Teacher Holiday

TURN DAY OF TEACHER INTO A FULL HOLIDAY!

By Stepehn Wilson

'It is necessarily to demonstrate to the government and society the

meaningful significance of teachers and raise their prestige in

society..... A teacher represents a broad category of citizen who is

responsible for what kind of person a social being becomes. In

striving to raise the educational level of our country , it would be

a good idea to share this role with people in such away that

teachers attain more respect and show society how important

their activities are ". stated a member of the Russian Duma,

Sergei Voctrestrov.  He therefore has proposed to turn 'The

Day of Teacher' into a Red Calendar day which would mean that

on the 5th of October, everyone, including teachers, would get

a day off.

Such a move seems an attractive proposal. It would at least

be highly symbolic and send a  good gesture to the Russian

public that the Government and wider public ought to respect

teachers ! It would remind some Russians that teachers are

vulnerable human-beings with a right to dignity.

The Day of Teachers, which began in 1965, is now currently

celebrated in over 100 countries, including Russia. In fact, there

are three days in which teachers can be expected to be showered

by endless flowers: The Day of Knowledge,1st September, Day

Of Teacher, 5th October ,and 'The Last Call', during the last week

of May. Unfortunately, a later statement was issued by the

government indicating that there was no formulated legal project

to implement this proposal. In other words, the proposal was mooted.

Second City Teacher asked some Russian teachers what they

thought of this proposal and whether the prestige of Russian teachers

had either increased or decreased over the last ten years. Most of

those answered that their prestige was still falling, while some claimed

"It was difficult to say," but a few people stated it has.

"I'm absolutely indifferent to this proposal . But I do think that the prestige

of teachers has risen over the years and this is partly due to the increase

in pay as well as more people entering the profession. Now there are

more younger teachers as well as males. Whereas previously you

would not see a male teacher in the English department of the Institute

of Power and Energy, now I can see five male English teachers. And

there are maybe more whom I don't know about who work in the evenings,"

stated English teacher Oksana Chebotareva.

Julia , an English teacher who works for Cherry lane school, stated "I would

be for this proposal if it makes school teachers happier ! Why not ? It is

difficult to say whether the prestige of teachers has increased. i don't really

know ".

"I don't know if this is such a good idea. That might mean you also need to

give people a day off on 'Day of Police officers' or so on. I think the prestige

of teachers has dramatically decreased since the Soviet times. The older

school teachers told me that many years ago if children were doing badly at

school they would scold their children. Now if their children don't get high

marks they don't scold their children but blame the teachers. They come to

the school and complain about the teacher rather than their children," stated

Polina, a 26 year old history teacher who works at a Gymnasium which

specializes in Latin and Greek.

"I don't think that making the Day of Teacher a day off would do much to

increase their prestige. This is because the changes which Russia has

undergone from the collapse of the Soviet Union are too deeply rooted.

Whereas in the Soviet Union teachers were almost treated like Gods,

and could be heroes, now young people don't accept their authority and

have new heroes such as businessmen and entrepreneurs. They also

have different sources of information rather than just the teacher such

as the Internet so they no longer trust or accept a lot of information they

get from teachers,"  states 31 year old  Anna, an English teacher.

The Director of the Institute of Teaching Children, Tatiana Volovets agrees

with Anna. She stated : "A pupil can get information from the Internet in

a few seconds what teachers can give them in 10 years. The teacher is

no longer the Godlike figure he was 30-40 years ago."

What is evident is that the role of teacher has become much more

difficult, daunting and demanding as many parents as well as officials place

more unrealistic demands on them, including in many cases, how

to fully bring up their child and thus become a surrogate parent. Perhaps

the decline in the prestige of the teacher is best illustrated by a recent

article written by Zuganov, the chairman of the Communist party . He

stated : 'The truth about the value of a teacher was attained in the Soviet

era. Films, books songs,and pictures glorified the labor of the teacher and

supported his authority.' All this seems a far cry from the present moment

when the authority of the teacher, in both Russia and America is not only

no longer fully respected, but even openly denigrated by officials and

politicians. It is suffice to mention the 1983 A Nation at Risk Report

which labelled teachers as incompetent and lazy, and "The No Child

left Behind project where untrained graduates were to be let into schools

to teach . The crude belief  "That anyone can be a teacher" has led to a

deep distrust of teachers. Tests are more trustworthy than teachers. So

let us test rather than teach students. So we are witnessing a slow

negation of the role of the teacher in both Russia and America where

they need more people to defend them.

