Cool Zone Media. Welcome to Dick. It appened here a podcast being recorded in the like last hours of Halloween in in the the I guess the closing minutes of a teacher is in Portland not being on strike. So yeah, this is this is a podcast that is often about strikes, and here to talk with me about this is Britney Doris, who's a fifth grade teacher in Portland public schools, who's the union captain for her school and the strike captain also for her school. Brittany, Welcome to the show.
Hi, glad to be here.
I'm really glad to talk to you. So all right, we are we are in we are in zero hour. Yeah, we're in the zero hour of the strike. By the time this comes out, like I guess, you'll have been on strike for like two days. Yeah, I'm assuming this comes out Friday. Yeah, So all right. I think the place we should start probably for people who are not in poor people who haven't been following this. I guess we should start with what are the sort of conditions
that have led to this. I have heard some absolutely wild things about what's happening for the schools right now.
So how did we get here?
Yeah?
Yeah, we've been negotiating or bargaining this contract for over a year and pushing for circumstances that are just better suited for our students. Some of our classrooms that we're dealing with situations like rodents and mold and still some buildings dealing with lead in their water. Extreme temperatures like class sizes are huge, but different depending on where you're at in the city. Like, we've just been overcompensating with less since the pandemic times, and we're fed up, we're
not able to do it anymore. And yeah, we're strike ready.
Yeah, and I mean this is something, this is, this is this is I think a pretty interesting set of circumstances because my understanding and okay, so don't quote me on this. I'm pretty sure that the last time that the Portland teachers went on strike was in the like actually ended up striking and not just doing this strike authorization vote was the was was during the eighties, So it has been it has been a really long time.
It's literal lifetime.
Yeah, it's like I was not I was like two of my lifetimes effectively, Like I was on a line for this.
So yeah, I think we're seeing that shift happened nationwide. That education has been continuously public education has been continuously chipped away at and eroded over the last few decades, and more and more responsibility has put on the been put on the backs of teachers, and we are not able to function under this workload, under these conditions, and without increased support for the educators as well. So I think this is the culmination of kind of years and
years of disinvestment in public education nationwide. And so you're seeing a lot more strikes, educational strikes coming up throughout the country, and particularly for Portland's history. Like you said, it's if Portland public schools have striked in the past, it's been literal decades, not in my lifetime, not in your lifetime, and just the continued frustration of decades of struggle.
Yeah, and I mean, as from what I've heard from from people in the city. So the line that I got was that janitors were being told that the standard they were supposed to clean schools too was quote moderately dingy. So things seem not good.
Yeah, it's rough. There's rodents everywhere. Our custodial workers are already worked to the limit and understaffed, and so our buildings show. I mean, the school that I work in is over one hundred and ten years old, and you can tell it's not being up kept and students are suffering. The conditions are, like you said, dingy, a moderate level of approved dinginess supposedly, and that's gross.
Yeah, And I mean so I've heard that complains a lot. I mean, I like, when I was in school, we only had one we had well, I mean, there might have been more. There probably were more rats we didn't see. We had one drowned rat fall out of a ceiling, but that was it. It was. It was. We were limited to one rat for four years. And I feel I feel like that's the maximum number of rats that you should encounter is maybe one because it's kind of funny, but yeah, yeah.
And these are class pets, like these aren't no the mice and rats that you're using in a science class or keeping as the class pet in the corner.
Like ooh yeah, and the other I guess I guess the next thing that I wanted to talk about is class sizes, because I know, I mean, this is a very people have been like talking about this for ages, and it's it's something that's really I feel like it's weird negotiating wise because and this is something I see all the time. The school dishesh will be like, well, like the admin will be oh, well, yeah, of course you want like smaller class sizes, and then they just
won't do it. So, yeah, could you talk about.
Yeah, here's something that's really burning my biscuit. Our district management continues to tell our community and the press that our average class size is twenty three students at the elementary level. And the problem with that statistic is that they are doing a ratio based on the adults in the building. So, for example, we have a learning coach.
Uh huh. We have a learning coach who works with children in small groups throughout the building, but she herself is not a rostered classroom teach, but she is put into that equation so that it looks like our classes on average are twenty three when the reality is very different. The music teacher doesn't count, the learning coach doesn't count. But in the math that the district is like that math ain't math in my class is thirty four kids.
You're telling the public that the average is twenty three, and it's just not true. Because you're including adults in the building who aren't the host classroom teacher.
