I wanted to put "goes viral" in the headline but my 13 year old twin daughters told me 44,000 plus isn't viral. It's cool, don't get them wrong, but viral is half a million or more. So I made the headline "noticed big time". I hope I got it right. (Update: Since I started writing this two hours ago it has jumped past 61,000!)
Anyways, on with the story.
Yesterday a fellow teacher sent me a link to a YouTube video taken during a Chicago Public Schools PD (professional development) session for teachers that, well, to be frank, outraged me.
I was asked by them to do with the video and the link what I wanted, but to please leave their fingerprints out of it.
So I sent the link to everyone I have come to know over the years as a teacher. Media, funders, supporters, colleagues, etc.
Yesterday, the video had 35 hits.
It is now a featured story on Chicago's CBS 2 and then it went national with placement in the Washington Post. It is of course quite the subject of conversation on Twitter. The direct link to the You Tube video is here.
I claim no credit for getting the video on CBS2 or the Washington Post, that was done by people like my wonderful union president Karen Lewis and others (you rock Xian!) whose voices are listened to a little more quickly than mine, as it should be. So a big thank you to Karen and Xian and everyone who is helping to shine the light on what it means to work for Chicago Public Schools in the age of Rahm and austerity.
The video and a little more below the fold, not too much I promise, so follow me.
As you can probably tell, I am a big fan of the great orange satan (yes my user ID is #5047, but I'm not bragging, really I'm not!).
But let's face it, I was orange before orange was cool.
And yet in all that time I have only posted twice before tonight.
What can I say?
I'm a teacher, so I'm busy. Usually too busy to write. In my defense I probably use one article a week from the pages of daily kos in my civics class, so I'm living by the standard of more and better Democrats like we all should (Can you hear me Rahm? More and better, that means you gotta go you undemocratic union bashing piece of...).
But I digress, I wanted to tell you about the video and it's broader meaning for teachers like me and it's insanely hurtful meaning for non-veteran teachers who live in fear of losing/keeping their jobs.
Most of the blogs, media and twitter responses have focused on the awful delivery of what supposed be a professional development session. Some focused on the waste of money to hire someone who would treat holders of bachelor or masters degrees in such a fashion. One example of this titled their blog post "Here is what Education Hell looks like".
Boy, they got that right.
But that's not what my students noticed.
I showed it in class today (and please don't ask "How will that raise reading scores?" That question is the responsibility of brain dead supervisory personnel who wouldn't know what education looked like if...well, you know what I mean) and one of my students asked why did that guy raise his two fingers up when the person asked "How many strategies are we using?" (right around the 50 second mark).
I said fear.
I explained that he is probably a teacher with less than 2 or 3 years on the job and they want to comply, they want to keep their job.
Another student...quietly...tentatively...said "Milgram?"
And I was so proud.
You see, and I know some of you will find this hard to understand, but when I mentioned the words Abu Ghraib in class last month no one perked up. No one knew what I was talking about.
Seriously.
I stood in front of a group of 17 and 18 year olds, and no one knew what Abu Ghraib was.
Then I did the math. Seymour Hersh exposed the scandal on May 10, 2004. These kids were 7 years old. I realized it was unfair of me to expect 7 year olds to be reading the New Yorker or to sitting glued to the TV day after day wondering what would be the next bit of information to be exposed.
At 7 years old they should have been playing and goofing or at best studying for a spelling test, not watching Peter Jennings explain what impact the photos would have on generations of Iraqis whose parents or uncles or family members were tortured by American troops.
So I taught them about what happened "back in the day".
And I mentioned the famous experiments by Milgram about obedience.
So when one of my students mentioned Milgram, well, I confess I was a little proud I didn't follow my lesson plan on the day I realized no one in my classroom knew what Abu Ghraib meant to people around the world.
Now I know what you're thinking.
If he didn't follow the lesson plan, how will that raise reading scores?
So can I ask that all brain dead supervisory personnel please leave the room now?
I think fear is the biggest problem facing some young or new teachers and I understand that. But that's not the root of the problem.
