False Hope – Parental Input and the Dallas ISD School Calendar

 @Exceeds and Proud  @Persona If we teachers had stood up as a body maybe we wouldn't be teaching to the test.  Society's ills became our fault about around the time of John Dewey.  It's a long-standing American tradition.  We didn't stand up to that, either.

We didn't make the problem, but we have contributed to it because we have been complicit for decades.  Worrying that somebody will call us crybaby, babysitter, etc. doesn't excuse wimping out.  Not everybody is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but jeesh!  Crybabies!  There.  Somebody called you a crybaby.  I expect that you lived through it.  

 @ghost 

Teachers already advocate for their students.  They do not, as a rule, advocate for themselves.  By allowing fear to drive their passivity they become part of the national problem...not part of the solution. 

When I started down the path of activism four years ago it was self-serving.  The district was laying off 700 teachers to balance the budget and my sons teachers were on the chopping block.  Trustee Flores told me that DISD was "not about educating children but about jobs for adults and contracts for their friends"  and he was not wrong.  But righteous indignation only goes so far.  By the first year it was obvious that transparency and fiscal management was necessary but only the next step in a long list of problems to be corrected.  Then the state under funded public schools. Today, for me, it is a moral obligation.  So many of the students, as you teachers already know, cannot pull themselves up by their bootstraps if they have no shoes. I have a feeling that you teachers share that moral obligation and the rewards you receive are worth the stress and long hours and frustrations. You are the glue that holds the whole hot mess together.

And thus to the point.  A friend in England told me that my efforts would be fruitless because nobody gives a damn about public education and that the only way parents would get involved is if the schools didn't open on Monday morning.

He was right...just look at the success of the Chicago teachers strike.

You teachers have more power than you realize.  It's time to use it.

 @Persona non grata Not a stretch to make the analogy between the Reich and the district.  It took Hitler a very long time to earn his stripes as a major war criminal.  He started smaller, with bullying and by running out and "neutralizing" his opposition.  He had some supporters who feared him, and many others who lionized him.

The Nazi Party was formed in 1919, and Hitler was tried and convicted of treason in 1923, even before Mein Kampf.  He didn't pick up real steam, much less a reputation for crimes against humanity, until well down the pike from there.  That would give FMM a dozen years to build momentum, if we used as basis the time between Hitler's becoming Fuhrer and when he became dictator of Germany.  

 @Michael_MacNaughton  @Persona non grata @meet and exceeds:  Teachers are subjected to severe, intentional disorientation by their own leaders.   It is very much an abusive situation, in that teachers are compromised and weak, but the buck still stops with them.  It is rare to see anybody go out fighting.  Question is, how does one fight?  

Speaking up on the blog is a step.  People are scared and it is rational to have a fear of these types.  Remember:  courage is fearing yet acting.  Expecting or even suggesting that the BOT take responsibility is laughable, and it is not too far off to make comparisons to the Reich.  You never know who you can count on until the chips are down, and I guess it pays to read the signs.  Hate to think that teachers are so conditioned and sheepish as a group that they absolutely cannot  and will not act.

Lest we forget their two all time favorites: "You only work 9 mos. a year!" and "They're overpaid babysitters!"

@Michael_MacNaughton @Persona non grata Please stop implying that we, the teachers, are why there will never be true educational reform. We speak up, we do the things our students need, we work long hours with little (some say, NO) thanks. We are criticized for teaching to the test and criticized when our kids don't perform well. When did societies ills become our fault? Are we responsible for the economy? For rampant greed? For Wall Street executive-types who are circling in the waters like sharks on a feeding frenzy? Is it my fault kids come to school with bugs, and whooping cough, the flu, hungry, unmedicated

Is that why the business "leaders" are behind the charters? They skim off the talented kids and leave the poorest and most challenged kids in what's left of DISD. Not a bad business plan for those with no conscience. Promote the general welfare indeed.

 @Michael_MacNaughton With all due respect-why should it be the teachers job to fight for change? It's funny when teachers try to fight, the public calls them crybabies.

Yet this is the SAME public that refuse to do anything for education. The citizens of Dallas have made it clear they don't care what the school board does.

As long as there is a place for kids to be babysat until they dropout, get killed, go to jail or get a full time membership in the club known as welfare-you guys don't care.

As long as that black school has a great football team-you guys don't care.

Then everyone wants to cry about why we can't attract business and more jobs to Dallas.Why would you want to come here and try to hire kids who can't read beyond a third grade level?

Or why the jails are filled with young boys who cried for help but couldn't get it because money meant for services went to something else.

I no longer blame the school board or anyone who votes in school board elections, DISD employees or those active in DISD.

The failure of this school district falls on those who do nothing.

It is a false equivalency (describing a situation where there is a logical and apparent equivalence, but when in fact there is none) to imply that the policies of a government employer (legal), in this case the BOT, can be compared to the policies of the Third Reich (crimes against humanity).

The BOT/FMM may hire and fire at will. If done so illegally, a teacher’s remedy would be to sue. I am unaware of any firings on a mass scale, present or intended in the future, that are illegal. Teachers are public servants and in Texas, therefore, cannot strike. If the teachers of DISD were legally on strike and I was stating my refusal to honor the picket line and went to work, I could accept your argument regarding the amount and effectiveness of resistance that I was or was not employing toward helping the cause. Knowing this, if I am likely to be fired and it is legally in the power of the BOT to do so, I see little that I can do. A DISD teacher can be legally fired for merely speaking up (insubordination). Is this not a classic Catch 22/”damned if we do and damned if we don’t” situation for teachers? What am I missing here?

It is not the teachers that should be roused to fight this raping of DISD cloaked as reform, but the TAXPAYERS! Ultimately, all DISD teachers are serving at the will of the public through their elected officials, the BOT. It is the taxpayers, not the teachers, who must step up and declare how school reform will take place in Dallas. Their choice is now quite clear: do they want their tax dollars going toward the creation of the best public school system in the United States or do they want their tax dollars going to the bank accounts of privateers who will take huge salaries as board members of the charters?

 @Persona non grata 

And you, and your fellow teachers (assuming you are not just pretending to be a teacher) are the reason why there will never be true education reform in the U.S.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--

and there was no one left to speak for me.

Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)

I believe that most teachers are nurturers. While the Scots fought like "warrior poets" for their freedom from England, I'm not sure "warrior nurturers" are on the horizon. Of course, our BOT and FMM are banking on that. If pushing back on this blog (and hoping it adds momentum in some small way) is the most I feel safe doing, I'll have to own that if the worst happens. I have a voice (unwanted and denied by my employer) but I am not prepared at this time to pick up "arms" and publically step into the fray. If that decision in any way contributes to losing the cause, I'll live with it as best I can.

 @Persona non grata 

Out of the last 200 posts you've made this one has the most going for it...direct, pithy and to the point.

So-- how many people do you think really care besides the 15 or so of us regular attendees at the board meetings? 

More importantly, how will YOU speak up and push back?

Veteran teachers are fearful for their jobs...and, although I understand completely, they don't seem to realize that they are already fired...it's just a matter of time.