What is it that turns complacency into passion, apathy into action? This is the question I have been pondering about myself lately because a fire within me has been stoked, and I have been participating more in political life.
Let me begin by saying that I was born and raised in a very conservative, Mormon family. I always knew that I was not like my four siblings. I joked around that maybe I was adopted or that I had a twin that lived with another family. In a word, I was a rebel. I did not want to go to church on Sunday, or Wednesday, or Saturday, or whatever day had some church function. I wanted to play, or do whatever I felt I was missing out on by going to church. My rebellious nature has been difficult to suppress, even though my parents tried. It has popped up time and time again in my life, always to be pushed back into submission.
My parents and family are staunch Republicans. I’m sure they always vote Republican without question. I, too, have voted Republican without giving it much thought. I turned eighteen in 1984 and missed the presidential election by one month. I would have voted for Reagan because my parents voted for Reagan. Instead, I had to wait until 1988 to vote in my first presidential election. I voted for H.W. Bush, just like my parents. Honestly, I was too egocentric to give politics a second thought in the 1980s. I did my duty and went home. It wasn’t until the 1990s that my life made a turn left.
I got divorced. The youngest of five, I was the last to get married and the first to get divorced. Needless to say, my family did not support divorce as an option, but they loved me and tried to understand how I could leave my husband of only three years to seek a better life. My parents even gave me some financial support during this transition. Ironically, three of my siblings got divorced from their spouses after I got divorced. It was as if I blazed a trail for them. Only one of my sisters is still married to her first husband.
Getting divorced forced me into independence. Actually, I was already there, I just didn’t realize it at the time. I needed a career that could support me because it was obvious that the idea that a husband would support me was not a reality. Luckily, I didn’t have any children with my first husband, and I could make decisions that only affected me.
I went back to school to become a teacher, and this is where the liberal side of me was brought to the surface. It was always there, but nothing of note triggered it to come forth. Even when I joined the MEA in my first year of teaching (in a large urban district), I did not participate in any union activities. When officer election time came, I just filled out the ballot. I didn’t even know the people who were running.
It wasn’t until I got a job in a small, rural district that things began to change. In my new job, the union members were much more involved than in the big city district. We were expected to attend union meetings, something I had never done before. We were expected to serve on committees, also something new to me.
My new job also offered new opportunities to make new friends and teach new courses. I have to say that this combination is what has brought about the most change for me. A few years ago I was asked by my principal to teach AP U.S. History. I had always taught English (with one exception, I taught economics for one year), and I was flattered and nervous about such an undertaking. I would have to become an "expert" on U.S. history in a very short time in order to teach a college-level course. I accepted the challenge.
At the same time as this, I came to know the department chair of the social studies department much better. We began to eat lunch together and most of our conversations focused around teaching methods we used in our classes. My first year teaching AP was very stressful, and my friend (who also teaches AP) was there to offer words of encouragement to get me through this formidable first year. This friend and department chair is also my local union president.
During the last year, issues within the political world and the educational world have quickly changed course. Changes are happening both at the national level and the state level and both have been the topic of conversation at lunch with my dear friend. Last year our state adopted the Common Core Curriculum Standards which means yet another curriculum shift, a shift toward a national curriculum, taking away much of the local control of curriculum. Michigan elected a Republican governor to office, and both the House and the Senate have the Republican majority. This has easily allowed the passage of legislation that will change the status quo in education in Michigan.
Most of these changes will not benefit students. The details of this have been the subject of other blog posts, but it is this current political atmosphere that has caused me to do things that I have never before done. My first activist function was attending a grade-in at a mall in Lansing. We wore red shirts and parked ourselves in the food court for three hours to grade papers on a Sunday afternoon. There weren't very many participants that first time, but I was interviewed by the local news station about what we were doing at the mall. I told the reporter that this is the way many teachers spend their Sunday. We wanted the public to know that we didn't just work from 8-3 Monday through Friday.
For my second activity, I attended a union rally at the Capitol building in Lansing in April. It wasn't just teachers in attendance, but many unions. We held signs and chanted, "That's not right!" as we listened to speakers. It didn't really accomplish anything, but it made me feel good that I was showing my discontent with what was going on.
On the local front, our union has been involved in negotiations for a new contract for over a year. We decided as a group to do a few activities to make our feelings known to the administration. We got t-shirts that were red and had "Linden United" on the front. We did informational picketing, passing out cards to parents as they dropped off their children in the morning. We had union meetings advising our members to write to their legislators about the anti-teacher legislation that was pending.
I e-mailed both my senator and my representative (both Republicans). I attended another rally, this time an MEA rally that was the biggest rally at the Capitol since Snyder took office. It was barely mentioned in the news media. Finally, I decided I should go to the Capitol and try to speak to my senator in person. This is something I never would have dreamed of doing even a year ago. Of course, I didn't get to speak to him and the vote passed the legislation, so my efforts had no effect. What's next? I will continue to write about issues that are important to teachers and students. I want to get involved in the recall effort against the governor and some of the legislators. Basically, it is just the beginning for me because I have discovered that I cannot allow myself to sit by and be complacent or apathetic about what is happening in this state and in this country. Hopefully, my voice will make a difference...
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