History of Teaching

1
History of Teaching

• Back in the1800s, school was different from
  today.

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The Student Body

• Students of all ages were in the same class.
   Some of the younger students were three or four
  years old and other students were sometimes older
  than the teacher!

3
Class Size

• 80 or 90 pupils in one class from all grades
  with one teacher.

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Letter from a student 1901

• Right now Miss Matheson is living at the
  Durkson's house.  But next month it will be our
  turn to board her.  I wonder if one day parents
  will build the teacher her own house?

5
Compensation

• Most teachers didn't get paid very much money.
   They received 4 to 10 a month.  A lot of
  teachers had to " board round", meaning they had
  to live with their students.
• A teacher could not afford to support a family
  solely on this salary.

6
Discrimination in pay

• According to Pennsylvania annual school reports
  published in local newspapers, men consistently
  received a higher salary than women.

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Sound stressful?

• Maria Waterbury, a teacher who went to a "water
  cure" resort in Elmira, New York, to recover her
  health, reported that the physician who greeted
  her said he was used to seeing members of her
  profession...

"We have the most trouble with teachers of any
class of patients. They are worn out. They wear
out faster than any other class of people."
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The Right to Bargain Collectively

• In 1935 Congress passed the National Labor
  Relations Act (Wagner Act), which guarantees the
  right of private employees to form and join
  unions to bargain collectively.

Note13 states still expressly prohibit
collective bargaining by public school teachers
or other public employees!
10
It got better
Slowly labor unions around the country fought
against oppressive, and debilitating work
environments.

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But not much

• The Depression years accentuated the problems
  facing teachers low salaries and economic
  insecurity. Worse, female teachers found
  themselves faced with contracts which still
  stipulated that an employed teacher must wear
  skirts of certain lengths, keep her galoshes
  buckled, not receive gentleman callers more than
  three times a week and teach a Sunday School
  class. -The American Teacher

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Many teachers lost their jobs fighting for basic
rights we have today.

• In the early 1900s Loyalty oaths were being
  required in some locales, and teachers were
  dismissed for joining the union or for working on
  school board election campaigns.

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Protecting Teachers

• In the 1950s, loyalty oaths cropped up again.
  The union took leadership in opposing this blight
  upon academic freedom during the McCarthy period,
  defending those teachers wrongly accused of
  subversion.

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Fighting for civil rights
NEA was also in the forefront of the civil rights
movement, filing an amicus curiae brief in the
historic 1954 Supreme Court desegregation case
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, and
expelling locals that had not followed an earlier
mandate to desegregate.
15
Public vs. Private

• Until the early 1960s, teachers had no due
  process or collective bargaining rights. Many
  teachers had only a two-year college degree.
  School boards in some states fired teachers
  simply because they had attained too much
  education and had advanced too far on the salary
  schedule. No legal recourse for teachers was
  available.

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The Right to Collectively Bargain

• In 1962 Wisconsin became the first state to pass
  legislation governing public employee bargaining.
  The Wisconsin statute required local governments
  to bargain in good faith with employee groups and
  also created administrative enforcement measures.
  The law also marked the beginning of widespread
  recognition of the rights of public employees to
  bargain collectively. Within the next five years,
  New York and Michigan passed similar laws, and by
  1974 thirty-seven states had passed legislation
  permitting public employee bargaining a number
  that remains unchanged to this day.

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What rights did we achieve?

• The far-reaching rules established may
  include working conditions, such as the length of
  the school day, hours of instruction and
  preparation time, and interaction time with
  parents class size the number and
  responsibility of supplemental classroom
  personnel, such as aides employment protection
  assignment to schools and grade levels criteria
  for promotion reductions in force professional
  services in-service and professional
  development instructional policy committees
  student grading and promotion teacher
  evaluation performance indicators grievance
  procedures student discipline and teacher
  safety and the exclusion of pupils from the
  classroom.

The list goes on
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Today

• Suffice it to say that collective bargaining
  agreements, through negotiated rules and
  regulations, establish school policy and govern
  how teachers, administrators, parents, and
  students interact in the delivery of educational
  services.

As the Wall Street Journal noted nearly three
decades ago, Teachers unions have become
crucial forces in deciding how public education
should be run in the U.S.
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The following are some of the matters that are
often the subject of bargaining today

• Academic freedom
• Curriculum
• Wages and salaries
• Training
• Hours, workload, and teaching responsibilities
• Tenure and probationary period
• Promotion
• Reappointment

• Reclassification and reduction
• Evaluation procedures
• Grievance procedures
• Personnel files
• Student discipline
• Retirement benefits
• Sick leave
• Leaves and sabbaticals

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Some Important National Issues addressed by NEA
today

• No Child Left Behind (NCLB) /Elementary and
  Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
• Education funding
• Merit pay
• Minority Community Outreach
• Dropout prevention
• Achievement gap
• Social Security Offsets (GPO/WEP)
• School vouchers
• Charter schools

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Join Us!

• Youre one of the hardest-working people in the
  United States, and youre doing our most
  important workpreparing the next generation of
  citizens. Youre not paid what youre worth,
  though youll likely spend a good deal of your
  own money for things your district wont supply
  your students. Youre getting better every day,
  though policymakers who havent been in a
  classroom since they were students will tell you
  how to do your job.
• Hang tough! Keep the faith! And keep putting your
  students firstyour Association has your back.
•