Elections!

School - Prison

Facebook Likes

What is Facebook Really About?
By Jim Vail

This facebook posting of an art project generated lots of likes.

I decided to post this picture I took of my students doing an art project in my second grade class last year on Facebook.

Why?

Well, first of all, I thought it was cute. And Facebook specializes in cuteness. People enjoy posting pictures of themselves, their friends, or funny videos of cats or people or whatever.

Then there is the popularity contest. So after I posted this cute picture, and I must say giving the kids clay they create some of the most amazing creative stuff, the likes started coming.

I don't usually get likes when I post stories from Second City Teachers news blog. I conclude it's too serious.

Then I see those active people on Facebook getting hundreds of likes after they post a picture, an updated profile pic or a very witty saying.

So after I posted this picture, the likes started coming. Now I'm no celebrity generating millions, or someone more well-known locally who could get 1,000s to like them. Why I didn't even generate a hundred or two hundred likes that I see some of my fellow colleagues earn. 

But I started seeing the likes from friends and what not come in, and it made me feel, well, 'liked.'

And then the comments. Which Mr. Vail is this? Me, not my brother who also teaches. Did your students make this today? No, it was taken last year to my 'delightful surprise.' And one facebooker commented that he remembered me as his teacher back in 2001. And I remembered him, Raymundo from Guatamala, who performed his role to perfection as Stanely Kuwalski in A Street Car Named Desire in my Lakeview Learning Center intensive ESL class.

So Facebook is fun, no doubt. And if you know how to play the game, you too can generate lots of likes, and plenty of cool comments.

Of course there is the flip side - losing friends on Facebook when it gets too political. That happened plenty when war broke out in Ukraine and the pro and anti Russian sides took aim at each other.

So I guess leave out the political stuff, the serious stuff, and have fun. 

But wait, my son Leo says Facebook is 'old fashioned.' Really, are we adults already being labeled dinosaurs in the cybermarket that we thought we just started getting the hang of.

And what about serious stuff. People don't read newspapers like before - they read Facebook and other social media sites. Are they getting educated, informed or taking a good break from the grim reality that surrounds us?

I had in the back of my mind a little seriousness to add to the pic - such as perhaps lamenting that we no longer have an art teacher for the children because of the school cuts. No, keep it simple stupid. And cute!

Well, we are all still trying to figure this out. Facebook is certainly here and followed and liked by almost a billion of us around the world. It is here and now, to hell with tomorrow. 

Now, what cute picture can I think of next to post to keep my likes coming?

School Blues

Singing the Chicago Public School Blues 

By Jim Vail

I often shake my head and wonder about how much the public schools have changed over the years.

What do I remember from my days in grammar school? I remember running out of class at full speed to the playground for recess. That was Number 1!

I remember climbing the ropes, doing summersaults and running around during gym class. That was every day!

I remember the art teacher telling us how precious her 'junk' was to create wonderful artistic masterpieces out of little knick-knacks with glue and glitter and whatnot.

I remember gathering around the piano in kindergarten and singing songs all day long.

That was school in the eyes of a student!

Of course, I learned to read and write and do arithmetic and now have a Masters degree in elementary education.

But today I look around the public schools in the city and see that all that is being reversed.

Many of our schools do not have an art or music class. How is this possible?

The children have gym class once a week. Let me repeat that - Once a Week! You sit in a desk for how much longer with our longer school day and only have gym class once a week in elementary school? If you're lucky. How about the schools like ours where they are constantly repairing the roof and gym is in the classroom. 

Thank God we at least have recess. But again, if you don't have full use of your gymnasium, or an outside playlot, then kids are once again sitting, not running around like they should be.

Today the focus is on tests. Standardized tests. High stakes tests.

And less on being children, and enjoying life. Learning to appreciate the beauty of life through art and music. Developing not only the mind, but the body as well, through physical education and sports.

Sports? The Chicago Public Schools eliminated the elementary sports program. I didn't think in my 13 plus years teaching in Chicago they would actually do this, but they did.

Believe me, the people who run the public schools today will not stop there.

It is a business to destroy public education and the joy of children and implement their plans to privatize education and make money.

