教員と親が団結する時

アメリカで3番目に大きい学区であるシカゴで、公立学校教員一斉ストライキの可能性が浮上した。実施されれば25年ぶりとなる。州法で求められる全教員の75%を遥かに上回る、90%近い割合でストが支持された。ビジネスマインドで教育を行う運営陣に対して教員の怒りが爆発したのだ。



面白いことに、教員達のこの決断を支持する署名が保護者の間で回っている（以下参照）。僕のところにも回ってきた。教員と保護者を繋ぐこのような動きは非常に面白い。



前にも書いたと思うが、教員組合の働きには実は重要なものが多い。教室における教師と生徒の割合の拡大防止や教育設備の向上などはわかり易い例だが、基本的に、教員にとっての労働環境の向上とは、子どもの学習環境の向上と比例するものが多い。



だから、アメリカも日本も教員組合はイメージがあまりにも悪く、やり方が下手だと思うが、個人的には教員組合というのは教育改善には欠かすことのできないピースだと思っている。



だから、「教育市場」にて大きな力を持つ保護者が団結して教員達と教育改善に取り組むことは、非常に有効な手段だと思う。



民主主義に参加できる、教養のある親の育成が求められている。





June, 2012
Chicago, IL

Dear Teachers,

As CPS parents, we are writing to recognize you for your work on behalf of Chicago’s children, and to offer you our support in the coming months and years. We share your sense of urgency and your aspirations, and we recognize the brilliant, difficult work you do every day, in the biggest and smallest moments of our kids’ lives. Parents and teachers are on the same side because we want the same things—better schools for all children, and a better system to support those schools. You see our children in all their complexity and curiosity, in their desire to learn, to be challenged, to be respected, understood, and seen. And we see you.

We know that the recent strike authorization vote received the support of 89% of CPS teachers. In our school, the rate was over 98%. We know that you are voting not for yourselves, but for all teachers, particularly those in schools with the least resources. We take that vote and level of consensus seriously; your independent, collective voice is indispensable to any sensible conversation about education. We want to say - to you and to everyone - that the recent steady drum-beat of contempt from politicians and pundits is unacceptable, and that we, as parents, do not and will not accept a narrative that vilifies or blames you. This is not simply a conversation about wages and benefits, but one about our shared goal of building a just and decent school system for both teachers and kids. 

The Chicago Teachers Union’s proposals represent a fair set of standards for everyone: smaller class sizes; more student access to music, art, gym, and libraries; more counseling time; and yes, adequate compensation and benefits for teachers, who are being asked to work longer hours next year. All of these are clearly essential to both good teaching and good learning. In our school, in all CPS schools, and in every school everywhere, good working conditions are good teaching conditions. And good teaching conditions are good learning conditions.

Yesterday, the last day of the school year, we watched you re-organize hundreds of books you donated personally to our school, all of them labeled by hand, by you. One was the first book a small student, in the room helping, had ever read “all by self,” with you cheering. She remembered; you remembered. We have watched you think through everything from questions about math, music, and literature – to the daily social and developmental challenges of childhood. We have heard you sing songs from your own childhoods, and seen you engage our kids with each other and the world, studying everything from bugs to berimbaus. With you, they wrote and signed their own books, traveled to D.C., choreographed and performed dances, solved fractions, slept at the nature museum, read life-changing books, cooked Brazilian cheese puffs, made documentaries, learned English, and sang with seniors at our neighborhood retirement community. You are teaching them to be engaged citizens, like you, people who care about others. That is the lesson we take from your work and your vote.

Seen up-close, the complexity of teaching is breathtaking and often unheralded; you guide our children through their days in more ways than it’s possible to quantify. So we are writing to say that we understand that teaching is deeply intellectual and ethical work. And that we see you doing it beautifully. We see you, and we stand by you.

Your Fans,

Rachel DeWoskin, Zayd Dohrn, Elizabeth Caya, Rob Caya, Dan Cohen, Beth Hobson, Scott Hobson, Julie Kosowski, Seth MacLowry, Stacy Markham　(parents, please let us know if you'd like us to add your names!)