Teacher Unions - The 'boogeyman'

The amount of rhetoric out there bashing unions of all sorts particularly public sectors ones such as the AFT, IEA or NEA is, at once, alarming, disheartening and amazing. It's as if the teacher unions have failed us in education, rendered the enterprise dysfunctional and harmed our students beyond repair.

To make such charges doesn't serve anyone well. The charges and language used are loaded. It almost saying, "if you are in a union then you are a boogeyman." The anti-union bashing talks about those 'greedy' teachers.

Here's the reality - factual - the reason any union forms is due to some type of poor practice (or need for improvement) in a place of employment. Believe me, as a former teacher, I had plenty on my plate in terms of all the responsibilities that are attendant to the career and wasn't looking to be greedy or to 'get my employer.'

If people aren't properly resourced in the classroom and aren't accorded the support (trust, confidence, willingness to work together and more) needed, what would you do...just roll over? Come on, the reason any union exists is to have a mechanism in place that is able to advocate on behalf of its membership. That's it!!! And the day teachers stop advocating; well, that will be a sad and disappointing day.

Dick