Taking A Stand! I Support CPS Teachers refusing to Administer ISAT

                       TAKING A STAND!

   I support the movement of Chicago Public School’s students, parents, and teachers who refuse to administer the ISAT test this upcoming two weeks. What’s the point of even taken the test when only 11 CPS Schools are actually meeting the standards required? As I reflect on my teaching experiences and volunteer experiences, I immediately think of all the inequalities and bureaucratic policies passed down from federal department of education to the state department of education to the various districts of education. Now, it is time to take a stand.

    When I was recently asked if I thought teachers today needed to be activists in my graduate class, I didn't hesitate in my answer. "Being a teacher, almost by definition, means being an activist.” That might come as a surprise to those teachers who have never wrote a letter to the editor,  marched in a rally, or "Occupied" anything but their classrooms. But I'm holding to my belief, as firmly as some teachers hold their protests signs declaring things like, "Let Teachers Teach" and "Protect Our Students": being an activist is an essential part of being a teacher. I had my first opportunity to really be an activist for my students during the CTU vs CPS strike of 2012 over contract negotiations. I had the opportunity to really stand up for what I believe in and be a part of a larger force of change.
For most teachers activism is an everyday thing because students and their needs are every day. There's a lot to watch out for in our classrooms these days aside from whether a lesson is hitting home. A student who can't read the board because her family can't afford glasses. A cough that doesn't go away. A young boy who refuses to go to recess because he gets picked on. A nasty bruise on the arm of the girl who doesn't do her work. The immigrant student struggling with a new culture and a new language. The issues are real -- poverty, neglect, abuse, poor health and nutrition, bullying, depression, low self-esteem -- and they are all a part of an average school day. I probably deal with these issue on a daily so where is the respect for our teachers.
   Good teachers don't complain, they just act, doing what needs doing to help their students learn. It may be a home visit, a talk with a school counselor, an offer to tutor after school, a walk around the playground at lunchtime, or a spare change collection in the teachers' room for eyeglasses. Some teachers (and it's a growing number thankfully) feel the need to address these concerns in a broader context, "taking to the streets" to confront such issues as health care, drugs, physical and sexual abuse, bullying, immigration, the current educational policy itself. But whatever teachers do, they take action, becoming activists for their students.
It wasn't any different for me, my lifestyle growing up reflects most of my students and that allows me to grow better relate to them. I wish it wasn’t so hard to get policy makers to understand that students' living conditions have a profound impact on their school success. For me that meant paying attention to who came to class with a cut forehead or bruised cheek, who hadn't showered for a few days, who acted frightened or paranoid, or who didn't show up at all. I feel like the youth I work with these days have few to no advocates. My role as their teacher required that I be that advocate and take action where and when I could. Many times that action meant carefully, diplomatically negotiating the volatile power structure that makes up our school system.  But how could I do otherwise? How could any teacher do otherwise?
   But you know what I realized? My students began asking questions about my background. My undergraduate experience, my legislative intern experience, and the fascinating stories I told them of lesson I learned. Then, it hit me. Most students learn how to act by observing how we act in the everyday world. It was something that my most troubled students made me conscious of. Society has lots of rules. Some rules make sense; others make no sense at all. Even though they knew it was against the rules my students would ask me to do things like sneak in some candy or to let them take colored markers back to the block. Pretty innocent things, but I refused. "Why not? It's no big deal," they'd complain. "Nobody will find out." I knew they weren't interested in my sermon on honesty and integrity. That was okay, though. My words were beside the point. What was the point was that I would not break the rules. I acted in a way that they didn't like but that they knew was right. The same lessons go on whatever the school setting. Students learn how to act by simply watching how their teachers act, whether it's following rules, treating others with respect, or just showing up day after day and doing their job.
    Unfortunately today's education reformers not teachers are the ones who are defining -- and limiting -- what it means to be a teacher, and there's not much about activism in their definition. According to these pundits, a teacher's job comes down to one thing: Get kids to pass the mandated tests. It is a shortsighted definition that is harmful not only to students but also to the teaching profession itself. But any teacher will tell you that we are much more than test-preparers. To be a teacher is to be an activist in ways that are familiar and unfamiliar, that are comfortable and uncomfortable, and that are mundane and at times, as we have seen throughout our history, heroic. So again, I support teachers all around the country doing brave things. We have a duty to teach them to be better human beings, civilians, and thinkers, which are important values to take from school.