A mouthful of food for thought

[Quoted from a story I shared on FB about a wyt teacher bullying a student he did not even teach]

I come from an educator. I have a sibling who works in the public school system. I grew up around teachers. We speak about bullying in school, but most folks think about student-on-student bullying. But there are teachers who bully, too. In fact, there are many bullies teaching students. I should know. In middle school, JFK Junior High, the teachers as well as the students bullied me and many of my peers. There were a few good educators, but the bullying teachers outnumbered them. We say "a few bad apples," but no one says the full quote, "spoils the WHOLE BUNCH." Law enforcement, Education, Medicine, and most other industries did Not begin with Black folks, brown folks, QUILTBAG+, and women in mind. In fact, the police began as slave patrols. Medicine experimented on enslaved people. And though Public Education, started by *Immigrants* in order to equal the playing field, "so the miller's son can be in the same classroom as the bankers son," know that the USA continues its institutions on the basis of systemic bigotry(racism, seismic, homophobia, and xenophobia). Reform does not and will not fix what was made to oppress in the first place. We need complete and total change. Have a thoughtful Friday.

School Protests & Teacher Walkouts

[NOTE: This was originally a Twitter thread, but the platform has been tanking, and the thread's sequence became askewed. So, here's the thread with some words replaced and editing changes to make it more readable.

#5 and up have been added.]

I've seen the article about Rutgers University having faculty and student walkouts and this being one of the first strikes the school has participated in. When I read more, I'll post links. But here are my thoughts about how we ended up here with public school walkouts, teacher strikes, and college/university protests that have occurred in alacrity in recent years...

 

1. While working in higher education from when I was a student to an alum, to working for the public school system from the ground (substitute) to the top (regional offices), the paperwork that complicates simple tasks. 

2. To the simplest happenstance that would make another industry insoluble, there are processes, procedures, and protocols that stifle most things from being done.

3. How often can employees bring grievances to an admin that won't listen until things are too late? How does a school have faculty living in their autos so they can keep up a livable wage working for several colleges and universities?

4. What about administrations that won't listen until things become too dire? How does a school have faculty living in their autos so they can keep up a passable wage working for several colleges and universities at once?

5. I remember coming back to work at the first college I graduated from, and seeing how many of my peers were kept in part-time positions, including myself. The college posted 'open' full-time work that became mysteriously filled when contacted.

6. I became further disillusioned and unforgiving when the ACA (Obamacare) was newly enacted, and colleges and universities across the US showed their alliance to the Bottom Line by cutting part-timer work by 4-5 hours so those institutions DO NOT have to provide health insurance to all its employees.

7. Wifi and campus-wide internet access is often shoddy, and, at least in my experience, not enough expanding of electrical upgrades, not enough academic support in learning labs, and the school's inability to hire more personnel, retain enough staff, and pay a sustainable wage.

From my perspective, as a former higher ed employee, there is much at fault with colleges and universities for their lack of interest towards their faculty, staff, and support workers. These institutions make it financially difficult to the students, make full-time near impossible, and relying 70-80% of the academic work on part-timers the institution won't give sustainable salaries to, therefore creating a high turn-over like in the fast-food and restaurant industries. There will need to be seismic changes and a consistent and majority of will to improve these different levels.