President Obama declared : "It is time to start rewarding good teachers,

stop making excuses for bad ones ". Well what about making bad excuses

for bad politicians? Since when has a politician performed a trustworthy

and honest role? I don't hear anyone in America calling  for 'A Day of

Politicians!

School shooting tragedy

TRAGEDY IN KERCH

By Stephen Wilson

I'm in some dark, dim and poorly lit building. It is bursting with lively young people

chatting away to each other. Then suddenly I notice some masked man running

a mock discharging a gun leaping over some counter. Then pandemonium.

People start screaming and fleeing in all directions. I can see a gunman walking

straight up to a girl in his way shooting her even though she has raised her arms

in great fear. I myself begin to feel intense fear and wonder where I can hide.

I feel an overwhelming  atmosphere of intense fear and panic. My survival

instinct tells me to just get out. Then I wake up.

The nightmare was too real. I noticed the kitchen light was still on and my daughter

and son in law were chatting away. I told them: "Look, I have had a terrible

nightmare about some mad person in a mask going in a building and just killing

people. It felt so real". They were speechless or did not know what to say other

than: "It was just a bad dream". But I knew from my long experience, at least

intuitively, it was not just another bad dream.

Two days later I heard a news report of a terrorist act at a technical college at

Kerch, in the Crimea, where an explosion and mass shooting had occurred.

Eighteen had been reported dead and many wounded. Then the number of

the dead slowly rose to 21 dead and 50 wounded. I pray that the death toll

does not rise.

I, and other Russians wondered how this could have happened. I mean, this

is Russia, not America! However, this attack in an educational institution is

far from being unprecedented. On the 15th January two youths with knives

broke into a school cabinet and attacked school children, at Perm school

number 127, on the 19th of January a 15 year old boy attacked students

and a teacher with an ax at school number 5 in Sosnovi Bor in Buryati,

and on the 18th April a youth tried to attack a first year student and

teacher and  to set fire to the school. I have spoken to school

students in Moscow who told me one fellow school student tried to blow

up his school but did not injure anyone . His teachers became terrified of

him. But the latest attack was unprecedented in the mass scale of the

victims as well as ferocity.

Many Russians are asking themselves : "How could this have happened?"

and "How did an 18 year old manage to casually purchase 150 rounds as

well as obtain a licence for a gun ?" And how could such a madman break

through a strong security cordon which has a metal detector, surveillance

cameras and security men?" According to some reports, the metal detector

was not working.

All the evidence points to a strange reclusive loner who largely kept to himself

and held a very negative view of the world. A teacher, Alexander  Monseeko,

who tried to help the boy by persuading the boy to see the world in a different

way turned out to be one of the victims. So some teachers may have been

uneasy about the behavior of this boy. The 18 year old youth, Vladislav

Roslyakov, seemed to be absorbed in shooter computer games, adored guns

and admired Americans who walked into schools and carried out mass killings.

He even told a fellow college student that, "Such acts where  a person goes

into school, kills many and himself are a great class act. I 'd like to do this."

His fellow student thought nothing of it . He thought it was just "Words, words

and words.'' I mean how many kids do you hear making such outrageous

remarks just to draw attention to them? It was not taken seriously. Nevertheless,

this act had been meticulously planned in advance. It may be no accident that

the killer changed into the clothes, which an American Killer had worn during

a mass shooting in a Columbia High School in America {in 1999 two youth

attacked a school killing 13 and wounding 23 students and teachers}.

Could those killings have been prevented? A famous Criminologist and

Psychiatrist, Mikhail Vinogradov, stated in a recent interview : "Here you need

deeper and  more attentive observation. In schools, we need to bring back

good psychologists by offering them decent pay ". In this regard, few would

disagree. However, psychologists are available in only 50% of Russian schools

as they have been cut back. Not only have they been cut back, but officials

have even attacked them in public for being badly trained or inept much as

teachers have come under relentless criticism. Their pay is even lower than

school teachers and they often do only part time work. There is just one

psychologist available for 600 to 800 children! In fact, perhaps most Russian

school children are unaware that they can approach a psychologist to get

help. It is often a best kept secret!

