VP's Viewpoint

All across our city UFT members are voicing their concern over the failed policies and the genuine lack of respect and professionalism that the Children’s First Initiative has brought to our schools. Teachers have told us that morale has never been lower and the one-size-fits-all workshop model has hurt, not helped their students. At school after school teachers tell us of their frustrations with the micromanagement and lack of flexibility that is imposed upon them by programs such as America’s Choice or by Teacher’s College. In IS 230 in District 30, for example, the principal gave each teacher a stopwatch so that their mini-lessons did not exceed the required eight minutes!

Concerns are just not limited to micromanagement. On Jan. 25, an overflow crowd at UFT headquarters representing more than 50 schools met at a forum co-sponsored by the union and by the CSA to discuss how overcrowding and school violence affected their schools. Speaker after speaker, including school principals, told of conditions that made a nurturing and learning environment next to impossible to obtain.

On Jan. 31, educators from District 5 rallied in protest against Region 10, a region that ignores the student code of conduct, that does not have a functioning Suspension Plan, and places more emphasis on the workshop model than school safety. Grassroots actions such as these are taking place in many schools as UFT chapters speak up to seek a remedy for their concerns. It is unfortunate that neither the mayor nor chancellor is listening.

The largest such demonstration took place in Region 4 on Feb. 3. More than 1,000 teachers representing more than 100 schools rallied outside the Region 4 headquarters demanding a relaxation of the inflexible teaching requirements imposed on them. This protest came about after Regional Superintendent Reyes Irizarry and Deputy Chancellor Carmen Fariña ignored a petition voted on by every school in the region seeking a more common sense policy in the region’s top-down and rigid approach to education, an approach that many educators say does not work and is not backed by research. UFT President Randi Weingarten told the rally that, “We’re here to say to Chancellor Klein and Reyes Irizarry that the micromanaging has got to stop. Cookie-cutter models and one-size-fits-all may work for McDonald’s, but it doesn’t work for children.”

Unfortunately, the response by Carmen Fariña was not what concerned educators wanted to hear. She responded to the protest by saying “The big chant, Let teachers teach! — we have been letting teachers teach for the last 40 years and the kids haven’t been getting where they need to be.” In such a statement the Deputy Chancellor has done a great disservice to the millions of successful graduates of our city’s public schools, including Chancellor Klein, and minimized the efforts of thousands upon thousands of hardworking teachers, teachers who work in the most difficult of conditions. Why doesn’t the Deputy Chancellor work for a system in which teacher input is valued, where class size approaches suburban standards, where arts, music and sports become an integral part of a student’s education and where schools are safe and truly nurturing?

Teaching is both an art and a science. Let’s agree on a curriculum and program that has been proven to work and allow teachers the creativity and flexibility to implement it. In the meantime, the struggle for a fair contract with professional dignity continues. And it is becoming increasingly clear that this will not happen easily.

Each chapter should by now have set up a school-based Action Committee and a telephone relay list. The UFT is also asking its members to send in their e-mail addresses so that we may keep you informed with the latest, up-to-date information.Register for this all-important action on the UFT home page: click the Let Your Voice Be Heard box.

As the chancellor seeks to eliminate our contract, the lines are becoming increasingly clear. We must support each other and support our union in this fight. The message is simple: Support Our Kids, Respect Our Teachers.
Solidarity forever!

Solidarity forever!

—Richard Farkas