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Cozy up or flip me a bird – words on the Chicago strike

I just want to share with you my take about the teachers strike. As I said Cozy up or flip me a bird.  I really don’t care.  The ones I do care about are the kids.  But at the same time I do care about everyone involved in the strike.  Union strikes are not pretty.  It’s no fairy tale where everyone gets out not scared. 

  Let’s look at all involved.  The teachers get to hold picket signs and march up and down sidewalks yelling their demands, and why they are there.  Some words are said, the whole experience is not pretty, and neither are the teachers.  The students have no school, so they are rushed off somewhere to be watched so the parent(s) can work.  Or they sit at home and play video games, or they roam the streets.

Meanwhile at home…

Meanwhile the parent(s) either work, or they don’t work, if they work the money they earn goes toward child care, or the parent(s) are sitting at home with the kid(s) hoping they don’t lose their job, or quite possibly they will lose their job by the end of the week.  It just depends on how quickly the strike ends.

It’s screwed up for sure.  On one hand you have teachers wanting better pay even though other countries with better educational facilities get the same amount of pay or less.  Many outside of the US don’t know what tenure is.  A raise in pay is unheard of, and if you walk off the job it is just like saying “I quit”.

Let us not forget that teachers in other countries may have Government to deal with, and have guidelines, and rules they must follow to a “T”.  Some of their rules are stricter with their own education, than with how they teach.

Oh gosh more crap about Finland

I don’t want to bore you with this, but you can look it up on your own by just putting in a search for Finland schools, and China schools.  Just be sure you hang onto your jaw because you don’t want it to hit the floor.  Of course I can imagine that many teachers in the US already know about Finland schools because recently that is what many talk about.  You are probably sick of hearing about Finland.

So what do teachers want?

So teachers want better pay they don’t want to lose their tenure, and they sure don’t want anyone breathing down their neck while they are teaching little Johnny how to read, do math, and learn proper English.  I hear you.  I really do.  I guess many of the teachers are being punished because a few teachers are bad news.  So in order to fix the problems they punished all of the teachers. I did not list everything that teachers wanted.

You want to do what?

Can I ask you a few questions?  How the heck do they plan to rate teachers?  I mean do you fire the fourth grade teacher because Johnny failed reading that year?  He is reading at a second or third grade level?  Is it the fourth grade teacher’s fault that Johnny can’t read?  I am scratching my head trying to figure this out.  Do you test the students at the end of each year?  Is that even plausible, and can schools afford it?  Or do you wait until the student enters the next grade then test them?  If you did this it would cut down on the cheating.

Mo money!

Oh I am not accusing anyone of cheating here on my blog.  But if you create an environment that is hostile towards teachers then you also create a few teachers willing to (ahem) try to beat the system.  Look at all the schools that got caught cheating during those NCLB test.  Regardless of how you test them get out your checkbook and expect a deep indent in the bank account.  That is a lot of testing.

Parents are not angels

Of course I have to look at parents too.  I saw an article that a parent was saying that class size and the lack of air conditioning were also the issue.  I had to remember as I lived in the south and being in school in the sixties I went to a few schools that had no air conditioning.  I do take sides with class size because I distinctly remember having a better learning experience in smaller classrooms.  I saw the same thing with my own children.  Of course you will have those that say otherwise.  But sorry I agree that classes should be small.

Chicago has gun happy violence on the streets

Don’t cozy up to me too quickly either.  You have bigger problems.  When your city is under siege by violence then you have a major problem.  I take sides with the students on this issue.  Clean up your act.  Don’t pass the blame to someone else because you live there too.  Get off your butt and do something about it.  Your children deserve a safe place to live.  That problem is everyone’s problem.  Not just a select few. Parents keep your children home, and you won’t have that problem of worrying about them being killed on the streets.  I would have given the teachers as much as I could in their demands, and then work to get rid of the crime in the neighborhoods.  But I would have asked teachers to work with us on the issues not against us.  Our children should come first.

Flip me off I dare you!

My last question is to all parents in Chicago.  Its 9:50am your time do you know where your children are? If you don’t then savor these words…   The streets are not meant to raise your child(ren).  Raising your child(ren) is your responsibility.