Chapter Unity = Better Teachers
I was just thinking and came to a small but not insignificant realization. If we unionize, there is not much beyond that we need do. After all, we are not here to generate union activists running around doing union things, beyond organizing, that is. Well organized union chapters in education make better teachers. Our union activity is to organize, but we do this because it allows us to be better teachers.
Teachers teach best, in large part, due to the security that contractual rights provide. Trust me, if I knew I could be fired tomorrow for being an outspoken union chair, I would be a ’yes sir, anything you say papi chulo’ kind of guy in no time. I would be bringing our principal and his administrators tamales and hot champurrado all the time. Well, not really, but you get the point.
Teachers are better at what they do knowing their union chapter is well organized and ready to advocate for them. A disorganized chapter contributes to bad education. Well organized union chapters make happy, less stressful, more productive teachers by creating a protected work environment that is responsive to their needs.
Unorganized union chapters contribute toward an aura of instability, uncertainty, a sense of not being able to depend on those procedural rights the union safeguards. Rights and justice are not enough without that reserved energy ready to snap into action in their protection. In the world of our political system this ability belongs to our executive branch which oversees police powers—and these are checked by the legislature and judiciary. Unions are that potential to act when individual or group rights are infringed. Unions , of course, do not have police powers, but they do have the ability to act when well organized.
Unorganized chapters and their members have rights via the contract, but limit their ability to enforce those rights due to lack of unity. Teachers in such chapters feel isolated, vulnerable to being individual targets, they hold back, dare not dissent, unmentionables are not openly engaged, and by so doing valuable contributions that can act as catalysts of change needed at a school like Jordan are muted.
One would think that administrators would use this to their advantage. One would think that because of their keen sense of how well organized chapters contribute to teacher well being, and how this impacts the quality of education, they would encourage union activity and participation on their site. One would expect them to see that a divided faculty may be on the short easily manipulated, but on the long, pushed unto the future contributions that unified faculties provide. High performing schools have well organized chapters in common, among other factors.
Unions are natural allies to administrators in a school site. Eventually—yes, even here at Jordan—this fact will be embraced. On one of my recent issues, “Hug your Administrator,” (read it on mylausd.com) I wrote on the importance of wishing our administrators success at what they do. Let them know this is still our wish.
Teachers teach best, in large part, due to the security that contractual rights provide. Trust me, if I knew I could be fired tomorrow for being an outspoken union chair, I would be a ’yes sir, anything you say papi chulo’ kind of guy in no time. I would be bringing our principal and his administrators tamales and hot champurrado all the time. Well, not really, but you get the point.
Teachers are better at what they do knowing their union chapter is well organized and ready to advocate for them. A disorganized chapter contributes to bad education. Well organized union chapters make happy, less stressful, more productive teachers by creating a protected work environment that is responsive to their needs.
Unorganized union chapters contribute toward an aura of instability, uncertainty, a sense of not being able to depend on those procedural rights the union safeguards. Rights and justice are not enough without that reserved energy ready to snap into action in their protection. In the world of our political system this ability belongs to our executive branch which oversees police powers—and these are checked by the legislature and judiciary. Unions are that potential to act when individual or group rights are infringed. Unions , of course, do not have police powers, but they do have the ability to act when well organized.
Unorganized chapters and their members have rights via the contract, but limit their ability to enforce those rights due to lack of unity. Teachers in such chapters feel isolated, vulnerable to being individual targets, they hold back, dare not dissent, unmentionables are not openly engaged, and by so doing valuable contributions that can act as catalysts of change needed at a school like Jordan are muted.
One would think that administrators would use this to their advantage. One would think that because of their keen sense of how well organized chapters contribute to teacher well being, and how this impacts the quality of education, they would encourage union activity and participation on their site. One would expect them to see that a divided faculty may be on the short easily manipulated, but on the long, pushed unto the future contributions that unified faculties provide. High performing schools have well organized chapters in common, among other factors.
Unions are natural allies to administrators in a school site. Eventually—yes, even here at Jordan—this fact will be embraced. On one of my recent issues, “Hug your Administrator,” (read it on mylausd.com) I wrote on the importance of wishing our administrators success at what they do. Let them know this is still our wish.
