Albert Shanker, A Passionate Teacher

Nov 9, 2004 3:52 PM

A never-ceasing evolution

Although his early reputation as a union militant stuck with him (a famous line in Woody Allen's 1973 film, Sleeper, blames the destruction of civilization on Shanker's getting hold of a nuclear warhead), Shanker's vision of the role of teacher unions never stopped evolving.

He never hesitated to speak his mind about what was wrong with schools — whether the audience was lawmakers, scholars, corporate heads or members of his own union — as uncomfortable as that might have made any of them.

Sometimes his blunt and often caustic appraisals drew the ire of his own members, who felt Shanker was giving aid and comfort to the enemies of public education. But Shanker steadfastly refused to play the role of cheerleader to a system that wasn't working.

While continuing his struggle to improve the lives of educators through nuts-and-bolts trade unionism, Shanker also spearheaded the drive to upgrade education nationally. He came to see teachers and their unions as vital pistons in a mighty engine that could help students succeed in the classroom and in their lives.

His course along that road took many twists and turns, including a 1980s' focus on restructuring schools and a 1990s' drive to set high national standards for student achievement that could match the records of other nations.

Shanker became an advisor to U.S. presidents from Jimmy Carter on. Indeed, Bill Clinton's 1997 State of the Union address bears a striking resemblance to the AFT's "Lessons for Life" campaign, which champions a get-tough approach to student discipline and academic standards. Minutes after delivering the address before a joint session of Congress on Feb. 4, Clinton personally called Shanker in his hospital bed to thank him for his steadfast insistence that national standards are the best way to improve public education.

In April 1983, a commission appointed by Ronald Reagan unveiled a report called "A Nation at Risk," which painted a devastating portrait of American education. Educators — who increasingly were poorly prepared for their jobs and the subjects they were teaching — had lost sight of their academic mission. Students were taking frills like courses in bachelor living rather than focusing on math, science and other staples. As a result, the United States was dead last in seven international comparisons, with test scores lower than when Sputnik had been launched 25 years before. The report recommended tougher graduation requirements, lengthening the school day and a salary schedule that smacked of merit pay.

The National Education Association immediately assailed "A Nation at Risk" as a political document. Shanker was the only major figure in education to endorse the report. He saw a great deal of truth — and a new direction for his union. He would have to spend a great deal of time persuading the education establishment — and members of his own organization — that the critics were right.

Many said Shanker's decision to embrace "A Nation at Risk" was a watershed moment, because conventional wisdom held that the only cure for education's ills was more money. Anything else was considered fire from the enemy. But Shanker saw that the report wasn't boosting vouchers or privatization. Rather, it spoke of preserving and improving public education, of raising standards and implementing accountability for both students and educators — even as he never stopped reminding politicians that teachers continued to need the resources to do the job.

He dealt with the ramifications of the report and other issues in his column, which he launched in 1970 as a weekly paid advertisement in the Sunday New York Times. In what seemed like nonstop speaking engagements across the country and even around the world, Shanker arguably became the nation's best-known advocate for improving education.

He aimed his sharpest barbs at an educational establishment that stuck ill-prepared teachers in classrooms. If higher standards were needed for students, they also were needed for teachers, he argued — and that led him to assail college education programs. At a National Press Club forum in 1985, he proposed creating the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, a voluntary national certification body for teachers akin to board certification for physicians. The Carnegie Foundation established and funded that board in 1987 to begin research and development on just how to certify teachers; it started the actual certification process in 1994. Just last year, six UFTers passed the difficult hurdles to win board certification, bringing to 595 the total certified nationally in six of the eventual 30 subject areas.