Revolution Of Rising Expectations

By Adam Urbanski

As a teacher and unionist, I have listened to my colleagues for more than 25 years describe their hopes and aspirations for their profession and union. The emerging consensus includes learner-centered schools, shared communitywide accountability, a more genuine teaching profession, and a union that acts as an agent for reform as well as an advocate for doing right by kids.

Any vision is only a pipe dream unless created twice: first in the mind and then in the real world. If we can envision it, then we can also achieve it. What follows is my attempt to envision the ideal school culture 10 years hence, to paint a picture of a reformed profession and teachers' union. I should point out that many are already hard at work building such a tomorrow today.

In my vision, teachers are paid and treated like true professionals. Because they are closest to the classroom and to the students, they have the most authority, the most status, and the most money. They command salaries and have working conditions comparable to those of other professions with similar educational requirements and societal importance. Teachers have their own offices, office hours, secretaries, and telephones; they even have unrestricted access to the copying machine. They no longer lament that they love to teach...