Yeah, which is that's just that's just absurd, Like, I mean, you have to know that you're lying in order to create that statistic, Like that's a h And I you.
Know, it is true that there are some classes around the district that are small. I had a miracle of a class last year that was twenty two kids. That coport was just small that you know, they weren't having as many babies eleven years ago. I don't know. But this year, this year, I have thirty four and the year prior so not last year, but the twenty twenty two years I had thirty two and thirty four kids is unsustainable, especially because I have the twenty two to
compare it to. I am very aware of how little capacity I have for meeting their needs, for teaching, the wide range of levels that are in the class, even for checking in with kids. I can look out at my room at midday and think looking at a kid. I don't know if I've talked to you, like, it's possible to go so under the radar when there are that many children to care for.
Yeah, And I mean that's a difference of like it's like a forty percent class size increase, right, Yeah, good year, which is nuts.
And I can feel and it's having a significant impact on just my own well being and mental health this year because I know what it looks like to teach well and I know that I cannot currently do it with this many and it's hard. Last year, I wasn't feeling any symptoms of burnout at all. It's feeling really good, loving my job still. And this year, I'm like, oh, oh my gosh, I cannot keep up with this many kids, especially with you know, we've gotten even so as class
sizes have increased, so have the needs of our students. Right, We're dealing with a lot more mental health issues. We're dealing with a wide range of neurodiversity that comes with different needs. And so it's that's the thirty four now is exponentially different than thirty four when we were young. It's it's intense and it's unsustainable and I'm living it every day.
Yeah, And like, you know, I think on an abstract level, like the district knows like that this sucks, right, but they just they don't fucking do anything about it.
It's just right, real, Yeah, and even to the level that we're able to bargain it. There are things such as like permissive topics that we can or cannot bargain
and things that we can bargain. And even in the strike that we are about to have, they continue to push back on the class cap request, saying that it is a permissift topic and that it's class caps may only be applicable to what are called Title I schools, so schools where the population is more impacted by poverty, and so they're trying, like even trying to get small class sizes or smaller class sizes, knowing that it's a district wide issue, may still only be successful for some
parts of our district. Yeah, and that's that, ain't right, Yeah?
Yeah, Yeah, that's absurd.
Yeah, Like, my classroom is incredibly diverse. We are not a Title one school. We are known for supposedly being in one of the more affluent areas, but even our neighborhood school that those demographics have continued to change, and we have many students that are experiencing poverty and experiencing some of the cultural pieces that go with that, the systemic impacts of that. Our students are living through trauma.
Our students are experiencing it for Our students are experiencing racism and sexism and homophobia, and they are jam packed sardines in a overheated room with no supports. I'm the only adult in the room to support them. I have students with disabilities who aren't getting support from our SPED team because our SPED team is SPED stance for special education. Our special educators are working with some younger grade students with even bigger needs. So my fifth graders with disabilities
are getting completely left in the lurch. And it is my single body with all thirty four and we're floundering.
Yeah, And I mean that's another sort of aspect of this that I think is really like, is really grim, that all of these issues. It's like, the kids you need the most help from the beginning are the people who are getting the most hurt by it, and right, you know, and those are the people who the education system is supposed to be taken care of and just cannot because yeah, you know, chronic understaffing, class sizes that are too large.
Right, And it's especially painful. I've been teaching now for ten years and I am looking at this class right now. I have a student in my class who is a little black boy with a disability, and I'm looking at him knowing that I am not able to give him
what he needs. And he is like the statistic that school districts want to put on their website, like we got you know, our our marginalized populations, We've helped them, we fit and like, here is a student that is the statistic that you supposedly are fighting for, and he is absolutely left out to dry and I am trying to do what I can for him, and he comes
to mind. I picture him as I'll be out there on that picket line, like I am out there for that kid as well as his thirty three other classmates. But just like quint essential picture of who I'm fighting for and who is getting left behind?
Yeah, which which which I don't know? Like there there's there's I think there's something really grim in the way and this is this is a you know, this this goes back to what you were talking about with the way that they're just straight up lying about the average the average class size, where it's it really seems like these things have you know, the the actual process of education is being degraded into just this this sort of
metric chasing game. And you know, as long as you have metrics that look good, you know, like the district is like, wow, okay, it's fine that, like, our students aren't equality of education they need. It's fine that they're in these buildings that are literally falling apart. It's fine that, you know, kids aren't getting what they need. Like, as long as the metrics look good and right.
