We’re In A Hostage Situation
On Sunday, I was blissfully celebrating turning the great age of 32, and while I was finishing my birthday dinner out with my husband, a hush fell over the restaurant as those out at 10 that night were greeted with a 42″ image of Karen Lewis’ face at a podium. For those of you who may be avoiding television or anything having to do with Chicago – you should know that Karen Lewis is the President of the Chicago Teacher’s Union. She is also the person who announced that the teacher’s would indeed be striking as of 12:01 a.m, September 10, 2012.
I’m sure that cheers erupted from many children who really don’t know the magnitude of what’s at stake here. I’m pretty sure that I didn’t when I was entering second grade at William H. Ray elementary in Hyde Park (but went on to transfer THAT year to Alexander Graham Bell and graduate.) I’m sure that my seven year old self felt that I was getting an extended summer break. We stayed out of school for 19 days. That’s almost a full month lost of learning. Oh, heck, who are we kidding, that WAS a full month lost of learning. From a run of the mill second graders perspective, it was probably wonderful. From mine, it was torture. I was one of those kids who actually enjoyed school. Who looked forward to it every year (until about seventh grade – but more because of mean guys and judgmental girls than the actual learning part) and got lots of joy from counting down the days until it started. I’m confident that there still are children out there like me. Ones who are bemoaning the fact that their instructional time was indeed interrupted.
Meanwhile we have a very pompous mayor and a very pompous CTU President trying to bust each other’s chops while they hold our children hostage each day. They’re no better than the people that they are trying to both keep students from becoming or keep off the streets of Chicago. With each day that they don’t compromise, we have children losing the will to go back to school.
We have one of the largest school districts in the nation, yet we fall behind in so many areas. We did indeed have one of the shortest school days in the nation. We also had so many days off that we ended up having one of the shortest school years as well. When it was announced that we would be reverting a new longer school day (which by the way does NOT allow for more instructional time in most schools – even if it says so on paper) I was actually pleased. I felt that our children needed more focus on language arts, geography/social studies, and science. We’ll see if that actually comes to fruition.
Overall, I do think that the teachers need more to be able to do more. I think that they also have to understand that when I was a child teachers made a career out of teaching. It wasn’t something to do until you got married, had a baby and then left – which I’ve seen my share of. It was a passion, it was done with love. Now I feel that as a whole the CTU with Ms. Lewis are holding out on going back to school at the expense of our children. The very people that they work so hard to protect from the issues of the world at hand. I agree they need to be paid fairly. I also agree that you can’t always (note the use of the word always) use test scores to evaluate a teachers progress. Every child doesn’t learn at the same speed. We know this argument, we’ve heard it many times. So that child just gets passed through the grade and no real intervention happens.
When the intent to strike was filed, I had to start looking for homeschooling options for my 7th grader. He has entered the grade level that so many high schools look at grades and scores in order to decide whether they will grant him admission or not. I can’t afford for him to lose any days of education. Even if he is consistently scoring well on the ISAT’s or making the Honor Roll consistently. He’s not particularly happy that this strike isn’t providing him time to relax and just take a few days off. We don’t know if this strike will extend the length of the great strike of ’87 or go even longer. I don’t want to waste any time either. My job as his mother and his FIRST teacher is to make sure that he excels no matter what.
And I can never strike.
Category: #CTUstrike, Chicago, New Posts
My frustration is CTU sounds like victims. Every one of those teachers is supposed to be an educated professional. They applied to work in CPS. No one is forcing them to work there. If it’s so terrible, find another job. Students need teachers who want to teach, not people who spend all their time saying “me, me, me.” Every demand is about CTU. I have yet to hear how CTU getting what it wants will improve the student’s education.
Yes they definitely do. And this is what’s going to blow people’s minds about me. I feel like the CTU is making a small mockery out of its teachers as well. There are SO many that want to get back to work, and they can’t because of the bulldog mentalities of the negotiators. I feel as if the “for the kids” statements came up in the last few months. When they needed parents and Chicago to hear it before they decided to strike. I am SO upset right now. I’m glad that we were already in the process of homeschooling our preschool aged child so that I could just add another student into the mix. While I know that my son misses his school, his teachers (even though he won’t admit it) and his friends – I believe that I can’t allow him being OUT of the environment to keep him from learning. They won’t hold this house hostage. Not if I have anything to do with it.