I asked a school teacher, linguist and psychologist, Anna , 31, what

she thought of the events in Kerch . Anna answered: "I worked in the

Psychology service at school as part of my practice. .. Most psychologists

are marginalized in many Russian schools. I recall from my own experience

at school of how psychologists gave us tests, but we never found out the results.

If I had problems speaking to other pupils I was unaware that I could go to a

psychologist and talk about it. Nobody told us the service of  a psychologist

was available. It was funny and strange. Yet psychological counselling can

do a lot. Stress has been increasing in schools because parents are pushing

kids into doing all kinds of activities. I don't think this is the best thing to do.

They often lack time to speak to them and they just come home, eat and do

their homework. If you compare this with Soviet times, at least children

could take part in clubs and be part of communities ... Now the stress is much

worse for genetically disposed children to mental distress such as bipolar

depression. They can have problems with this new stress and their illness

can be triggered off. Children get so pressurized they can  turn to suicide."

"How would you explain what happened in Kerch?"

"I think it is a kind of rebellion against the system. If you can remember when

you were a teenager you often felt the world was against you . You have this

hatred against everything and everyone. You have those problems and you

feel powerless to fix this.You feel so powerless that you want to scream and

tell adults that you are not living up to things. So teenagers feel adults are

either liars or hypocrites. Only now at 31, I realize that this is not always the

case. Teenagers feel that adults don't pay attention to them. I noticed at

school that when other pupils were picking on other pupils, teachers would

ignore it. It can be explained by the fact that teachers are also under

pressure and don't have the time, or resources. They have too many things

to do. This is really the psychologist's job to find out what is going on. What

I realized is that schools resemble a military structure. When I took part as

a judge in a poetry competition last year ... I found that as many as 70%

of poems glorified war claiming it was good to kill the enemy and die for

your country, 20% thought that war was horrible but you need to remember the

great deeds of our past and only 10% war was horrible and we by no means,

should try to repeat it. I felt a complete alien in this school competition.

Would it not be a great idea if teachers would teach children on how to

avoid war and control aggression rather than glorify it?"

We need to address the wider issues of how society seems to glorify

and encourage aggressive behavior in so many areas of our lives such

as in games, films and even schools. A Professor of Psychology at

Moscow State University, Alexander Asmolov, stated, "We are living in a country

where hatred is incited every day . The country lives in a situation where they

believe there is a big conspiracy against them."

Kafka Book Review

KAFKA  Book Review

By Stephen Wilson

Klaus Wagenbach

Translated by Ewald  Osers

Introduced by Ritchie Robertson

Haus Publishing London 2003

An alienated  salesman wakes up to find himself transformed

into a huge insect, a banker Joseph K finds himself arrested

for an unspecified crime and a land surveyor who has been

invited to work in the castle can't begin his work due to

endlessly enveloping red tape which exhausts him. Whether

it is the short story Metamorphosis, the novel , the Trial and

The Castle, Kafka seems to be a dark writer of a nightmarish world

where the individual is deprived of all kinds of resources of

support such as a strong belief, family , community or friends

of any kind. The characters are fully exposed and vulnerable

to the relentless hostility of an inhospitable world. "Hospitality

is not our custom," bluntly declares a villager to the land surveyor.

Many people claim that Kafka is just too dark, despairing and

pessimistic. However, a biography of Kafka, by Klaus Wagenbach

provides a refreshingly counter balance to this one sided view by

emphasizing the boundless inexorable energy of Kafka's literary

style, his humor and his way of perceiving the world in a deeper,

more profound and arresting way which truly wakens us up.

The book is adorned with many photos, illustrations and superb

quotes from the author himself. The layout of the book  also makes

this a joy to read. The author does not  drown us with too many facts.

There is even a map of Prague showing Kafka's famous landmarks

which are still preserved.

The introduction by Ritchie Robertson provides an overall context of

his general influence on subsequent world literature and largely

questions many prevailing views which try to pigeon hole Kafka

by stating he was simply a critic of Bureaucracy, or a proponent

of Existentialist philosophy. Instead, a more complex and many

sided personality emerges which makes all of us uncomfortable.

