In praise of teachers' unions

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2002
In praise of teachers' unions
Thu, 02-15-2007 - 8:02am

Imagine for a moment that your son or daughter with Asperger's grows up. With a few struggles, that child has managed to get through school and even has an asperger-like fascination with one or two academic subjects. Perhaps he or she majors in one of these subjects and then through tutoring or teaching lessons finds that he or she likes teaching...
Now imagine that your son or daughter has earned a teaching certificate and gets his or her first job. Guess what? He or she ends up with one of the many principals out there who is a true predator for no other reason than to satisfy personal whims. Principals like that often discriminate because they are often too dense to understand that disabilities like autism often have nothing to do with teaching ability.
As discrimination based on disability is illegal and the principal in question is not too stupid to know this, he takes another tactic. That is to accuse your son or daughter of incompetence at every turn with no evidence to back it up, and then get away with it because he has the power to do so. THAT'S when the teacher's union comes in! It can save a well-deserved job for a GOOD teacher.
On my first music teaching job, I had a principal like that. I was in a small town, and after someone leaked to him that I had a mental disability, my life became an absolute hell. At any rate, I learned that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the teacher's union helped keep the balance of power in check. In my case, the union was weak and I resigned the job but I know that someday when I return to teaching I may have the luck to be in a strong union, and I won't abuse it. I know that with it, ignorant power-hungry principals will not be able to get away with just anything. And teachers like me...teachers who have good reason to understand what special children can do, will not have to worry about a real problem.

Express!
Beth "Petrouchka"