Randi Says We Don't or Maybe She Says We Do!
The Chief Leader Civil Service newspaper in their December 21 issue did a long "fluff" piece/interview with UFT President Randi Weingarten. Richard Steier's glowing admiration allowed him to revise history by increasing the positive vote to 70% for the disastrous 2005 Contract. (In reality, 60% of teachers and 63% of UFT members overall approved that Contract. )
Steier did ask some good questions and there were some valid points made about Randi's roller coaster relationship with Bloom-Klein. Randi is even quoted criticizing Chancellor Joel Klein for not creating an education culture that respects the work teachers do. She stated, "The most frustrating and infuriating thing is the infantilizing and disrespecting of Teachers, both in New York City and across America."
However in vintage Weingarten fashion, toward the end of the interview, Randi made a statement that contradicts her earlier statement. To avoid quoting her out of context, she was referring to the needs of newly organized home day care workers compared to teachers when she said: "Teachers are more respected than they've been at any time since I've been in education." What Randi? If you can figure out where she really stands, please let us know.
What we do know is teachers are leaving the profession in huge numbers and often cite a lack of respect as a main reason for departing.
In order to clear up our confusion, ICE asks the following question to the educators who read this blog:
Do you feel more respected as a teacher than at any time in the past two decades?
ICE would like to know.
24 comments:
Accordidng to Webster's Seventh Collegiate Dictonary, (the dictonary I happen to have near my computer), respect means: high or special regard; to consider worthy of high regard, esteem; to refrain from interfering with.
Five years ago, my job was eliminated. Three years ago, my class was closed in December and I was placed in a different grade. This school year, I was told on the 5th day of school what one of my positions in the school would be. This did not feel respectful to me. Classroom teachers are told what to teach, when to do it and exactly what the content of the lesson should be. That is, when they are not doing test prep lessons, which is much of the time. This seems like interference to me. The 2005 contract has teachers watching the bathrooms and lunchrooms again. Special regard? I don't think so.
Which dictonary is randi using?
It's no wonder why you keep that dictionary so close at hand.
But I digress.
Hey Jeff, how about bringing back the Dodgers, 8-track, beta, silver coins, and the two dollar bill?
While you're at it, how about the Panama Canal?
It appears you are the only one that can't figure out where Randi stands on any issue.
What have YOU done to command the respect you think YOU deserve?
The name calling, grand standing and negative blogging aren't what the common member appreciates.
Only the disgruntled few follow you.
Happy New Year!
Short answer My students appreciate me far more than my school's administrators do.
Whether or not teachers of various grades will or will not feel the love, respect, or admiration of their students is both a function of the students' psycho-social development, family values, and community culture and a function of the teacher's personality, and ability.
However, insofar as the educational culture that has been permeating the DOE since the Bloom/Klein takeover, the answer is, obviously, no. But this too is a function of Bloomberg's, Klein's, and those working in their administration upbringing and family values as well.
Anon 6:41
One thing is clear. You are no common member but on the UFT payroll. "Common" members don't read this blog or care much about the UFT either.
I agree with Jeff that you can't tell from RW's comments where she stands. Hillary-like. Romney-like.
Re: "The name calling, grand standing and negative blogging aren't what the common member appreciates."
It was this Unity leadership that created the "common" member you talk about. Judging by the numbers who voted in the election, the "common" members are largely uninvolved members. Some are scared, some ignorant of union history, some are in denial, some comfy where they are, some are bought off with Unity gifts, and some are just plain apathetic.
It is clear in any case that as a group, a "union" of laborers, they are thoroughly unprepared for mounting any kind of resistance to the Bloom/Klein pogrom, and this is because Unity wants it this way. They are collaborators and want us to collaborate, too. Said so themselves.
If Unity had wanted the membership to defy the BoE and offer up some kind of resistance, they had about a decade to get it together. Instead, they chose this lay-down-and-die path, and they did it to keep themselves in power.
To answer your question...
Hell No!
Nor do I feel it from the union my dues pay to support.
Hey 6:41 could you please point out where there is negative name calling here. It's just an honest review of an interview Randi did. Unless someone bows before Unity, you criticize them. Try engaging in some honest dialogue.
Respect? Are you kidding? The following was on ICE-mail.
The problem is that the Department of Education is using what is deemed as "adminstrative procedure." This procedure has no limitations as spelled out by Miranda. There is no semblance of constitutional or human rights in the post-911 Amerika of Bloomberg and his fascist chancellor. The rights that teachers enjoy are equal to the rights of those being detained in Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay.
A psychiatrist I know from England said that the Rubber Room is cruel and inhuman treatment. He further stated that it is most assuredly incarceration. He was suprised that in such a "liberal" country this could be taking place.
As long as we have a union that has a Vichy mentality of collaboration instead of protecting its dues-paying members, then there is no hope.
IF teachers were to stand up for their rights, then the union that has been selling us out would be booted out.
We are paying a considerable amount of money to be abused.
Senior teachers are becoming ATR's, they are being hunted by the Einsatzgruppen that are being trained in the chancellor's Nazi Academy. Teachers, if they are not already in the Latex Latrine, will be incarcerated there shortly.
Folks, we are getting shafted by Weingarten and the fat pigs who are eating from the public trough of our union dues. All they are concerned about is their double pensions, free cell phones and expense accounts. If Teachers rise up and unload the entity that another educator has termed
UFT -"United to F*** Teachers," and create a genuine union that will actually fight for teachers, only then will things change.
