We received this commentary from a Memphis City Schools teacher:
Let it be said that during the current Memphis City Schools charter debate, one expert opinion has not been sought: the teachers.
As a teacher in the system, I feel that I have not been properly prepared to make the biggest decision that our city will face in its history. The union that represents my voice and the voice of all teachers in the Memphis City Schools has pledged un-allegiance to the Board and is inaccurately representing the sentiment of many teachers in the system.
We are working in these schools every day with our students, and we are deeply invested in their success.
Teachers and parents inherently have the best interest of Memphis City Schools’ students at heart in this issue—our profession, passion, city, and lives are at stake. As teachers, we are a wealth of information and creativity on the future of our school system. We have no political agenda; we simply want the children of Memphis to have the best education.
Therefore, as a teacher left out of the discussion, here is my voice:
To David Pickler: Your transparent attempts to intensify the divisions among the children of Shelby County are intolerable. It is an embarrassment that people are still promoting segregation in 2011. Our children need role models who actively promote tolerance, empathy and equality.
To MEA: Your function as our union is to speak for us and support us in our mission to provide the best education for our children—NOT to exploit your position to scare us into passivity.
To the City of Memphis: As a teacher among many teachers, I have a voice that must be heard; yet our voice is being muffled through fear and confusion. It is imperative that our government listens to the people they swear to represent. The focus in this process should be on the will of the teachers and parents of Memphis City Schools. I demand to be fairly educated on the issue in an unbiased manner. I am a teacher in the Memphis City Schools, a Memphian my whole life, and a committed citizen for the betterment of our city.
Do not overlook, underestimate, intimidate, or try to outwit the teachers of the Memphis City Schools.
To all the individuals and the factions trying to keep Memphians from having a vote:
Democracy demands that the people are allowed to vote on the issues that affect their lives. My school board members nobly put in motion a chain of events that will put this monumental decision in the hands of the people where it most dearly belongs: the citizens of the City of Memphis!
That teachers have been muzzled by their administration and disenfranchised by their own union is one of the worst outcomes in this debate. I suggest teachers organize anew. You are one of the most important specialized professional sectors in our community and we need to hear and recognize your insights. Teachers of Shelby County Unite!
Great post! Thank you for facing one of the most difficult jobs in the city every day, and by reading your post, it appears you do so with passion, intellect and common sense and that you are deeply invested in the future of your pupils. Glad to finally see a teacher weighing in on this.
An important voice in a seemingly-complicated debate. But as the writer says, the only important element of this discussion is getting the best education possible for each and all citizens of our city and county. With that as our goal, shouldn’t everyone be on the same page? Let’s get together and do this right, everybody.
As the writer suggests, it is most assuredly time to come together as a City and as a people in order to address the clear and desperate problems facing the Memphis City School system. As a successful product of the Memphis City School system myself, and with members of my close family and friends working hard in the City Schools as teachers, I know that there are the tools and resources and dedicated minds out there to really come together and fix the school system, so that it may run more efficiently and progressively towards the end goal of educating ALL children of Memphis.
While I understand the concerns of those in the County who fear that a merger with an already flawed system will cause their own school children to suffer, remember: Memphis is the lifeblood, both culturally, economically, and socially of the MidSouth. Memphis’ history and educational institutions have long been the means by which our fathers, mothers, grandmothers, grandfathers, etc. were able to educate themselves and further themselves in society.
Now is not the time to turn our backs on MCS and the children who long to be afforded a quality education and the knowledge of how to better themselves and the society around them. Thank you, MCS Teacher, for getting your voice out there!
As a parent of MCS student you have my highest respect. I am hoping that somehow you and the rest of our dearly committed teachers will have a serious stake in the decision making process for whatever system may form in the next few years.
The administration is there to support and serve your needs. Hopefully parents and teachers can unite to ensure that you are served in this capacity. Thanks for educating our kids!
Ditto Scott’s sentiments.
I don’t know about anyone else but I am simulataneously heartened that someone like this teacher has a voice and a vote and disturbed that our friend Shekel does.
I applaud the teacher who wrote this. We MCS teachers have been bullied by a tyrannical Superintendent into silence, misrepresented by a union that no longer has our best interests at heart (and who I will personally be parting ways with as soon as I can), and are disheartened by the SCS Administration’s outright disdain for us and our children. Parents come to us for answers, and we have nothing to tell them. Students are saddened and confused by the viciousness of the suburban leaders’ comments, not to mention their desire to keep them out of their system.
We are better than this. It is wonderful to see the comments here from people who want to see unity and who understand that as Memphis goes, so does the whole Midsouth.
I don’t think the Sheck knows what onerous means. I have gotten into lengthy arguments on this site and have never been deleted. Disagreement they don’t have a problem with. Crackpots, on the other hand, tend to get deleted
I find it interesting to find people on the web who still haven’t clued into the fact that using all caps all through their posts make them seem, well, kind of like crackpots. Poor spelling and lots !!!! and ??? too.
Memphis Teachers,
Thank you for you comments and insight on this issue.
All my life I’ve gone back and forth on the righteousness of labor unions. Recently I’ve leaned toward unions because of the disparity between the rich class and working class and neo-Birchers fomenting about right to work/states fights.
But I get whiplash when a union member feels betrayed by her own union while the boss man conspires to put her in her place.
This teacher is a joke. “As a teacher in the system, I feel that I have not been properly prepared to make the biggest decision that our city will face in its history.” Then he/she goes on for 15 minutes about how much she hates people that are responsible.Then she says she does not have a “political agenda.”
Give me a break. .
Teachers should concentrate on getting educated themselves and becoming effective instructors who are accountable
I am also a MCS teacher and I hate to admit it but I am just depressed and disheartened by all of this. I became a member of MEA initially because I believe in unions, plain and simple, but also to annoy the right wing, anti-education, anti-teacher faction in this state. I know, that’s kind of a petty reason. But that’s how I felt at the time. Now I don’t feel the union really represents us, but I stay in hoping that things will improve. All the people who are so anti-union are unable to tell me why I am not entitled to due process. No one can say why teachers are not treated like professionals, and I honestly feel that a significant portion of the population hates us. Teachers get blamed first for everything that goes wrong. But the truth of the matter is that schools cannot be successful without four crucial links. Community, educators, families. and students. It is politically unpopular to hold parents or students accountable. So teachers will be punished. With the trend towards “value added” evaluation, teachers are punished for teaching in struggling schools. I teach in such a school. I love my kids. I don’t want to go to a private school but I might have to if this movement against teachers continues. It’s a damn shame.
@MsTee-bag ?
you’re a teacher and you believe in UNIONS to ANNOY the right wing ???
Therein, your belief while your business, reveals another agenda besides the proper execution of your responsibilities of your JOB. It also shows the left-wing ‘bent’ of our schools nationawide, which has shielded and protected ineffective and/or deficient teachers who perhaps should not be in the classroom in the first place.
You want to be treated as a ‘professional’ ??? well, then I would kindly submit you should start ‘thinking’ and acting like a true professional.
Your stated reasons for supporting ‘unions’ reveals flawed logic, sprinkled with a large serving of unprofessionalism itself.
You have a lot of like company in Memphis schools and beyond.
Nobody ‘hates’ you as a teacher, but we don’t have to like or accept ignorance even when it comes from a so-called ‘teacher’.