Labor Issues

Something's been troubling me lately. The discussion surrounding the possible bailout of America's largest auto manufacturers has generated a fairly standard response from commentators of a more business-friendly persuasion.
In essence, they suggest that the high wages and generous benefits packages of unionized workers are responsible for the inability of companies like General Motors to compete in the market. Forget about the fact that many American cars are built by cheap labor in places like Mexico and Brazil, that the auto industry employs far fewer worker in the United States than it once did, or that Detroit has made a lot of lousy cars for several decades now. The money paid to its workforce is what's killing the Big Three automakers, they say.
Is it true?
I am not a fan of unregulated capitalism; I tend to side with labor over business. But one thing trips me up in this debate. I remember learning, back in the '70s, that people working on assembly lines in Detroit were making 20 dollars an hour and more. For those too young to make sense of that, it may be helpful to know that making 20 buck an hour even now, in 2008, would make you richer than probably 55 to 60 percent of American workers.
In other words, auto workers were making very handsome sums of money. I'm not saying they didn't deserve it, but could it have played a significant role in the subsequent decline in the fortunes of the American auto industry (along with the fact that, at roughly the same time, Detroit began making some of the worst-built cars in history)?
Anyway, here's what I'm driving at. (Sorry.) How much do teacher unions contribute to some of the problems in public education today, from quality of instruction to school funding?
I have two observations that may or may not be germaine.
My daughter, now a fifth grader, attends on of the best funded and most well regarded public elementary schools in Portland. And yet, for three straight years, she had teachers that my wife and I regarded as far less than inspiring. Two of them were nearing the end of their careers and seemed to be doing little more than going through the motions of teaching. Could they have been demoted or dismissed? I don't know. But I doubt it, based on what I know, or think I know, about the strength of teacher unions.
The other anecdote involves something I was told a few years back by an acquaintance who is a successful Portland businessman (and an admitted conservative). At a time when local schools were facing budget shortfalls and taxpayers were about to be asked to fund a stopgap levy, this friend told me that the cost of health care for each unionized teacher in Portland was $900 a month, and that the reason the figure was so high was that teachers had insisted on a plan that didn't require them to pay any deductible whatsoever or make even a minimal copayment on doctor visits or medications.
He told me the cost to taxpayers would have been reduced by half if teachers had consented to even a modest contribution. Later, a coworker of mine, a journalist who was covering education issues at the time, essentially confirmed what I had been told.
As I said before, I consider my beliefs to be largely in accord with those of working people. Yet I question the validity of a system that costs taxpayers - and students - millions of dollars so that a relatively small number of union members can save themselves what seems like an almost insignificant amount of money.
Of course, if everything goes according to plan for me personally, I will soon benefit from the power and influence of the teachers' union. What I don't know is whether that will properly address the misgivings I have currently regarding unions and their priorities.

Watching your profile

I'm sure some of you saw the news about the Tigard High principal who was forced to resign after being arrested for driving with a suspended license. Perhaps some of you know him; he's been around education in Portland for awhile.
It made me think about the consequences for educators when mistakes are made even away from school. Not that I'm planning on a drunk driving arrest or driving with a suspended license or anything in that category, but something like this serves as a reminder of how important image can be for those who work in our schools.
Just a thought.

Hey Gang, I've got a really intriguing ethical question for you, and I'm fairly confident it's relevant to educators.
At work last week, I walked past the desk of the sports editor for one of our affiliated weekly newspapers. On top of a pile of other stuff was a photocopy of an image taken by a stringer at a local high school soccer game. A playoff game.
In the shot, one player was on his knees, having just scored a goal that would propel his team to a win in a state quarterfinal game. Another player had rushed over and thrown his arms around his heroic teammate, who turned and, in the moment the picture was snapped, kissed the other player on the cheek.
It was clearly no accident, not a guy with his face smushed against another's. He puckered up. It was a kiss.
It was also a tremendous piece of photo journalism, a captured image bursting with energy and triumphant, exhuberant joy. Beautiful. It had to run in the paper. Didn't it?
Then it hit me. These are high school kids. Two high school boys. In a story that will run in a small suburban weekly.

You make the call. Do you run the picture? And what if it had been taken by a photographer for a high school paper and you're the journalism advisor?

I'm dying to know what you guys think.

Strengths and Weaknesses

In the first week of 533, we were still finishing up Dr. Lichau's 532 course, so the differences between the two classes were immediately clear.
While Dr. Lichau seemed to favor teaching strategies that encouraged us to demonstrate a great deal of initiative and imagination, we relied heavily on small group dynamics and wider classroom discussion to foster an atmosphere in which ideas and opinions were exchanged energetically. We sometimes had to wonder precisely what it was our instructor wanted from us, but we were certainly free to seek out the answers we needed from her and the cohort.
In 533, the instruction we were provided was generally clear, especially to those who already had a foundation of understanding. But I believe many of us felt a sense of isolation from the rest of the cohort that was unfamiliar, especially for those of us who had never taken an online course. I wonder if more could have been done at the outset to encourage us to use the discussion feature as a way to create a support network.

Using Blogs in the Classroom

Karen Work Richardson says that "Civil discourse forms the foundation of a Democratic society." If she's right, America has got some work to do, judging by the tone of the political debate we've seen in recent months.

Nonetheless, it is interesting to consider the learning opportunity that online discussion provides for today's students. It seems to me that the blog allows for a kind of fast-moving, highly concentrated exchange of ideas that may not have existed for students in past generations. In that charged environment, people will certainly make mistakes, allowing emotions to substitute for considered opinion and attacking the messenger instead of the message.

But that, theoretically, is where the teachable moments reside. I firmly believe that, as a society, we have faltered in our ability to both think critically and disagree respectfully. Perhaps online discussions in schools give us a chance to reclaim those skills.

The example of the classroom blog that we examined indicated the wide range of possibilities the tool offers for both teachers and students. I was a bit puzzled to see an ad for a dating service on one portion of the blog.

first time out

Wow. Here goes my first-ever blog entry on my very own blog.

My name is Eric Bartels and it is my intention to somehow get through the MAT program at Concordia and teach English and/or Spanish at the high school level. (I also might be persuaded to be a journalism advisor and might not be averse to doing some coaching.)

My favorite animals are dogs and horses and cats, for different reasons. I like dogs because of their loyalty and pure sense of duty. I am fascinated at the way horses - and their relationship to man - changed the course of history. And I love that cats are awe-inspiring killing machines but also really great looking.