Chapter leaders from across the city gathered at UFT headquarters on Sept. 20 to learn more about their responsibilities and the issues facing New York City public schools as the new school year begins.

Sensing in the civil rights movement a natural ally with shared goals and values, the early leaders of the UFT and its predecessor, the Teachers Guild, threw their support behind the movement and its objectives of racial equality and individual dignity, and forged a strong alliance with black leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., A. Phillip Randolph and Bayard Rustin. UFT President Al Shanker encouraged New York City schoolteachers to attend the 1964 March for Jobs and Freedom co-organized by Rustin, and the union subsidized travel to the march for participating UFT members.

All photos courtesy: UFT Photo Collection, Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University

As we wrap up another school year and begin also to plan for the upcoming one, school social workers across the nation, and certainly within New York State, cannot avoid addressing the recent developments in the nation’s "war on terrorism." The death...

The Greatest City in the World Was Today attacked, bruised, and scorned

I am sending this in on behalf of my son, Danny. Danny was 23 years old when he worked on the 55th floor of 2 World Trade Center when the first plane hit. He has suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder since then. He struggled to go right back...

As a teacher of English as a second language, I listened as teenagers asked questions about the tragedy as it unfolded before them — and I struggled to provide them with answers. This is my story.

deep inside the darkest moment there is a sudden burst of light movement that illuminates ignorance beyond disbelief at the same time the sky breaks its promise to heaven and falls the black sun tries to re-ignite when out of the blue the weather...

It was a clear morning of possibilities, a primary election day. The day itself was one of those brilliant pre-autumnal gifts that late summer offers in the weeks following Labor Day, meant to make people feel good as they went about their ordinary...

I woke up at 6 a.m. on this late summer morning, listening to Curtis and Kuby, a talk show on 770 AM radio. I forced myself up out of bed to walk the dog. My wife, Susan, was already awake getting her daily consumption of public radio while...

oh, what did you see on the news today, dear little friends of mine? I saw there are people, oh, so mean. Doing things I’d never seen. Ending lives… murdering. A world grey and dark — ’stead of blue and green. That’s what I saw on the news today. Yes...

I was working as a school secretary in PS 104. Our principal, Ms. Marie DiBella, became the captain of the ship. She put all of us in specific locations with specific jobs. I was amazed how everyone in the school came together to help each other. The...

PS 79 is a five-story school one block from the Grand Concourse on East 181st Street. The building towers over the surrounding structures and has a clear view into Manhattan.

On the morning of September 11th, I was teaching my freshman art class at LaGuardia HS of Music & Art and Performing Arts. When I arrived at school, everything seemed normal — a beautiful day and a class of adorable, enthusiastic young people. A...

I am a guidance counselor at a high school in Brooklyn. I had a student whose mother was also at the WTC when it was attacked in 1993. He said that he begged her to quit then, and was both scared and angry on 9/11. The entire day he was with me...

I was rushing that morning to get out of the house, jump in my car to drive to NY Transit Tech High School for a school visit. I would have driven down the West Side Highway to the Battery Tunnel and pass the World Trade Center. When I first heard...

I was the UFT rep at JHS 185Q when I was summoned to the principal's office and informed that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I thought at first that it was a small, private plane when the principal explained that it was a commercial...

We collected food, water, gloves, sterile eye drops, bandages etc. for relief sites (around the city). Since my daughter and I worked at the Staten Island Richmond Stadium center every day and night after school, I would bring back lists of items...

I was part of a group of UFT Teacher Center colleagues who opened and categorized the outpourings of gifts and supporting messages from students from all over the country, who had sent books, original drawings, lovely, sensitive letters, etc. for the...

We made it a class project to do "something" that would help. I allowed the class to discuss ideas with each other, and find a way that we could raise money for the families of firefighters who had perished in the attack. My class voted for "freedom...

In the days that followed, my leadership students collected $5,000 and donated the money to a city fund.

We watched them rise block upon block of glass and steel into long bands of light

We all came together as a family. This is one of the many times I was proud to be a New York City teacher.

On September 11, 2011 terrorists struck the city's twin towers Who dared to do this, who thought they had the powers? Our incredible skyline of New York city will never be the same The senseless destruction, shows only steel and ashes remain.

I wish that day had never occurred, but the beauty of a nation standing together in the name of peace is how I will remember that dreadful day.

I could not be prouder of the grace, calm, unity, decisiveness, and courage shown by our administrative and mental health staff that day and the days and weeks that followed.

Beautiful skyline, sunny day Everyone scurrying on their way Twin Towers standing tall and erect Representing much of what we respect.

I’m a New York City teacher working and living in Manhattan. On the morning of 9/11/01, I did ordinary things and had ordinary thoughts. I went to vote and remembered how worried I was that I was going to be late for a meeting I had to attend...

I looked up at the sky, peaceful and blue, All that would soon change, but no one knew.

I literally saw the students age that day. They saw history unfold before their eyes and learned that it is real.

I pray every day that the youngest of this generation will be spared the trauma and enjoy the beautiful life that this country offers.

The wounds of that horrible day in our city have forever changed the skyline, but not our spirit!

I was not yet teaching on 9/11...but it is how I found my way to teaching. I was a Broadway and touring company manager for shows. As I drove down the west side highway to rehearsal I saw the planes hit the World Trade Center and heard the event...

I have been a teacher for only six years, but 9/11 was pivotal in making me one.

A week earlier I had introduced my students to writing a journal. Give details, I told them. Let readers see and feel what you describe. One student volunteered to read aloud her first entry. She wrote of a trip taken with her family to Connecticut...