Working on a Response

I've been trying to draft a coherent response to the teachers' contract now under consideration in NYC, and I just can't get all my thoughts untangled and presentable in blog format. So I'll give the readers' digest version and maybe post the unabridged account later. Frankly, I haven't the time to polish it up, and lack of time is one of my major points!

Anyway, I'm leaning strongly against the contract. I've been complaining almost since I began my career that teaching conditions in NYC need to IMPROVE, and if that means compromising on salary increases, then so be it. I would rather have the 11% salary increase with improved working conditions. Why wasn't that feasible instead of 15% plus deteriorating working conditions that we are faced with now? Yes, 15% sounds great, but hey, 11% sounds pretty good too, over a shorter period of time with the likelihood of making up most or all of the remaining % points in the next contract. Improve working conditions by lowering class size and incorporating more time in the school day for planning, marking papers, and individualized/small group instruction, interacting with parents. I don't expect these things to happen overnight, but I've been teaching 13 years and there's been not one single improvement or even a plan for improving the class size problem. Can't anyone even outline a 10 year plan to get class sizes down to 22 or so? That gives you 2 years to start building schools and 8 years to reduce, one student per year, down to 22. That reduces by almost a third the number of student papers I have to grade, and increases the amount of time I can spend actually reading and responding to each child's work. It also means my science lab will actually conform to the safety recommendations of the NSTA and other science organizations - yes, the currently allowed 30 students in a science lab is an unsafe situation for the students.

So instead, I am now faced with teaching not fewer students but more students. In the short run, the union position may be honored and I will only get students I already teach in a more or less tutorial capacity, but I agree with union critics that the writing is on the wall and we are headed toward a 30 period per week teaching load in the near future. I'm sorry, but I just don't have any more time to give. If the contract passes I will do what I have to do, but I can only see my family life suffering even more than it already is. I guess at least I will have more money to buy stuff for my kids in place of spending time with them - one day they will understand, right?