Region 3: Teachers need to be vigilant over politics

By Frank Wells

Politics was clearly on the minds of many of the 350 participants at CTA's Region 3 Fall Leadership Conference in Long Beach, coming just a day after the season's first presidential debate.

It's vital that teachers remain involved in politics, said Tyson Ryan, a member of Associated Chino Teachers who was attending the Future Leaders workshop. "Change can eitherhappen to us or because of us."

If teachers didn't keep an eye on the election process at the local, state and national level, "we would just be victims of every crazy politician's scheme that came along."

CTA's involvement in politics was crucial when Toby Barazza, a member of the Associated Pomona Teachers executive board, joined 23 years ago, and it continues to be so, she said. "I know CTA has a positive impact on our schools; I know Barbara Kerr has influence with Mr. Schwarzenegger on issues like school funding. And she has that influence not only because she's Barbara, but because she has thousands of members standing behind her."

Barazza praised CTA's efforts to change No Child Left Behind. "This emphasis on testing is killing creativity in the classroom. There's no time left for art and music and all the things that make for a well-rounded education."

Award-winning Los Angeles Times columnist and television/radio commentator Patt Morrison echoed those sentiments in the conference's keynote address. Morrison decried the dumbing down effect that No Child Left Behind and an overemphasis on standardized testing have had on public education. She blamed the current system for producing a workforce able to recite facts and solve simple problems, but not a citizenry trained to question and analyze.

"The politicization of education cheats students out of the color and flavor and life of education," said Morrison. "The red meat of history, the sauce of poetry, the finishing of music or art gets blenderized into this bland, rote baby food for the brain that gets force-fed to kids only to be regurgitated on meaningless tests."

Morrison lamented the fact that NCLB and other initiatives have stifled teacher creativity. "The best teachers I had were teachers who would be run out of the district on rails today" because they taught in an unorthodox manner.

One such teacher who taught about Roman mythology set up a little altar with a troll doll representing a god. On test day, students would bring in fruit or candy as offerings. "Can you imagine what the Christian Coalition would do to her today?" Morrison asked. "But when I went to a high school reunion years later, everyone remembered her. They said, 'Yeah, she was a little weird, but she was a good teacher.' So for those of you at this conference who are also a little weird, but good teachers, I am with you all the way."

One of the more popular conference sessions was "Dealing with Difficult People," which included suggestions for handling the exasperating behavior of administrators, parents, and occasionally colleagues.

"Teachers work with all kinds of adults and on rare occasions some of them can be as challenging as some of our students," said CTA Board member Barbara Ferges. "When I have tools like these, it helps me be prepared for different situations."

The session offered ways to channel inappropriate or hostile behavior in more productive directions.

Now in his fifth year of teaching, Tyson Ryan from Chino was attending the Future Leaders workshop even though he has already served as building rep, political action committee member and association treasurer. The all-day training session gives participants an overview of CTA structure and union history, along with basic representation rights and obligations. It stresses the importance of colleagues sticking together.

Ryan said it's evident that CTA's political efforts are helping to raise the standing of teachers in the community. Some of his friends who went into fields like medicine, law or architecture don't see teaching as a real job, "especially because of the salaries we make for having a comparable education. It won't happen overnight, but by improving salaries and our status, CTA is changing that."

Los Nietos Teachers Association member Denise Valdez described a fitting analogy she uses with her students. "I tell them it's easy to break one pencil; it just snaps. But you can't break 20 pencils at once. People are the same way; we're stronger when we band together."