For the children

From Ricochet, this comment from a tutor observing the effects of the Chicago teachers' strike:
A minor vignette from the perimeter of the strike:  I tutor kids in the Chicago suburbs for a living.  Yesterday I had a first session with a girl in the city who is currently staying home because of the strike.  She said that there were some online homework assignments for her physics class we might have worked on, but their access to any online learning materials has been shut down. 
Meaning, the striking teachers won't allow the students to educate themselves, either. 
Now, I don't want to overstate this because I don't know all the details.  I don't know if the union or the district controls access to the site she was talking about.  Heck, I don't even know what the site is (although I assume it's the same webassign site that most other schools are using).  So it's possible that this was just a "caught in the crossfire" situation rather than a deliberate act by the union.  Or it might even be built into the union contract as an "in case of strike" clause.  I just don't know. 
But I was absolutely floored when she said that. 
For The Children!
In a perfect world, I guess striking teachers would figure out the best possible way for the kids to continue to learn on their own for the duration.  I'm not holding my breath.  I'm also not expecting journalists to try to look into this kind of thing.

5 comments:

Nicholas Darkwater said...

This Chicago Teachers Union is part of the American Federation of Teachers, founded by the famous radical Albert Shanker. An illustrative quote of his: "When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children."

Miss Ladybug said...

When I needed to join a professional organization to get the liability insurance I would need to be in the classroom as a student teacher, an AFT affiliated group was an option (teachers unions, as such, with striking, is illegal here in Texas, thank God!). There were also other groups associated with national union groups. I purposely choose a group that had no national affiliate (and, unlike the other groups, it was not for just teachers, like the union-affiliated groups, it was for all kinds of educators [to include administrators] which I think the union groups don't like...).

Grim said...

In a perfect world, I guess striking teachers...

In a perfect world, we wouldn't have public sector unions. "Striking teachers" would be a feature of a private school (meaning that your kids could go to their competitor, while they were not in operation); or they wouldn't exist.

bthun said...

Hmmm...

Grim, I think I like your notion of a perfect world relative to public unions, and giving even poor parents a means to send their children to the school of the parents choice.


Competition improves the product/service, eh what?

OmegaPaladin said...

While this is hearsay, I trust the source of this account. A co-worker saw a large group of striking Chicago teachers inside a bar/restaurant partying. He said he had photos, but I didn't have the time to examine them.

Popular opinion of the teachers is pretty low here in Chicago among those who work for a living.