Sub Vision: Strike Rationale

I would never cross a picket line, let alone interfere with teachers’ strike, even if I miss workdays for which I won’t be paid... and despite my somewhat differ views…

Teachers are hard working professionals, whose quality of work is judged, unlike other office and industry professionals, daily, by over 200 students, almost double that number of parents and guardians, peers, supervisors, administrators …

When it comes to earnings, do I want a six percent salary increase? Of course I do, but is it the most important part of the dispute? Teachers are arguing now for far more valuable claims, and to fulfilling them, they should stress resources over salary; funds to reduce class size, increase art and vocational education, counselors, deans.

I don’t know much about elementary school teachers’ job, but I can’t imagine their work load in preparation, and in grabbing so many young students’ attention…

I do know, however, what it means for middle and high school teachers to manage over 200 students a day, keep them focused, follow their progress, spot students who need aid and help them, and evaluate everyone’s achievements…

I do know about the need for extra curriculum classes where students can experience success even when their academic accomplishments are lagging…

I do know about the system’s demand on a teacher to be an educator, discipliner, psychologist, social-worker, special needs expert and parental like figure…

And I do see the damage that charter schools are doing to our community schools, draining their resources, reducing their able bodies, and all of that with very little to show as superiority in education; most of them are concealed pro-profit institutes, with false promises, deprived performance and poor results…

If I were a Union decision maker, I would stress the need to solve first all the other budgetary needs for good education. And to show good faith I would compromise on smaller raise in favor of larger funds, funds that would also include appropriate compensation for teachers working in inner city and lower performing schools…

Sub Vision: Just tell me – is it legal?

I was called to a middle school, not a favorite choice and too far away, but since the school is located in a good neighborhood, and I also know the principal, I thought it would be OK.

I arrived a little late, which didn’t seem to be a problem, and was directed to a classroom on the second floor. On the way there I tried to locate the nearest bathroom and couldn’t find one, a fact that didn’t bother me much until I glanced at the bell schedule. It consisted of five classes, (4 + homeroom), back to back, with only five minutes passing periods. 8:00 to 12:30, no breaks.

Well, I came to the teaching profession after a long career in an office, long enough to know that labor laws entitles you a ten-fifteen minutes break after two hours of work, and a lunch break of thirty to sixty minutes. In an office, most people can eat, drink, and tend to personal matters without much scrutiny, and smokers can go outside at their will. There is no limit on bathroom visits, of course, and unless you are in a middle of a support call to Puerto Rico, or in a closed door meeting, you are free to go to the bathroom whenever you need or want.

Life of a teacher is completely different. For one thing, you cannot be late to work and sneak to your desk, hoping your boss is too busy to notice, or not there yet. If you are a teacher, and late to work, everyone is fully aware of that. Forty students gathered at the hallway, outside a classroom, is noticeable by every neighboring teacher, all the administrators and each of the office staff.

Even more important is a rule teachers have to follow, of never leaving students unsupervised in a room. It means, then, that no matter how urgently you need to leave the classroom for few minutes, you can’t if you have students in the classroom…  Thus, if there are no official breaks, and especially if the passing periods are too short, next period’s students arrive before previous students leave, and there is no way you can visit the bathroom for four and a half hours!

This, by itself, makes me want to scream of frustration, and ask every education ‘expert’ if they happen to know what five classes, back to back, do to students’ attention and ability to learn, or what the poor working conditions do to teachers’ ability to teach, or to their motivation?

By the time I reached lunch time (30 minutes, not a minute longer), I was already fully charged with rage and frustration, which I poured on an innocent teaching aide who, naively, invited me to join them… I was furious with the bell schedule, the class size (40-45 students), a counselor that was not supportive, and principal who pretended not to know me, interrogating me about a text message sent to a student’s parents (couldn’t have been me as I don’t have access to that information), while the only person I called, the counselor, didn’t even answer her phone…

Legislators?  Education experts? Administrators? Parents? Am I the only one who feels that something is very wrong with this system, and it is NOT the teachers?