The so-called "collective bargaining" of the UFT is akin to Dr. Mengele doing the same for his "patients."
The thing to remember is that Hitler saved the Jews from starvation by gassing them. If teachers want a fair shake, then the only thing to do is unload the union pigs of the UFT.
We need representation from the rank and file, and not from a group of bloated cold blooded reptiles parasitizing us.
We need to take the incredible amounts of money being harvested from us and have a strike fund. Then we need to actually strike. We get terrible pay, lousy conditions and are being hunted and destroyed by the new Hitler Youth of the DOE.
Partisans: Unite!
I've said it before and I'll say it again...Madame Randini should be facing charges of racketeering a la Jimmy Hoffa and his ilk. She is not any different, using union dues be chauffeured around from political gathering to political gathering, following Hillary's coattails. The "love" I feel is that of tennis......nothing.
Ms Tsouris is right.
anonymous January 05, 2008 6:41:00 PM said:
>The name calling, grand standing and negative
>blogging aren't what the common member
>appreciates.
I usually don't bother responding to these educational blogs. But I had to this time because of what anonymous 16:41:05-01-08 wrote.
I agree completely. We shouldn't have to hear the true and very serious criticism of our union leadership. But, it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.
This UFT leadership think like 2-bit politicians; and no denial is going to change that.
We common members have long given up on the UFT leadership. That's why we don't bother with the blogs, don't vote in union elections.
If there were cheaper ways or more reasonable ways to get benefits, we'd be doing it already, to save on the union dues.
Don't think that we common members like what's happening with either the DoE or UFT, we do not. Why should Ms. Wingarten feel she can hobnob with the Clintons, ride a limio and benefit from so many perks while we slave away under ever worsening conditions?
Having the UFT leadership is like having a terrible lawyer with a 100% losing record. The lawyer negotiates terrible deals but spend more time trying to sell the bad deals.
There is something disturbing in this statement by anonymous January 05, 2008 6:41:00 PM
>Only the disgruntled few follow you.
Somehow it resonates with some of the things anonymous January 06, 2008 12:02:00 AM said about upbringing, etc.
This kind of thinking by 6:41 is very disturbing. Perhaps it has to do with assuming that people are either followers or leaders. Or, pehaps, it has to do with the fact that we common members do not seem to be able to form a cohesive voice to denounce wrong doing. Or, perhaps that being unhappy with what's going on is merely being "disgruntled."
As upset as you are 12:03, no comment on the name calling?
I am more upset when someone admits to not voting in union elections. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to work under the worst contract ever and having Randi as our leader. Your apathy has really paid off.
Common Member if people don't force change from the grass roots, it will never happen.
Please tell ICE what to do to involve people like you. Randi can do what she does because you don't vote.
If names are being called, they are being called for a reason. If the cap fits, then wear it!
Disgruntled is not the only thing that you can call someone who is being robbed. How about furious? Don't be such lily livered wimps. Say it like it is. If the truth hurts, so be it.
Randi is out for her own gains and not for you. You ain't number one and you ain't even number two. The only thing we are is a bunch of dues-paying file numbers to the dues-collecting operation.
Racketeering is the name of the game. To the genius who talked about following (following Jeff, that is) and name calling, stay out of it, you Unity hack. We despise you for the money you suck from us. There is no difference between unity and a blood-sucking tick that latches on to a helpless victim.
While licking the boots of the Unity Team, look at the soles of those boots. You just might find the remains of real teachers who have been trodden on to supply these bastards with corporate sized salaries.
The irony is that the UFT is a corporation that produces negative results. In the real world, they would be out of business.
We need to ensure that these thieving parasites go out of business by forming another union.
To the person who mentioned the Third Reich, bravo. Very well said. How long must we endure Reich Chancellor Klein and his Waffen SS?
Striking would be a political nightmare for Mayor of Planet Bloomberg. It would show how all his and the UFT's propaganda is just fodder for the presidential aspirations of a little man, of no moral stature.
Napoleon Bloomberg cannot crown himself Emperor of the United States.
"Love," you say? I'd love to watch these people fail. They need to reap what they have sown.
It's hard to believe the passion of these comments for a piece that simply pointed out how Randi talked out of both sides of her mouth in the same interview. If only that anger could be harnessed, we would have a chance of gaining back what we lost.
This is what happens when name calling is condoned. I still see little grass roots organizing from my chapter leader who is ICE. This is why you have such apathy.
What ever happened to UTP?
What about grassroots organizing from you 10:28?
What would you like your ice chapter leader to do?
In my school we cannot get the members involved because they are mostly young teaching fellows who grew up during the Reagan years, and have the anti-union attitude that their generation was brainwashed with. They would rather stand by the principal than by their fellow union members. They fail to show up to chapter meetings. This is not the fault of the CL, as he is the third one that we had in the last 5 years. One thing that's positive: he threw all of these youngsters off of the consultation committee and has only veteran teachers and non-spies. He has also included a TJC member. Maybe things can turn around in my school.
When the young teachers get their first unsatisfactory observation, they may change their minds
Whether or not teachers are more respected is certainly a question of interpretation. But the UFT is certainly more respected by right-wing, teacher-bashing, union-busting newspapers. It's also garnered respect and admiration from Rod "The NEA is a terrorist organization" Paige, who specifically cited Ms. Weingarten as an exception to most union heads.
It's not just anyone who can manage to make a union move backward 40 years in one fell swoop.
But she keeps getting voted in so who's fault is that: Randi's or the people who don't vote?
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