It is interesting to note that Kafka worked as a lawyer at the Worker's

Accidental Insurance Company for 14 years where he learn at first

hand all the injustice which workers were exposed to and how callously

factory owners ignored the safety of workers from lethal machinery.

Kafka drew up recommendations and a report ,for employers to read,

where they could make the machinery less dangerous for workers.

He found that even the most cautious worker in a textile worker could

lose a finger not through any carelessness or incompetence, but

through badly designed machines that often went out of control.

Wagenbach offers a superb and succinct account of the terrible

conditions Czech workers had to undergo. They worked a 60 hour

week for a pittance. He writes: Kafka travelled through this region in

order to check the 'classification' of these plants into risk categories and to

recommend accident prevention measures. However, the insurance institute

with its 230 employees was powerless in the face of the conditions in the

factories.There were more than 200,000 businesses under its jurisdiction,

run by a class of entrepreneurs. ' Those employers often just ignored

Kafka's reports. So Kafka not only wrote about the oppressed, but did all

his best to defend them.

Kafka comes across as a quite generous, caring and sensitive person who

would bend over backwards to help people. It is suffice to point to two

examples noted by the author. At his work, he was the most popular employee.

He never had a single enemy. People always went to him for advice and help.

Kafka often made small loans to workers. When the workers offered to return

his money he refused. He would tell them : "You need the help, and I am able

to provide it." Another story was provided by Kafka's last girlfriend Dora Diamant,

who tells how Kafka came across an upset girl who was crying because she

had lost her doll. Kafka invented a story on the spot telling her that the doll

had given him a letter stating she had gone on a journey. When the girl asked

for the letter, Kafka claimed to have left it at home and promised to bring it

the following day.

Kafka was a brilliant storyteller because he could not only write intriguing

descriptions which encouraged us to see the world in a childlike and clear way,

but with a sense of amazement where the reader could be persuaded to believe

that the world itself was full of miracles. The world was still full of enchantment.

Perhaps the unique style of Kafka is bested captured by the following quote:

'Where Hofmannsthal quotes a line from the poet Stefan George , 'Ripe fruits

knock upon the ground', Kafka writes , 'Unripe fruit struck senselessly from the

trees on to the ground.' It is these slightly offbeat, concrete evocations of a

moment of reality that excite Kafka.' So Kafka's sense of magic and mystery

is rooted at how strange he found the world.

Kafka could make a melodrama about a woman in a bathtub losing a piece of

soap and bawling at her servants.

We can easily forget the Humor which Kafka conveys. In his less known novel,

Amerika , the main character , Karl Rossman is sent off to America after making

a servant girl pregnant. But the America which Kafka depicts is almost a nightmare

where all the injustice of Europe is simply replicated. Rossman is forced to work

as an abused and insulted lift elevator boy, a servant and exposed to all kinds of shady

company. There is little protection from either employers or policemen who can

remove the world under his feet. America is a sharply divided country split between

poor slave workers and rich factory owners. It is worth quoting the following from

the novel:

'Karl realized that to all extents and purposes he had already lost his job , because

the Head Waiter had said as much , the Head Porter had referred to it as a foregone

conclusion, and in the case of a mere lift boy the approval of the management would

hardly be necessary. It had all happened rather faster than he had expected,

because he had served for two months as well as he could, and certainly better than

one or two other boys he could think of. But such things, when it came down to it,

were obviously of no importance, neither in Europe or America, rather matters are

decided by whatever the impetuous judgement the initial rage of one's superiors

might dictate. ' Does this not sound familiar to many people unfairly dismissed in

both America and Russia?  While many people have heard of Kafka's novels,

The Trial and The Castle, few people are acquainted with his comical novel called

Amerika , or 'The Man Who Disappeared'. If they read the latter they would discover

that Kafka had a great sense of humor as well as sense of the absurd.

Kafka showed supreme subtle perception of the American reality. Yet he had never

even visited  America once!

Klaus Wagenbach's book is a rare gem. You'll see Kafka in an entirely new light!

