This article was written by the distinguished jurist, John H. Wilson (ret.)
In 1922, the Anarchist Political Activist Emma Goldman made these observations about the Russian educational system after the revolution: “the Bolsheviki, to whom the State is supreme, use education to further their own ends…the ‘proletarian dictatorship’ has completely paralysed every attempt at independent investigation. The Communist criterion is dominant. The least divergence from official dogma and opinion on the part of teachers, educators, or pupils exposes them to the general charge of counter-revolution, resulting in discharge and expulsion, if nothing more drastic…Communism is the State religion and, like all religions, it discourages the critical attitude and frowns upon independent inquiry. Yet without the capacity for parallelism and opportunity for verification education is valueless.”
With these understandings in place, let us examine the American Teacher’s Unions of the 21st Century.
In my article calling for the reform of Public Unions, I quoted from the 2019 dissertation of Chloe Asselin; “a movement of social justice caucuses is growing within teacher unions… this study finds that social justice caucus activists…have critically engaged the project of democratizing their unions…(S)ustaining cultures of solidarity, and participating in protest activity, all while developing a sharp analysis of the larger political context in which the caucuses organize that enables educator activists to raise the consciousness of those around them.”
Her dissertation provides great detail for these “democratizing” activities; “School activists, who demand the labor movement look beyond the collective bargaining process, with its narrow focus on issues of wages and working conditions, and instead partner with parents, students, and progressive social groups and organizations to engage in social justice struggles beyond the workplace, compose social justice teacher union caucuses. Educator activists, in partnership with other members of school communities, use their power as workers to be change agents in their public schools…(d)uring the writing of this dissertation, in January 2019…the leadership team of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) committed to social justice unionism, organized and mobilized educators into a six-day strike…UTLA’s bargaining demands…included expanding green spaces at schools, a legal defense fund for students and families facing deportation, and a stop to random searching and racial profiling of students in school. While these demands were not within the legal scope of collective bargaining, UTLA ‘pushed the envelope in using collective bargaining to reimagine public education for children who live in poverty.’”
Asselin further details the activism of the LA Teacher’s Union; “UTLA’s fight for educational justice is also a fight for racial justice. The union has called out the racial discrimination in public school funding, supported the Black Lives Matter movement, and opposed the racial profiling of students in schools. UTLA has also supported immigrant justice by fighting for sanctuary schools, helping Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients renew their papers, opposing deportations, and bargaining for an immigrant defense fund. UTLA and the CTU (Chicago Teachers Union) show the power of social justice/movement unions.”
Asselin makes it clear that these demands are coming from caucuses within the various Teacher’s Unions; “Social justice caucuses are key players in the educational justice movement…member-driven caucuses within traditional business/service-style locals of the American Federation of Teachers, in Democratic cities with rich histories of labor uprisings, especially by educators…organize around traditional ‘bread and butter’ services, such as improved wages and benefits, but also fight for internal union democracy and build power at the school level through collaboration with parents, students, communities, and other social movements fighting for social justice.
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Asselin’s study makes very clear the utter and complete takeover of many large urban Teacher’s Unions by caucuses of “change agents,” who devote most of their time to “social justice” issues. One teacher who calls herself “Tenacious T,” spends almost all of her time involved in activism. “I’m an educator in Seattle Public Schools. I’ve been with my district for 5 years now, and in that short time I have become so deep in racial justice activism that it’s the first answer to both questions, ‘What do you do for a living?’ and ‘What are your hobbies?’… In addition to my ‘day job,’ I was recently appointed to the Teaching Tolerance Advisory Board…Teaching Tolerance is the education advocacy program of the Southern Poverty Law Center…I am also a doctoral student! My focus is on curriculum, assessment, and instruction especially as it pertains to the creation and implementation of ethnic studies and racial justice…”
Pamela Osmond-Johnson, an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Regina, Canada, is more blatant in stating her goals. “(T)he reason I moved from being a K-12 educator to being a professor of education (was) to challenge future generations of teachers to question traditional notions of the work of professional teachers and promote the development of an activist teaching identity… an activist teaching identity implores teachers to embrace their collective voice and refuse to yield to narrow, managerial, understandings of teacher professionalism…If we really want educators to be the change agents and 21st century proponents our students desperately need, we need to re-imagine teachers as leaders, learners, and policy actors whose influence goes beyond the walls of any one classroom.”
Then there is The Pedagogy of Teacher Activism, a book written by Keith Catone, the Executive Director of CYCLE — the Center for Youth and Community Leadership in Education — which is part of Roger Williams University in Providence Rhode Island. According to the Book’s website, “Keith was the project director for the Youth 4 Change Alliance in Providence, Rhode Island, and before that, he taught high school social studies at Banana Kelly High School in the South Bronx and co-founded the New York Collective of Radical Educators, a citywide teacher activist organization. Keith serves on the board of directors of the Education for Liberation Network.” The focus of this book? “(T)he stories of four teacher activists―how they are and have become social change agents―to uncover important pedagogical underpinnings of teacher activism. Embedded in their stories are moments of political clarity and consciousness, giving rise to their purpose as teacher activists…”
These, then, are some of the change agents and activists responsible for the education of your children. All believe that their primary responsibility is to enact “social justice” and not to teach your children a basic education. Instead of reading and writing, they teach progressive political theory and racial equity.
And all are members of, and active in, their respective Teacher’s Unions.
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