That's something something that gets me when we talk about those metrics. Knowing our superintendent gets a bonus if academically marginalized populations like our black and brown students, if they increase their performance on standardized tests, he gets a bonus. Now, what I have a problem with is that those standardized tests that we take every spring, there are some students that are so impacted by the school system that they may have attendance issues, they may not be there consistently
in the spring to take those tests. So something I'm picturing a couple of my students who were impacted by poverty, were kids of color and were significantly absent due to what the circumstances of their life. Those students were not able to take that test in the spring. That means those students, those black and brown students, that data wasn't
in those metrics. So even the metrics that are being used to measure whether or not we are successfully supporting our students of color are inaccurate because our most impacted students aren't able to take that assessment. Like his data, our superintendent's data is going to look better when some of the students who might tank that data because they are unsupported by the school system aren't there to be in the data because they're unsupported by the school system. It falls apart.
And this is one of these things where it's like, the only way to change this is do is do union actions because like the school district's not going to do it, like their metrics look fine, right and right, you know, the government is not going to do it because they're not going to they don't want to spend more money. So this is this is the only way to actually.
Yeah, and I think we finally, I think have made a point. We are I mean, our union actions already have been building up a visible presence. We have massive community support from our not only our parent communities, but the greater Portland area. Business is coming out and support people joining us at like we had a massive march
this Saturday where we took over the Burnside Bridge. And as our union actions build, we know that we are out there, we are not alone, and that we are feeling the support from the community and we are becoming a more visible presence, and especially in Portland, we are a massive union. Other unions around the state are looking at us and watching how this goes. And we can tell that the district management is scared. They are starting to send out emails to families that are meant to
intimidate and panic and cause chaos. And we're seeing these defensive moves that are a reaction.
Do you know who else is a hack and a fraud? Who did who didn't figure out a way to do an ad pivot here? It's the it's the products and services that support this podcast.
Yeah, speaking of businesses that support.
Us and we're back. Yeah. So you know, okay, So that that those are Those are two other dynamics that I I sort of I wanted to get into. I guess first I want to talk about what the what the community support has looked like, what fourthmore the unionses look like and you know, how how you've been engaging with parents, because I mean that that's it's been a
big thing. So I'm from Chicago and so we have like a I mean not that long, like for the last about decade, the Chicago Teachers Union's been on strike a bunch of times, and it's yeah, like it really and the support of that and the engagement of that really is one of the few things us in making Chicago a better place. So I wanted to ask what that's looked like in Portland because this is basically the first time for y'all right.
And I know historically in Oregon we felt the support from our community, such as the Red for Ed movement a few years ago when we were really pushing for
statewide reform and change in education policy. And here in Portland ever since, the seeds of our uprising were being planted knowing that we are on a collision course towards a strike based on how poorly the district management is bargaining with us, and so we started to build in that communication and enlist the support of our parent communities pretty early on by having info sessions, by talking about you know, the community's wants and desires for their students,
connecting with our schools, ptas, connecting with local businesses, especially as in the last month or so that we felt okay, this is happening. We are about to strike. We need to connect with our communities in our school areas and see who's out there and if they have our back. And it's been really profound in grassroots organizing between the parents and the ptas in tandem with our unions and
from businesses around our school areas. We attended an event called Strike School to prepare and one of our missions was to check in with businesses and neighbors in the areas of our schools where we plan to be picketing and seeing, you know, where can we go to use a bathroom, where can we go to use a parking lot, and just making those connections, some of which already existed.
Even though Portland hasn't had to strike, We've been very connected to our communities because the educators live in these communities. This is my community. Unlike some of the big wigs in the big pink building of management, like they are coming in and out in a few years. We're from here, we are here to stay, we are here to make those connections. So it was very easy to call upon those connections because we are the community. You know, we
have a lot of union members that are parents. We have a lot of union members that are married to business owners in the area. We've Yeah, it's been it's been obvious who lives here, who's fighting for these kids because this is our community.
Yeah, and you know, I mean, Portland's been a place where, I think, kind of beneath the notice of a lot of the national press, it's been one of the places where the most union organizing is happening and where the most strikes have been happening. And yeah, I was wondering, I mean, to what extent have y'all been influenced by I mean both the sort of the just profusion of like local strikes and then also the kind of the bigger national strikes.
