The sole event that I noticed this past
week was the Chicago Teacher's Union strike. Based on what I saw and heard throughout the week, the CTU
decided to strike against CPS based on the need to better the conditions and
practices of the schools, as well as, the treatment and evaluation of
teachers. Additionally, there were
many other issues involved in the teacher's strike. The strike went on for over
a week and helped to reside a numerous amount of issues within public education
in Chicago. Without the strike,
many issues would remain unsolved, but I did have many frustrations with how the
strike was portrayed in the media versus what was actually happening and with
how much time it took to resolve the strike.
I
was surprised at how the strike was portrayed differently on national news
stations compared to Chicago news stations. It seemed that around Chicago, teachers were being viewed negatively because they were
leaving their schools and leaving students that they were supposed to be
teaching. The national news
stations seemed to demonstrate a more balanced view of the strike giving both
sides credit for their hard work, which I
believed to be more of the truth.
I was confused, however, by all of the media attention on the strike
because after hearing one thing I agreed more with CPS and after hearing
another I agreed more with the CTU.
I thought that once CPS gave an updated contract, that the teachers
should have accepted it, but then I also thought that they should keep fighting
for their rights. I was genuinely
torn between the two sides during the strike because I could see the view from
both the CPS side and the CTU side.
The
strike was equally important for the teachers, students, and parents because
they were both affected by the duration and outcome of it. Students remained out of school, while
teachers picketed for the cause and attended rallies. I thought that it was very important to get the students
back to school quickly, as they only attended one week of school prior to the
strike. One of my main
frustrations with the strike was the amount of time it took to come to an
agreement. I noticed that it
seemed to be taking a lot of time in order to make any moves during the strike.
At times, the two sides would end their discussions for the night early in the
evening and then not start back up the following day until noon. It just seemed that wasted a lot of
valuable time that could be spent coming to a compromise by limiting their
hours worked. Of course, I know
that they were probably frustrated with debating and needed their down time, but I think that they
could have been much more conscious of the time spent in discussion.
I
did understand that it took time to solve the issues. I also understood that the media was not always portraying
the strike as a positive event.
What I did not understand is which information was the truth and which was false. I wish that the public could have known
more about what went on behind closed doors of the strike discussion meetings
because then I would have been more informed on my stance. Overall, the strike was a large part of
this school year and will not be something that I will forget.
This
is a case of political issues within the education system. I was sort of excited to be a part of
this huge change in the school systems because it is such a large ordeal. I think I was the most intrigued by the
strike because the issues that the CTU were fighting for are ones that they do
not teach us about in the College of Education. We never learned about what goes on behind the scenes in the
education world. I constantly checked
resources for new information regarding the strike before it actually happened
and while it was happening. I was
extremely interested in what was going on with the strike, so I read a lot of
different articles about it. Each
time I would read an updated article, I would check another source to see how
they portrayed the new information because I was curious as to what the truth
was. I'm looking forward to
learning a lot more about the political side of education throughout this year.
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