the salaries were cut. But I also had the attitude that if I were
as good a teahcer as I believed I would be, then I had no reason to
feel threatened in my job. I have since come to understand the need for
protection from the sometimes unfair practices of school districts and
administrators, but I still think the approach of a teacher's union in
this day and age really needs to be more cooperative and practical, as
well as more positively supportive of teachers in improving thier
practice and raising the prefession. Let us remake the teacher's union
into something more suitable for our generation as well as something
more fitting for today's educational climate. I've not yet formulated
all of what I think such a makeover would entail, but I'd like to enter
into discussion.
12:11:53 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Greg Wickersham.
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