The Professional Educator’s Labor

From FTA president Tish Rice:

Greetings and Happy Labor Day.

As we honor the worker’s whose labor made this country strong, I want to reflect on this question: what is a teacher’s labor?

I believe…

A teacher’s labor is the ability to create engaging and relevant curriculum that helps students develop a deep understanding and knowledge about the content.

A teacher’s labor is the ability to develop strong relationships with our students; Relationships that foster growth in social skills as well as academics.

A teacher’s labor is the ability to collaborate with other professional educators to further our understanding of our craft and vocation.

 

Unfortunately, many of FUSD’s policies have robbed or supplanted our talents and labor. Those policies include mandated meetings, which many educators find irrelevant to their craft or content, mandated curriculum which robs educators of the ability to develop lessons that are relevant and meaningful to our students, and other practices like large class sizes, lack of safety and discipline, lack of social & emotional support, and lack of teacher autonomy.

 

FUSD’s actions show that they want compliant teachers, not the labor of professional educators. This needs to change. That’s why during this bargaining cycle we have tried to address these issues. In fact, we need a public discussion about these issues. That’s why I’m inviting superintendent finalist Bob Nelson to a Facebook Live discussion about creating the best learning environments for our students. This is scheduled for this Thursday, September 7th at 7pm. Topics will include class size, safety and discipline, special education, teacher autonomy, and the recruitment and retention of quality educators. We want an open, honest, and transparent dialogue about how to best move this district forward for all of students. If Mr. Nelson does not accept this invitation, members of the FTA bargaining team and I will be live to discuss the issues and give an update on the bargaining process.

We hope to hear from Mr. Nelson soon. Stay tuned.