Showing posts with label Democracy and Politics in the UFT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Democracy and Politics in the UFT. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

The Take Away from ATR Event: Those who want to share knowledge are denied

Here I am with 15 years experience as a teacher and I go into schools with many new, inexperienced teachers who treat me as "just the sub" - no respect or recognition that I was an excellent teacher and have so  much to offer these teachers. Why don't they put me in as a co-teacher to work with them? .... Paraphrasing an ATR at the Nov. 19 meeting.
How many ATRs want this?
This was a conversation I had with one impressive ATR who brought her daughter, a1st grader to the meeting - and the kid was a doll for the entire time. I mean why not give those people who can help a school and their new teachers a chance to mentor them instead of treating all ATRs as throwaway subs?

I reported on Saturday's invigorating ATR event:

Chaz Delivers Outstanding Presentation for 40 ATRs Who Turned Out for Info Session

I know that we can't make blanket statements about all ATRs and the problem with the DOE and the UFT is that they view them as the same. Maybe ATRs who feel they have certain skills get to state them -- like my pal Peter Zucker has tried to do when he goes into schools with no functioning tech programs.

Another take away from the meeting were the number of people who were misplaced and called Amy or Mike and got things resolved.  Now a comment on my last post castigated Amy and Mike for not advocating for an ATR chapter.

My responses:
A few people at the meeting seemed to have given up on asking the uft do help when. Rules weren't followed. Chaz and others pointed out that they do respond and fix stuff. That was the praise I guess. I mean they should do that but some atrs are so angry or dispirited they never ask. Also discussed was that some atrs give a bad impression and ruin it for others. 

I also think we need to understand that people in the uft are not free agents. Amy might be fine with a chapter. She couldn't say that openly as long as mulgrew is not for it. His concern is bringing in hostile forces to the Del ass. Since atrs would get a batch of delegates. They don't want a vocal rogue chapter. The best we can hope to do is form a shadow Atr chapter but the major issue is that few atrs are willing to stand up in public.

If there is another meeting - which would be in mid-late January - I would see if people would want to form a shadow chapter and form an executive committee that would run the quasi chapter. These people would have to be capable of making cogent and impressive presentations - like Chaz did. I was thinking of offering an opportunity for ATRs to make an ad. Some should go to PEP meetings and present a case for using some of them effectively in the schools.  Allow for some flexibility instead of wishing them to go away.

We also need to discuss how they are supervised - if the DOE considers them throwaways why are they spending so much money on hiring people to supervise what is essentially a sub?

We know the reason of course. And on rotation - if a teachers is older and not as physically able to take on the burden some provision should be made.

On the other hand we did hear that there are so many bad suprvisors running schools that rotation can be a life saver from being doomed to be under the thumb of monsters.

My final take away for today is the value of having an organization like MORE available to facilitate issues for various interests. Chaz pointed out that for the first time in a long time having independently elected reps on the UFT Ex Bd has created more transparency in the union. You need an organization that can raise money, preocure space and provide resources to assist people.

So it is not only about MORE beating Unity in an election but a lot of activity on a number of levels. 80 people showed up to a MORE sponsored event on Sunday to talk about a response to the Trump election -- MORE has to be a big enough and inclusive tent.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Must Read: Democracy and Politics in the UFT, 1976 Ed

In preparation for next week's MORE summer series on the history of caucuses and what we can learn, thanks to Vera Pavone, we have created an online version of the pamphlet we produced almost 40 years ago (minus the graphics). I will have some hard copies with me next week but I urge you to download it and read the 25 page pamphlet to see just how much has remained the same.

Some of our suggested changes read pretty funny today but that we put them forth at the time is a sign of how we saw possibilities then. How about calling for direct election of district reps by the members in the district? 25 years later Randi would end DR elections even by chapter leaders despite the fact that every DR except one was in Unity -- see she didn't even trust Unity people to elect people she wanted.
The Coalition of NYC School Workers was not strictly a caucus in that we never would run in an election without being in coalitions with other groups. I'll share some more info about the CSW at the MORE event. James and Ellen are covering New Action, Kit is doing TJC, I'm doing Ed Notes/ICE and I will put out a timeline for each group along with some history of how Unity consolidated power -- I imagine I will have to find some down time in LA at the AFT convention to get it all done.

UPDATE - This did not translate very well so it is best to read it or download it on scribd: http://www.scribd.com/doc/232878840/Democracy-Politics-in-the-Uft-Finalmodforscribd