If we don't fight this, then believe me, it will only get worse. 

And school, as it is becoming more and more, will turn the beauty of children's dreams into a nightmare.

Seattle Strike Settlement

Seattle Education Association members ratified the new contract

https://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2015/09/20/seattle-education-association-members-ratified-the-new-contract/

What we know so far is that at the General Membership Meeting this evening, members of the Seattle Education Association voted to ratify the new agreement with Seattle Public Schools.

Per the Seattle Education Association’s website, the highlights of the contract include:

• Recess: Guaranteed 30 minutes of recess for all elementary students.

• Reasonable testing: New policies to reduce the over-testing of our students.

• Professional pay: Base salary increases of 3 percent, 2 percent and 4.5 percent, plus the state COLA of 4.8 percent

• Fair teacher and staff evaluations: Test scores will no longer be tied to teacher evaluations, plus there is new contract language that supports teachers’ professional growth.

• Educator workload relief: Additional staff to reduce workloads and provide student services.

• Student equity around discipline and the opportunity gap: Creating race and equity teams at 30 of the district’s schools.

• The administration’s proposal to lengthen the school day: Teachers will be compensated for additional work.

It was a great time in Seattle during the strike with parents, students, the Seattle City Council, legislative districts, community organizations, other workers’ unions and citizens showing their support for our teachers.

Now it’s time to settle back into the new school year but something has changed and I believe we are all better for it.

We met, made new connections, showed pride in our teachers and our school communities, shared laughter and concerns, shared our food, our homes, our time and energy with our teachers and now they return to the classrooms knowing we appreciate them and are here for them.

We have their backs.

Dora Taylor

Immigrant Children Victory

SOME GOOD NEWS FOR REFUGEE CHILDREN IN
RUSSIA - REFUGEE CHILDREN ARE ALLOWED INTO
SOME SCHOOLS IN RUSSIA
By Stephen Wilson


(Moscow, Russia) -- The Human Rights Organisation Civil Action managed to arrange for the study in school of 40% of the children of parents of refugees and migrants who had appealed for their help. As many as 64 parents of refugee and migrants had previously complained that their children had been refused the right to study at schools. This was because of the notorious order number 32 which insists that children can't enter school without proper registration. However, this order so bluntly violates article 43 of the constitution where 'Everyone has the right to an education,' that some judges, politicians and headmasters have told people to ignore it.

            At the beginning of the new school year, civil right activists went around the school with a copy of a recent legal statement made by officials which basically acknowledged and approved of the right of headmasters or headmistresses of Russian schools to accept school children regardless of whether they had registration. 'After the court decision we took the resolution of the court to school. As a result, we managed to arrange for the study of 40% of the children of the parents who helped us' (The recent court resolution declared that registration could not be grounds for refusing children the right to an education), stated Civil Action spokesperson 'Anastasiya Denisova'. One such child  accepted at school recently was the 8-year-old daughter of Syrian refugee Nasser Kavthar at a school in Pushkino. This represents another small victory for the rights of the children of refugees and migrants who have constantly been deprived of the basic right to learn at schools due to a combination of dense red-tape, racism, fear ,corruption and the ignorance of incompetent officials and xenophobic politicians.

            PROBLEM OF ACCESS CONTINUES

            The dire predicament is not only experienced by the children of foreign migrants and refugees but even Russians themselves.

            For instance, Yelena Kudracheta , who came from Donesk in February 2014, could not get her son Misha allowed into any  school located in Moscow. Yelena stated, 'We went to around 20 schools in Moscow and outer Moscow and everywhere they demanded we show proof of registration again and again. .... They don't give political refuge in Moscow, only in the regions!' Yelena took her complaint to the President of the Russian Federation who actually answered that you should simply take your child to school and they must accept her. However, Yelena instead 
managed to get her child into a school in Belgrade.

            Another parent with problems is Afganistan refugee Kharun Shakh, who during the war there lost all his documents. He has 9 children, several whom are studying at the Centre of Adaptation, who offer free courses in Russian, English and other school subjects for children. His ten year old son Mukhin Shar was one of the children who was denied a right to enter school this September. Asked whether he would like to enter school, the boy thunders back bitterly, 'Of course I want to go to school. I would like to learn maths, English, History and Technical Drawing.'

