| By Paul Smith 
Paul Smith teaches special education in the Cognitive Disabilities
Borderline program at Oshkosh West High School. He began
his teaching career in September of 1998. | "So, what do you do?" This is how a cocktail party
conversation began for me.
"I teach at West High," I said.
"Good for you. That's such important work. I really admire
teachers." A slight pause before this conversation took a
different turn. "Just not the teachers' union."
I was a little taken aback. I was new in town - in fact, new
to Wisconsin. When I taught in Massachusetts, I don't remember
hearing negative sentiments towards teachers. I thought teachers
were beloved nationwide and by extension, the teachers' union,
too. But I'd been in Oshkosh for only a couple of weeks, and already
I'd heard a few comments that dispelled that myth.
"Why don't you like the teachers' union?" I asked the
woman, whose family owned one of the larger businesses in Wisconsin.
"Well," she began, "they just aren't doing any
favors for our schools. And they certainly don't act in the best
interests of kids." They don't? This was news to me. I wanted to tell her that I
was sure that the teachers' union does act in the best interest
of kids and schools. I wanted to explain that the reason the union
is sometimes at odds with school boards is that the union looks
at schools from more than a financial perspective. I wanted to
say that without a union, teachers would be working longer hours
for lower wages, with little preparation time, and reduced health
insurance. And then how would schools recruit talented teachers?
But this is what I actually said...
"Hmm." And then I politely changed the subject.
Back in Massachusetts, I had been teaching in a children's psychiatric
hospital. And on the unit where I worked, I was the only teacher.
So I didn't have a union behind me. My boss told me that my hours
were 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and so naturally the students would
be in the classroom for that time. What about preparation time?
He didn't know what I meant. I explained to him that generally,
teachers don't just show up, teach, and go home. There's much
more to a school day than that. There's preparing lessons. There's
grading and evaluating student work. There's writing progress
reports, completing IEP requirements, and meeting with families
and specialists. But without a union to back me up, I had to plead
my own case, and I usually lost.
On my first day teaching in Oshkosh, I was thrilled to have a
preparation period. And a lunch break. It was exciting and comforting
to be a part of a union. But one particular day, the other teachers
weren't all that excited or comforted. They had just found out,
on the first day of school, that no one would be advancing on
the salary scale this year. In fact, every teacher would be getting
a pay cut. How could this be? Apparently, because health insurance
rates increased, we were QEO'd with no right to arbitration. And
it was illegal for us to strike.
"The problem with this system," my new co-worker was
explaining, "is all the young teachers."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, back in the old days, we wouldn't have let them cut
our pay with no negotiation. We would have picketed the school
board meeting, or at least refused extra responsibilities. Nothing's
going to change if all the young teachers just accept this. They
think they're here saving the world, and they don't care about
salary or benefits."
"And are you active with the union?" I asked. I assumed
he was.
"No, I used to be, but this union hasn't done anything for
us in a long, long time."
I wanted to tell him that I didn't know about the other new teachers,
but I cared about salary and benefits. And I was willing to fight
to a certain extent, but I didn't think I would walk out, or refuse
responsibilities, or shortchange the kids, or the school. I was
too enthusiastic, or maybe too naive, for that. I also wanted
to say that the problem wasn't the younger teachers. It was the
community sentiment, and the school board members who had been
elected on promises to fight the teachers' union and reduce school
taxes at any cost. I wanted to say there must be something we
can do to improve the situation. But this is what I actually said...
"Hmm."
The thing is, I believe in the Oshkosh Education Association,
and WEAC, and the NEA. I believe that those organizations are
committed to creating the best public schools possible. And I
believe that we need to continue the fight for a decent salary
and appropriate working conditions. But with so much negativity
toward the union in the community, with constant editorials portraying
teachers negatively in our local newspaper, with candidates running
for public office who view endorsement by the teachers' union
as a liability, and with too many teachers not even supporting
their own union, what can we do?
I don't know yet. But I think we need to figure it out.
Return to New Teachers page Posted September 9, 2005 |