A press release and dinner with two colleagues has me yearning for that final late May day when my employment in SFUSD will finish. As we used to say at Shu Lin Kou, “I’m so SHORT, I could sit on the edge of a dime and my feet wouldn’t touch the ground.”
This AFT response to the latest Democratic betrayal of working people is the nail in the coffin for me. I’ll cancel my additional COPE contribution tomorrow. Compare Randi Weingarten’s “We are concerned about…” to this AFL-CIO statement: “NO tax cuts for the richest 2% of Americans. NO benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.”
She’s not running a union; she’s running a sheep ranch.
I had dinner with some hardworking colleagues recently. When the conversation turned to union stuff, their levels of what I can only call intentional obliviousness amazed me. They identified two labor issues that teachers had to worry about: supplies and management. In terms of supplies, they contended that our school and district is doing well. When I pointed out that that was ONLY because of the passage of Prop 30, they really didn’t seem to think there was any connection between union organizing in our district and state and the passage. In terms of management, both of them were very clear that there was little point to opposing things like recent and unreasonable requirements that teachers post two week grades and daily lesson plans online. Why? “Because administrators can’t enforce the stupid expectations anyway.” All teachers need to do, they suggested, is close their doors and ignore the insanity. It will eventually go away.
When does naivete become self-negation? Seems self-defeating to close the door on acknowledging the truth of what is happening to public education. Looking at the shattered shards in the puddle at our feet, I simply don’t see a glass half-full.
Weeding the Collection 