            PREJUDICE

            Unfortunately, not everyone agrees that children should be allowed into Russian schools. A recent headline by a Russian newspaper, 'Sovershenno Secret ', 1st -8th Sept,2015,(361), asks 'Why children arriving in schools turn into big problems for Russian schools? ' The article which claims to be 'a special investigation', with dubiously selected examples, claims that the children of migrants and refugees can't fit into schools because of their own culture which is incompatible to Russian.

            The article then goes on to blame migrant children for most of the crime, disorder and hooliganism in schools (similar to leading U.S. republican presidential candidate Donald Trump who also blames immigrants for crime). However, the countless examples of how many migrant children not only fit in to schools but excel in their education are not even examined or considered. If they had bothered to interview many teachers and civil rights activists, they would have been offered countless concrete positive examples. But they could not be bothered.

            LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

            Civil activists and supporters for the rights of migrant and refugee children should not be disheartened or depressed by many setbacks. If they are patient and persevere with a lot of hard work they will attain some significant results. Whether this agitation amounts to petitions, teaching, legal actions or going around the schools attempting to persuade school headmasters to let children enter schools it will pay off in the long-term. However, we can't be complacent. We still have a long daunting struggle ahead of us!  However, it is not in vain.

HOD Strike Call

Chicago Teachers Union Looks Ready to Strike
By Jim Vail


The Chicago Teachers Union leadership had this message to welcome back its members at last week's House of Delegates meeting.

"Fasten your seat belts because it's gonna be a humdinger of a year," CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey told the packed crowd of over 500 delegates.

Sharkey, who spoke to the corporate titans at the City Club of Chicago recently and sparred with the multi-millionaire governor on television, turned in arguably his best performance at the HOD since his slate CORE defeated the UPC in 2010 to gain control of the CTU.

His impassioned speech, mixed with humor and thoughtful rhetoric, lightened up the crowd and drove home the point that the teachers should fight the Chicago Board of Education's proposed 7% cut by asking that the teachers pay the 7% pension pickup that the board currently pays.

While the board demands teachers take pay cuts, they do not demand a tax on the rich or trading stocks to raise revenue, something the CTU has been vocal about.

Sharkey noted that the board has under-funded the teachers pension fund 13 of the last 20 years.

"This is a crisis by design," he said. "They have borrowed over $1 billion this year. They didn't raise taxes, they just put it on their credit card and borrowed against the pension fund."

Sharkey said this manufactured crisis was last seen in 1979 when the school system was also broke by design, when the Chicago School Finance Authority was created, to address the budget crisis by eliminating 10,000 Chicago Public School jobs.

The union during the reign of Mayor Harold Washington then went on strike for the next four or five years in the early 1980s to restore teacher's rights, dignity and compensation.

"The crisis was whether or not there would be public schools," Sharkey told the delegates. "(Like today) this is a crisis they are using to destroy the public schools."

Sharkey noted that the CTU history goes back to the 1890s, and whenever there was a crisis, "we have fought."

"We're the ones who will have to do the same to defend public education," he said. "I don't relish picketing in February, but we will do it. There is resolve for the union leadership to fight!"

His words helped pump up the delegates. At the end of the meeting many delegates told their colleagues that 100% of their school colleagues voted in favor of a strike. While these mock strike votes are not official, they are a barometer of teachers feelings about who should pay for the current fiscal crisis.

CTU President Karen Lewis followed Sharkey with her presidential report to the delegates, focusing on the nuts and bolts of how teachers should proceed in the face of a possible strike.

She said it is important to work with the parents and stay positive.

"Talk to teachers about your pensions without your head down," she said. "Defending your pensions is important. It is simply deferred pay."

Lewis said she has met with new schools chief and former CTA president Forrest Claypool and said he used to people just falling down when he wants something.

"In no disrespect to the bus drivers and city transit people, their union was just weak," Lewis said.

The earliest the teachers could strike would be sometime this winter after mediation. Teachers should save their money and keep their schools unified, she said.