See the video below for Amy Goodman’s report on day two of the teachers’ strike in Chicago.
School is out in Chicago for a second day as public school teachers continue their first strike in 25 years. Almost 30,000 teachers and their support staff have walked out over reforms sought by the city’s powerful Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, who is President Obama’s former chief of staff. On Monday, tens of thousands teachers, parents and students marched in the streets of President Obama’s adopted hometown.
From NPR:
I think it is a perfect storm,’ says Tim Knowles, head of the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Institute. He says issues in Chicago — of tying teacher pay to student test scores, job security, longer school days and expanding charter schools, for example — are not unlike issues unions have grappled with in other cities, from New York to Los Angeles.
But Chicago pits a particularly tough-talking mayor against a particularly tough union — at a particularly volatile moment in the world of education policy.
‘There is an aggressive reform effort, and there’s a concerted resistance to the reforms that are being put on the table. I think it’s the new Democrats vs. old labor.’
(Photo via Debra Lane FB Wall Photos)
There is definitely a divide in the Democratic party on this issue. I think it is spot on to say new Dems vs. old labor: http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/09/what-goes-on-in-chicago-doesnt-stay-in.html
Thanks for the link, lynnette. From that post: “The Chicago teachers strike has national implications, many of them not good for President Obama in terms of getting teachers, a major area of support in 2008, to support him.”
Yep.
Most charter schools have not proven to be effective in most cases. Many of them offer only core curriculum with no art, music, culture or physical ed. Others cut corners in both teacher quality, working hours and infrastructure. As for testing; testing teaches kids how to take tests and nothing more. Years ago, I had a drinking buddy who went to school in Ireland. He said all the questions on the test were essay questions. You had to prove what you were saying and back it up with references to documentation. Essays teach critical thinking, how to organize your thoughts, how to write and pose an argument. Me and a lot of other people in this country grew up with multiple choice questions. I never believed they taught you to think; rather, it just reminded you of something you may have forgotten.
I am in total and enthusiastic agreement regarding essays, and the need to teach critical thinking in general.
The goal to privatize education, along with everything else imaginable and unimaginable (at least to some of us), is clearly a driving force.
I haven’t said this in a while, and should much more often: I have such tremendous respect for people who choose to teach, especially now, given the constant uphill battle that it is to actually get to teach, and not gear up for the next “standard” test.
fangio – my generation never saw a multiple choice test. We had to write essays. We may have had ten true and false but for the most part we had to write essays. My granddaughter on the other hand had multiple choice tests. She realized something was amiss when she couldn’t put her thoughts on paper in an organized and coherent manner. That’s when she came to grandma. I taught her how to think about what she was reading and hearing (in class) and then to write about it critically. She’s a junior in college now and can really knock out the papers without writing like a robot. When I met her high school English teacher from her junior year I mentioned this to her. She told me she was teaching what she was told to teach.
What a great grandmother / granddaughter story