me likey

http://demandeducation.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/ive-been-called-a-scab/

Perhaps I am a scab
I am not 100% anti union. I think union power and will is skewed, but we do need protection from abuses.
I am a child advocate and believe the needs of the child come FIRST. ALWAYS.
And I happen to be unemployed and looking for work anywhere in the nation; among thousands and thousands of credentialed, jobless teachers.
Oh, and I believe in the free market.
So….
CPS, Chicago Public Schools, strikes. They do not want to be treated similar to charter school teachers, pre-tenure teachers, or any non-union person in the world outside of education. They also want fewer children per class and more funding and support, which I am not against, but striking, when there is no money to find anything, is not the answer. Revolutionizing the system is.
But anyways.
I am a scab. Such an ugly, vile, negatively connotative word, right?
I am a scab because I, if I could, would cross the picket lines in Chicago. Sure, I would be photographed and slandered and denied a job anywhere in the free world (ahh such diplomacy they have… lovely scare tactics, how adult) and if I made a buck or two, great! I need a job and some experience to fill my jobless gap, so, voila, free market….there are teachers needing jobs, here’s some jobs.
I am a scab because, if I could, I would be in Chicago in a hot second to open a school door and put a sign out, ”Hey kids, are you missing your English lessons, and think you deserve a free, fair, decent education, being that it is a right and all? C’mon in.” I mean, I’m fully qualified in my state (and have looked at IL certification…aside from living in Chi-town proper, if I filed the paperwork, I’d be qualified). And guess what? I believe every child can learn beyond his/her own expectations or others, and should be given the best education out there. With a graduation rate hovering around 50%, and college ready kids hovering below 10, these kids need an education. And not just sometimes.
Just like in Detroit when a few kids walked out, sick and tired of a subpar education, demanding more. Heck I’d have been there, too.
So I am a scab.
But you know what? Scabs aren’t just “killing teacher solidarity” or “not giving a s%^t about students and teachers” or “willing to hair-flip and turn on co-workers” or even “the incrustation that forms over a sore or wound during healing”
No. A scab also helps heal, stop bloodshed, attack and kill harmful germs, and protect the wound.
I am a scab. Yes I want to heal the broken education system, stop the bloodshed by giving children the education that they are watching rush away from them, show them teachers do care about them by stopping the proverbial bloodshed, I want to attack the notion of teachers not caring, and kill the lack of education going on. I want to protect our children from poverty, dropping out, etc by giving them the education they darn well deserve, need, and want. So yeah. I’m a scab I guess.