CTU Political Meeting

Chicago Teachers Union holds political action committee meeting
By Jim Vail

Kurt Hilgendorf

The political department of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) held a meeting with teachers on Tuesday, Oct. 9, entitled, 'CTU PAC Q&A Session.'

This meeting was arranged after Members First President Therese Boyle asked the CTU VP and Political Director Stacy Davis Gates if she could answer some questions. The CTU decided to host an event that included an hour of questions, but of the roughly 35 union members in attendance, no one was allowed more than one question.  

A warm-up activity in the beginning had the teachers discuss three areas of concern in the workplace. One teacher said the teachers are concerned that school grievances are not getting answered by the CTU staff and this is a problem in schools all over the city.

Kurt Hilgendorf from the CTU political dept. had the teachers read an article about how billionaires such as the Pritzkers (who the CTU wanted to endorse for governor), Ken Griffen (wanted to close 100 schools), Sam Zell (who bought the anti-union Chicago Tribune) and the Crown family donated a lot of money to the Stand for Children political action committee that forced SB7, a privatization bill that took seniority away from teachers and forced more public schools to be closed and replaced by semi-private charter schools.

The point was CTU needs to play the game and fund political campaigns like House Speaker Mike Madigan if it is to stop the attacks on public education, Hilgendorf said. 

Washington High School delegate and Members First co-founder Frank McDonald asked why then did the union support SB7 which tried to take away the teachers' right to strike. Former CTU President Karen Lewis said she signed on to SB7 to save the strike, but the anti-union bill was so odious that her executive board passed a resolution to revise support for the anti-union bill. 

Another document was provided to show how more money was donated to education reform candidate Alfaro than pro-union candidate Aquino, but Aquino won. The moral is, those with the most money don't always win. 

In other words, the CTU is now properly playing the political game and is winning. This point is made at almost every delegate's meeting that CTU-backed candidates won important races for the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the Illinois State House and the Chicago City Council.

CTU political organizer and democratic candidate for Cook County commissioner Brandon Johnson said in 2011 only 35 percent of CTU members were voting (still higher than the general population), but today almost 70 percent vote in elections thanks to the CTU.

The CTU said they supported Jay Travis (estimates of up to $500,000 was spent by the CTU on the campaign) who was one of the few politicians at that time to support an end to charter schools and support teacher pensions. She almost beat one of the top democratic politicians Christian Mitchell for state rep. 

[When I spoke to Illinois State Rep Monique Davis, a very pro-union politician, about 10 years ago about Core's fight against charter schools, she said she thought the union was not against charter schools. That was the message being sent from American Federal of Teachers President Randi Weingarten down to former CTU President Marilyn Stewart that charters are our friends, we just need to unionize them.]

But the CTU has two faces when it comes to fighting the political battle. They had their director of the United Working Families, a political organization (not a party to challenge the democrats), address the meeting and tell everyone that the CTU is one of many progressive groups who look to endorse progressive candidates. A closer look at the books will reveal that the CTU mostly funds this organization that is the brainchild of Core founder and outgoing CTU chief of staff Jackson Potter and according to one inside source, CTU VP Stacy Davis Gates is the chairperson.

On the other hand, the CTU is closely aligned with the democratic party and the machine. They contribute lots of money and support to House Speaker Mike Madigan, the essence of the machine. Hilgendorf said they supported Kwame Raoul for IL attorney general because he supports the elected school board, but he is also part of the Chicago machine.
  
I asked the CTU why they opened three political action committees. I said there is concern that money is moving back and forth with no control, and there is a budget problem.

Hilgendorf said the CTU is now playing the big boys game and doing well at it, to the surprise of the big players. He said Citizen's United decision allows unlimited spending on political campaigns (Pritzker gave himself $40 million to be governor!).

"They are mad at us," Hilgendorf said. "We're more legitimate now."

Another retired delegate asked why does the union endorse the lesser of two evils. The CTU officials said the union did not jump in early to endorse Pritzker like the other unions and pointed to the United Working Families to show the union is progressive. They also said the CTU shifted the political dynamics, so that now people are talking about a progressive income tax, a corporate head tax and a financial transaction tax, unlike earlier when politicians focused on talking about a pension problem and failing public schools.

HOD October

Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates October Meeting

By Jim Vail

JB Pritzker wasn't endorsed by CTU delegates

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) monthly October, 2018 House of Delegates (HOD) meeting took place Wednesday, Oct. 3.

