Hi,
This post is inspired by a protest going on throughout Los Angeles: negotiations over pay, staff hiring, and other matters between leaders of Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles.
Introduction
I'm fascinated by the act of teaching others, and in general, the role of a teacher in a person's life. It was a history teacher in my junior year in high school that motivated me to try my best after a dismal period the year prior. Another teacher, a technology resource specialist for blind students, gave me an opportunity to teach computers to younger students in my senior year. I met many professors in college who encouraged me to try my best in my classes despite difficulties. At Cal State LA, I met a graduate teaching assistant that changed my outlook on competitive impromptu speaking in the course of a year.
A few days ago, Los Angeles Times and other media organizations presented a story about the current negotiations taking place between leaders of Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles. Seeking better pay, job security for support staff and over other matters, UTLA members decided to strike when the negotiations fell. Citing budget problems, LAUSD officials said demands from teachers could not be met, or if met, it'll be limited in terms of duration.
On January 14, 2019, I woke up to sound of people chanting outside (I live near an elementary school). "Whose school? Our school," people chanted. As the week went on, the number of people joining the protests grew, and I went outside from time to time to watch the events unfold. On January 18th, I joined and addressed the crowd, asking people to show unity during negotiations for the sake of students.
After addressing the crowd, I felt uneasy about what i've done. On one hand, I felt relieved to finally voice my opinions. on the other hand, I felt I could have articulated my stances better and felt a pang of guilt over the possibility that I may have offended some in the crowd. Even as I write this, I am still conflicted as to how best I can articulate what you are about the read: what I think might be the cause, who else should think about what's happening, and a call for unity for sake of students.
Possible root causes
I think the roots of recent protests could be reputation and respect, not just pay and job security for support staff (nurses, librarians, and others). For some groups, reputation matters, and reputation of LAUSD schools have been mixed in recent years. Respect matters because of the bond between people and groups, as it helps build trust and relationships.
For some, reputation matters, and in this case, schools and the community that it represents. If people hear that a certain school has better reputation than others, people would try to send their children to that school, even if it is far from where they live. As a result, people and groups would devote resources to that school more than others, creating an imbalance. I graduated from one such high school: being ranked highly in academics, my old high school became a magnet for families seeking better education for young people, resulting in mixed reputation later: superb academic rankings while suffering from overcrowding and lack of funds for crucial programs.
Respect matters, because it creates bonds and trust. Respect can cross all sorts of boundaries: between people in different positions, colleagues, and for some, from an older person to a younger person. If it wasn't for my mother's insistance that I show respect to elders 9including teachers), I would have continued to insist that I am right when in fact I might be wrong.
When we combine these two, I think we're living in an era where reputation has been inflated, and divisions cause lack of respect. Statistics can give us a taste of what the public thinks about a school at a really high level, but will it show the full story? Can we respect an institution when it demonstrates division? Unfortunately, as it stands, recent protests demonstrate the manifestation of these causes.
Who else should think about current events
To me, it isn't just LAUSD leadership and teachers that should think about progress of recent events. I also think parents, students, and anyone who students will look up to as role models should think about what happened, what's happening, and possible outcomes and solutions.
For students, I think recent protests should serve as a reason to think about importance of showing respect to not only parents and teachers, but also to other support staff who can profoundly influence their lives. Students do not learn about life from just up to six teachers they interact at a given day. Students also learn about life from nurses, librarians, volunteer teachers, and anyone they interact with. For this reason, I think it is important that students should show support for staff who are worrying about job security, especially those who can guide their path in life.
For parents, I think recent protests should serve as a reason to teach their children about importance of learning about life both inside and outside the classroom. People are not only influenced while interacting with their peers and teachers; they also learn about life outside the classroom.
Most importantly, I think people who interact with students daily outside of school should think about their role on well-being of students. Situations outside of school, especially interactions between students and other people, can have profound impact on lives of students, especially for a person a student can think of as a role model.
Calling for unity for sake of students
As it stands, the current climate is a dangerous one for students at LAUSD: lack of funding in certain areas of education, and lack of staff students can get support in school from apart from teachers and administrators. Although I do sympathize with teachers, I'm afraid teachers may find themselves teaching students the effects and influence of division.
When I addressed the crowd on the 18th, my main point was showing unity for sake of students. Although I spoke to a group of teachers, I believe it is applicable to LAUSD leaders, students, parents, and others who can influence lives of students.
Unity helps build trust. If there is one thing my mother stressed besides respect, it was the power of trust in relationships. Thus I believe one of the first steps to any meaningful relationship between people and groups is trust, made stronger if people and groups show unity. However, current climate and recent events suggest otherwise, and for students, it may become an influential lesson on teaching students to not build meaningful relationships, let alone show unity, even a small attempt at unity when solving problems. I believe one lesson students would like to learn is the power of unity and trust that comes as a result.
More importantly, unity motivates problem resolution. Some professors in college stressed to me and my classmates the importance of working together to build meaningful results. Hence, I believe unity, or an attempt at unity, allows people to unite and try their best to solve problems. Rather than showing an attempt at unity, current climate and recent events may serve as a lesson on how not to solve problems, let alone confront them, an influential lesson for students as they learn about working in groups. I think one thing students would like to learn is effective ways of resolving problems, and one answer is teaching them about unity.
So who are the winners and losers, or to phrase it differently, the most affected and visible population? It isn't LAUSD leaders nor teachers, but students. The events of the last few weeks will become important lessons in the hearts of students throughout LAUSD: a lesson on how much teachers, school district leaders, and others care about them, and also a lesson on reality they live in and will shape in the future. My hope is that students will learn the former more than the latter: to serve as a reminder to all parties (including students themselves) how much unity we need, and at the same time, thinking about reputation, respect, and influence of others in their lives.
Conclusion
I believe one of the greatest gifts a child can have is someone who can teach him or her about life. For this reason, I have utmost respect for teachers and other support staff inside and outside of school. As an alumnus of a LAUSD high school and a college student, I'm thankful to my teachers for having an influence in my life.
But as much as we thank teachers, we need to think about what a child will learn when witnessing divisions, inflated reputations, and lack of respect, and more importantly, lack of unity. Recent LAUSD and UTLA negotiations, along with protests throughout Los Angeles is a good example of conflicting lessons students will learn as they attend school run by LAUSD, an important milestone in their lives.
As of time of this blog post, negotiations between LAUSD leaders and UTLA is ongoing. I'm glad that at least an attempt at unity has been made, an important start to a hopeful resolution. But this is only a start. Therefore, if you do care about students, I urge all sides to show unity for sake of students, including students themselves.
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