Thousands Take To The Streets For Chicago Teachers Strike Rally
By aaroncynic in News on Sep 11, 2012 2:20PM
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South Clark Street was packed with teachers, parents and students Monday for an afternoon rally in support of the Chicago teachers strike. Chicago Police estimated the crowd as between 5,000-7,000. The Chicago Teachers Union placed the numbers at closer to 15,000. Regardless, it was an impressive sea of red.
I spoke with Vanessa Ahmed, who has been teaching in Chicago Public Schools for 12 years, and another teacher who wished to remain anonymous, about why they were at the rally.
Chicagoist: Why are you out here (personally)?
Vanessa Ahmed: I believe our compulsory education system is designed deliberately to be ineffective. Systematically, the design of it all doesn't meet the needs of the 21st century child. In particular a 21st century child that comes from a deficit our students come from - the level of poverty, the level of illiteracy.
C: The criticisms I saw today are centered around teachers being self entitled, making too much money...
VA: Collectively it's heartbreaking that we collectively allow agenda driven media to continuously, deliberately and overtly feed us propaganda and we allow that to happen because in the end we're motivated by self preservation, not self sacrifice, even when that sacrifice can temporarily be for the greater good. I don't see a Barrington parent, a Niles parent, a Skokie parent allowing their child to be in a classroom of 35, let alone 40. I've had 43 in a class before.
Unidentified second teacher
C: How do you feel about the decision to go on strike and what brought you here today?
It's been a long decision, the negotiations have gone on and this is not something... a lot of us are at Track E schools and we've already worked a month without a contract. It's not something we do lightly. I think a lot of issues that have festered for a long time are starting to come out. Parents at our schools have been very supportive of us in front of the schools. Almost everybody who drove by was in favor of us. We had neighbors coming out (inaudible but I think she said offers to use the bathroom)...
I think that it's time we talk about education, really improving it. There's a bigger issue of how we truly improve education in Chicago.
C: Do you think that this will go on for awhile?
I don't know. I really don't know. Even if the strike ends, I hope in some way we can keep the conversation going about how to improve education. This top down effort is not good for anyone. The people who know most about what's going on in the schools and what's making it difficult are the teachers and the parents. And if City Hall does not listen to them, we're never really going to improve education.