AFL-CIO's Liz Shuler on Labor Education ""We Need to Get Into the Elementary Schools."
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| Liz Shuler |
By contrast, Shuler notes "Wisconsin years ago passed" a mandate for labor education within its schools. "That's why the students came with their teachers," she said about the ongoing protests in Madison against right wing GOP Gov. Scott Walker's moves to strip 200,000 state and local workers of collective bargaining rights.You'd better believe it. These people are coming for your children.
"High school is too late" to educate students about unions and workers, says Shuler, the daughter of union parents in Oregon who joined the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers as an activist and organizer after college. "We need to get into the elementary schools."
posted by Trevor Loudon at
3/15/2011 02:46:00 PM
5 Comments:
So thankful that I am able (and do) homeschool my children.
Most unfortunately, I agree that high school is too late for labor education. Growing up in an affluent NYC suburb in the 1960s, I saw countless reports of union strikes in NYC -- trash collectors, dock workers, truckers, newspaper... I developed a real sour taste for anything union and this was with NO adult pursuasion! Our hamlet/town had a pharmaceutical company (American Cyanamid) where cars were damaged and tires slashed during labor strikes. In 1966, I was a senior in high school and our history class was entitled 'Problems of Democracy.' This was a very balanced overview of major issues within society and the U.S. political system. A small unit was on labor. Management was barely mentioned. Our field trip for this unit was to the union hall of the pharmaceutical company. I was again repulsed by the speeches of the union leaders, but I behaved well (as kids did years ago.)
Our teachers were absolutely fantastic before unionization. I went to college and became a teacher solely because I so admired and respected my own mentors. Teachers became unionized during my college years and I graduated into an alien world. I refused to join a union or pay any NEA dues. By the end of my first year of teaching, the union cards had been played. Subsequently, I worked as a full-time substitute and was always available for nearby districts with teachers striking.
Today, and for the past 40 years, I have been thoroughly ashamed of my chosen vocation/profession -- since the 60s - early 70s, I have not encountered a high school teacher possessing the knowledge that I had in tenth grade.
The one good thing about this is teachers aren't very good at teaching anything. Last person I would ever listen to were my teachers.
Unionization is always have the good & flop side, i think right now we are running towards flop side of the unionization.
As stated by Albert Shanker (President of the United Federation of Teachers from 1964 to 1984 as well as President of the American Federation of Teachers from 1974 to 1997): "When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children."
This quote tells me everything I need to know about unions. Yeah, they are evil and yeah, they have nothing to do with the rights of those they claim to be looking out for. They have everything to do with obtaining power and with making their members slaves.
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