The meeting began once again with delegates questioning the finances and why the union burned thru $5 million and no one knew about it. 

CTU President Jesse Sharkey said the main issue where the union overspent was on salaries (a similar complaint government and corporate entities make when it comes to expenses), because the union employed the same number of 60 full-time staff today even though there are about 15,000 less CTU members paying dues, about one-third less members. 

"We have to do more with less," he said.

CTU interim financial director Kathy Catalano said she saw no criminal activity when it comes to over spending union money. 

Sharkey admitted once again that the union ran an unbalanced budget and they need to rebuild its reserves.

One elementary delegate asked why did the Chicago Board of Education (CBOE) only give a temporary assigned teacher to break up a classroom of 40 teachers, and not a full-time position since the new teacher is a veteran. One teacher at the school is on 'military leave.' The teacher needs to speak to the union field rep, Sharkey said.

Another high school delegate said she was uncomfortable doing 'learning walks' with the network, which would make it appear they "are telling on teachers." Discuss it at the Professional Problems Committee where elected teachers, delegate and principal find solutions to contractual problems, the leadership said.

About 72 CTU members did not clear the fingerprint background re-check, and only a handful were teachers. Most were security personnel. 

A moment of silence was given to teachers who passed away and were remembered, including Substance founder and union stalwart George Schmidt who recently died from lung cancer and Dave Eaton, a 40-year veteran at Columbus Elementary School. Many reported dying from cancer, including a current 43-year-old teacher.

The union said the board hired about 900 new teachers this year and only a few so far filled in the deceptively labeled cards created by the Illinois Policy Institute (anti-union pro business group funded heavily by anti-union Gov. Bruce Rauner) to not be members of the union.

New VP Stacy Gates made a speech with the theme 'You are winning!' now that the elected school board issue is front and center and fight for living wage salary is gaining traction (anti-union Amazon agreed to $15/hour minimum for its workers).

Washington High School delegate Frank McDonald tried to make a point of order during Gates' speech, but was quickly ruled out of order by Sharkey (first time I remember a point of order at the mic during an officer's report). 

Sharkey said during his speech that the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) will make an announcement about a huge student enrollment drop from about 371,000 students last year to about 360,000 students, which could ignite another round of school closings and consolidations.

The union caucus Core has discussed making housing affordability part of the contract fight since many low-income families are forced to move out of the city as rents continue to rise.

Sharkey said the current contract ends June, 2019. He said part of the fight should be to support the charter school teachers who may go on the first charter school strike ever, and start negotiations in January instead of waiting til the next summer (could be difficult since a new mayor will be elected possibly not til the spring if there is a run-off and the mayor runs the schools in this town!).

A resolution to honor former CTU President Karen Lewis was passed, while a recommendation from the CTU Executive Board to endorse Democrat JB Pritzker for governor did not pass after many delegates spoke against the endorsement because the Pritzker name is synonymous with union-busting. The Hyatt Hotel workers are currently on strike and JB has done nothing to help settle the strike, one delegate pointed out.

City College Workers Picket

Fair Contracts Now for City Colleges Faculty, Professionals, Adult Educators & Coordinators, and Security! 

Join AFSCME 3506 + CCCTU Local 1600 (City Colleges of Chicago) as we garner public support in favor of fair contracts! 

Together we are stronger! 

We will carry signs and distribute informational leaflets highlighting our fight for fairness in the workplace.

This is not a strike – but an important way to share our message and push City Colleges to do what is right.

• Adult Educators and Coordinators of AFSCME Local 3506 have been without a contract since 2016.

• Over the last two years the City Colleges of Chicago has cancelled bargaining sessions and delayed negotiations – at the bargaining table they refuse to agree to changes to the contract that would provide stability for Adult Educators, fairness and equal opportunity in the workplace, improved working conditions and improved pay. 

• Instead, the City Colleges of Chicago has proposed two years of frozen wages followed by minimal wage increases in future years that would have Adult Educators and Coordinators fall behind the rising cost of living.  We will not go backwards.

• Improved working conditions and compensation to help staff provide the highest quality teaching and the best learning experience for City Colleges of Chicago Students.