I noticed in the other thread you stated that you only knew of one teacher with a child in the Public School system. So do I. And that teacher actually happens to have her child at the school that she teaches at. If I were to sit down with anyone, it would definitely be her, because everyone else has sent their child to a private school as well.
I’m an 8th grade student at Alexander Graham Bell, and I personally find the strike to be a horrible event! With the announcement today that the strike will continue this week, there is absolutely no way to know when it will end! I’m upset about not being in school. I’m rather bored. Anyhow, all the days missed due to the strike just get tacked on to the end of the school year, which unfortunately means a shorter summer!
First off, I think you’re awesome for coming through and chiming in on the strike. Most of the adults that I know don’t realize that the people affected most by this strike are the children that the teachers have promised to teach. Most of you don’t even have a voice to share what’s on your mind, so I thank you for coming through.
Second, I think you’re even more awesome because you are attending the school that I spent seven years of my life learning fantastic educational and recreational values. I know that Bell is indeed a great school and that getting back there should be the thing that CTU and CPS should be focused on. For YOU!
I hate that you are bored, and my hope is that you all will be back very soon, especially since the made up days will push into the summer time of Chicago.
Keep your head up, and your spirits too! There are lots of us out here rooting for you to get back into school!
I taught high school in CPS for eight years. I left my position to become a SAHM after I had my second child because when we crunched the numbers, it turned out that I would essentially be working full time to pay for child care. To the person that said, if the teachers don’t like it, they should get another job has no idea what it’s like. Reality check, the teachers in CPS schools (many is very dangerous neighborhoods) are there because they love their jobs. No one enters the teaching profession to make a million dollars, but we are not taking a vow of poverty either. Our suburban counterparts often make twice what Chicago teachers make. Chicago Public Schools will not attract the best and brightest for their students unless they are willing to offer competitive salaries. That’s not me, me, me; it’s survival. Most teachers have families of their own who are also suffering due to the strike. Not getting paid is taking a serious toll on personal finances, and their kids are also missing valuable education. Support our teachers. Question our leaders.
Sandee,
My issue IS with the leaders. The teachers won’t be able to go back to teaching unless the CTU representatives agree on something with CPS and Rahm Emanuel. These are the hostage takers, not the teachers. What’s being missed is the fact that almost everyone who has posted in regard to our children is in full support of our teachers. Just not fully supportive of the strike. We want our teachers to have better environments to teach because that’s where our children have to learn. What we don’t want is for a negotiation to drag on because we’re having a standoff over things that can honestly be negotiated while the children are in school. It stopped being about air conditioning, and pay raises on the 9th of September. The last two remaining contract negotiations as stated by both CTU and the Board of Education was the recall of previously laid off teachers (which Karen Lewis stated was a non-strikable issue in her press conference on the 9th) and teacher evaluations. The evaluation process is flawed. I hate that our political officials want the educators to be held accountable for so much when they aren’t held accountable for an entire city. I hate that we are under NCLB, still. I hate that the third largest city in the nation has the WORST education funding in the nation. We can’t expect to be great when we don’t have great options. However, continuing to keep the people who need the education most out of the learning environment that they deserve to be in, does not help either.
Thanks so much for chiming in! I do appreciate hearing your thoughts on teaching and expanding the point of view for all of us, because it does get one sided.
CTU teachers are taking a vow of poverty? Really? What do you define as a vow of poverty? I don’t think anyone actually living in poverty would consider a job with iron-clad tenure, no accountability, insurance and continuing education benefits a bad deal.
Your suburban counterparts might make more, but they also get better results. You think there are only inner-city conditions in the Chicago? Talk to the teachers in Robbins or Maywood. Yet, I never hear those teachers giving the social conditions of their neighborhoods as an excuse for the ongoing failure of their schools.
Also, the teachers voted to go out on strike. If they didn’t support their union leaders they could have voted no. Teachers voted above 90% to go on strike. They have to shoulder the blame and not push it off on the union leaders now that the strike is proving to be unpopular.