You Can't Put Students First If You Put Teachers Last

Went running from Jersey City to Bayonne yesterday because it was a beautiful day and I wanted to be outside and get some exercise.

Along Broadway, I saw signs like this in some shop windows:

Had lunch in one little restaurant that had that sign in the window.

It was nice to see signs like this that frame the battle for teachers' rights and work protections as a concurrent battle for students' rights.

The truth is, busting the teachers unions and bringing in non-unionized teachers who can be fired at will does not help students.

Burning teachers out by working them half to death, with 7 AM-7 PM schedules plus on-call hours for students to get homework help, does not help students.

Making teaching, already an emotionally and physically exhausting job, even more emotionally and physically exhausting by taking away vacation time and Saturdays, does not help students.

These kinds of schedules don't help students either.

They socialize children into believing that life is nothing more than work, that working 12-14 hours a day is the only way to "get ahead," that nothing matters in life more than work - not family nor friends, not hobbies nor outside activities that enrich the spirit and broaden the horizons.

All that matters is the grind, the test scores, "achievement," money, material wealth - whatever the "goal" the corporatists set up for people to aim for.

I am certain that people like Eva Moskowitz and David Levin of KIPP truly believe these are the right lessons to teach children and this is the right way to live a life.

But just because these people believe that stuff doesn't make them right.

To me, life is about balance - work, family, friends, hobbies, physical activity, spiritual work, emotional work.

I am always trying to find that balance between these different facets of my life.

It is not easy these days as the corporatists and the meritocrats promote the WORK IS ALL THAT MATTERS lifestyle for all of us, whether that's what we want or not, whether that is what we need or not.

But I am trying to strike balance in my life and I believe that is a sound, educational practice to teach to children as well.

Puts me at odds with Moskowitz and Levin and other "reformers" and corporatists, the CNBC set and the like.

And yet, when I look at these people, listen to them, watch the way they live, I am very glad I hold different values from them.

There is more to life than work, more to life than test scores and "achievement," more to life than money and material wealth.

I do not believe that God or Zeus or the universe or fate or whatever put us all here on earth for the time we are here did so because we're supposed to spend our lives working 12-14 hours a day so that we can make a ton of money and buy stuff that ultimately ends up in the garbage when we're through with it.