Who Made You King of Anything?

Thank you for your time
Don't waste any more of mine.

National Education Association's president Dennis Van Roekel needs to take a good look at this photo from July 5, 1935.

Many fought for union rights, including collective bargaining

More information about photo here

As a member of the union, I am disheartened to hear that the NEA is turning away from assisting us at state levels with issues like collective bargaining, and instead turning full focus toward implementation of Common Core.

You've got the talking down but not the listening

I thought that was part of being in the union -- having someone to stand up for us.  I'm all for teachers and the union being on the same page, to have a united front and common message, but I think collective bargaining needs to be part of that message.

Just because battles were lost in Wisconsin and Michigan does not mean we have to throw in the towel.  In fact, all the more reason to continue the good fight.  It is for the better education of children, after all, which benefits everyone.  The larger class sizes and continued reduction of time and money available for good teaching will erode our education system to the point of no return.

I am fortunate to teach English Language Arts, which cannot be separated from culture and history.  I have taught Martin Luther King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" many times. He was addressing the ministers who were telling him to quit, that now wasn't the time for this fight.  He responded quite eloquently, and included a quote from St. Augustine: "An unjust law is no law at all."

What if he had listened to them and quit, just because the going got tough?

Where is our King?  Unfortunately, I do not see anyone of that caliber heading up the national unions, right when we need them most.

Unfortunately, many of the "deformers" out there do think they are kings (and a few queens) of education.  They like to tell us what is good for us.

The message from NEA is supposed to make us feel good -- teachers taking control of Common Core.

Yay?

I dedicate this to all the "deformers" of education:
King of Anything