For veterans like me, we see the biggest problem in schools as a lack of leadership.
Think of it in these terms.
Teacher unions haven't hired one teacher, not one. Zip, nada, no one.
So if there are bad teachers, doesn't mean that schools have terrible HR departments?
If principals are the ones who do the hiring and yet there are still bad teachers, doesn't that mean there are principals who can't recognize talent?
And somehow bad teachers are the fault of teacher unions?
Please.
(I think every reader should pronounce that like this: puhleeaassee).
I was so frustrated about this topic that two days ago, before I was told about the video, I wrote an email to an important and influential person in my school district who kindly told me I was being too...how can I say this...a bit too impolitic (and I confess, I was...hoo boy was I ever) when I sent an email to one of my supervisors a day or two earlier.
I'd like to share that email with you. I would please ask that you know I have edited it to protect the innocent and for brevity. But I think it touches on this subject, the subject of how teachers are treated, how they are diminished and degraded by supervisory personnel, and yet, they LEAD.
They lead "in spite" of a lack of leadership in their schools or in their political leaders (you feeling me Rahm?).
So here goes:
Dear Important District Official I Know Kinda Well,
A colleague and I were talking yesterday. He was going on and on about all the little extra things he's doing, for free, for his kids. It's a pretty impressive list, even for an NBCT. It's even more impressive when you know he could be home with his family (I would) but he does hours and hours of work after school for free. For free. I could stay at school until 7 or 8 every night and still not work as hard as him.
Then I asked was he was doing all this extra stuff because he was inspired by his school's leadership or was it just because he cares?
Well, all you had to see was his face to know the answer.
I'm pissed about how things are here, but I feel like I can just shrug it off. But when one of my colleagues, a teacher extraordinaire, is feeling the way they do, I can only hope someone like you can step in and remind all of us, all of the city, that we do this poorly paid job because we love the kids.
We do the work because we love the kids, usually in the face of stupid memos and initiatives from downtown.
So yes, I agree, I was impolitic in my previous email. And for me, a civics teacher, being impolitic is one of the worst things you can do..but H E double tooth sticks! I survived 7 principals in two and a half years when I was at a previous school and when I landed at my current school, it was paradise.
Great staff, great leadership. I was in hog heaven.
Sure the kids were tough and we went to too many funerals, but that's the deal right?
You do the tough job for the kids because your heart is filled with love.
All I am saying is, the job can be easier, a little bit easier, when your heart is also filled with some inspiration. The job can be done with just love, but honestly, it helps when there is a little bit of inspiration.
But I'll keep doing it with just love if I have to.
I call it "in spite of" leadership. Remember in 1999 when our mentors Lynn and Allen talked about "teacher leadership"? At my school today, that's all we have. Teachers leading. In spite of all the crap coming from the administration, in spite of their lack of leadership, teachers, amazing individuals like my two colleagues and too many others to count, will step up and do the job even if there is no leadership.
People like my colleagues deserve medals, not criticism and demeaning treatment. Me? I can take it. Sometimes I snap and say the impolitic thing I admit, but my two colleagues being diminished? I have no patience for that kind of crap. And crap is what it is. If someone doesn't have the vision or insight to see those two for what they are, I can't abide that.
And neither should you.
You being where you are gives me hope.
Don't let me down. You're all we got.
With love and respect,
Your friend and colleague,
Victor
I honestly don't know if my email to my "Dear Important District Official I Know Kinda Well" will make a difference.
I hope it does.
But for tonight (or tomorrow or whenever you read this) I hope it will help you understand a little better what teaching in the era of Rahm and Austerity is like in Chicago.
It's more than just professional development sessions gone wrong.
It's a time when a teacher can feel tremendous pride when a kid quietly says "Milgram?"
It's also a time when you might be treated like a brain dead zombie who is asked to "repeat after me..."
Pray for us in Chicago tonight. Can I ask that much?
Pray for us.
Come Monday morning all of us will back at it, fighting the good fight. Teaching the kids as best we can with the resources we have.
Pray for us.
Thank you and good night.
Victor