Something really beautiful about living in Portland is that there is quite a bit of cross union solidarity. And like in the educational realm, we have a coalition of all of our unions that come together the certified teachers like my union PAT as well as SEIU, the union that represents our custodial staff, as well as PFSP our para educators, our nutritional staff, the bus drivers union, like, all of
those unions come together and support each other. And in fact, in the educational realm of Portland, multiple unions are on the verge of striking in that they are having unsuccessful bargaining attempts. But then also with like the ups workers, with Kaiser pharmacies and the medical field, like, there is labor action all around Portland and there's definitely a built in solidarity network from unionity to union. Our union siblings are with us. We have been with them throughout the years.
I think we do a really good job as a major city of wrapping around each other's unions and supporting big actions. And you know, Portland, when we do get national press, it is for how rambunctious our little city can be. And this is some of that good trouble that that John Lewis would want us to get in.
Yeah, and I mean this is something that you can I mean, so I was in Portland for like three weeks pretty like recently, and I mean you would just run like I was. I was at a hospital for long, long story about that, but I was at a hospital and like the first person we talked to is like as a receptionist was like the union rep from the receptionist union, and then like we're talking to the nurses, and the nurses are like, oh, yeah, we just won our We just won our thing, not having to go
on strike because management caved. It's it's a really sort of incredible place to be in terms of like just just the energy and just like the amount of stuff that's happening there. It's really sort of incredible, very active. I guess the other side of this is that this we've also seen a lot of sort of management retaliation and crackdown attempts. And yeah, I was wondering if you talk about what management's been doing, because yeah.
Yeah, it's really ramped up in the last week or so as it is clear that we are on our way to strike, especially when we ninety nine percent of the membership voted yes to a strike authorization. That sent a pretty clear message and I think it made district management panic a little. And we've received numerous emails to
the parent community. They have for example, they are training tomorrow Thursday, the day of our strike beginning, or when on Wednesday, the day that the strike begins, they are training our para professionals and eas in how to deliver virtual phonics instruction. One of their moves was to cause panic in the families by sending emails home that say, your student, based on their test scores, is a struggling reader. Here's the plan should there be a school closure, that
we're going to provide virtual learning opportunities. So immediately you've got parents in a panic emailing their teacher like by students struggling, why didn't I know? And in many cases that was inaccurate. A second grade teacher at my school, every parent in her class got that email, and sure she has some struggling readers, but it is not every student.
Why did every student's family get that email? To cause panic, to cause fear, to cause intimidation, And so they also send out a big email trying that the technology team was coming into the buildings to collect all the chromebooks. Our students are one to one with chromebooks. They're pretty
integral to our curriculum delivery and our instruction. And they started pulling them out in the middle of the workday, in the middle of the teaching day from some of our youngest students, which was a visible thing in front of students me to collect them. It was unplanned, We had no warning. That again seemed to be kind of a panic move. We are trying to sew fear and intimidation and we're taking your chromebooks and we're putting kids back in COVID times.
That's just a terrible also, just like a terrible thing to do to a bunch of kids, right, like what, Yeah, they're just coming to their room, just taking their stuff in front of everyone, like what right.
Especially in those younger grades, with no warning and like, oh, we were supposed to have our tech time on Friday, like we had our routine and well, oh this this guy's coming in and taking all the chromebooks. Sorry kids, Yeah, not really having a ready answer.
Yeah, it's like it's one of those things where it's like you can you can really tell, like who actually cares about the kids here, because it's just like yeah.
And you know, management is trying to put out the message that teachers don't care about your kids. That's why they're willing to stop school and put your kids back at home again. It's bad, like the pandemic time, those those nasty teachers want your kids out of school. And you know, our point being that our students haven't been getting the learning that they deserve because of the current conditions. Yeah,
that we've been under serving them already. We are walking out not because we don't care, but because we care so passionately that we aren't willing to stand for these subpar conditions any longer.
And this is the thing, I don't like, I've seen a lot of teacher strikes in my city. I've seen a lot of teacher strikes Nashurally, I don't think I've ever seen and you know, and this isn't to say that I like, I don't think it would be justified for teachers to go on strike, like just because they're underpaid. Like everyone like has the right and possibly the obligation
to go on strike for better conditions. But like that's not ever ever, I have never, at any point ever seen a teachers you to go on strike for reasons that words mostly about like mostly about improving things for their kids. It's it's wow, because you see this every like they do this in Chicago too. It's like every single time there's a strike, it's like, ah, the teachers
like they hate they hate your kids. Is that they're like these like privilege overpaid people real like and it's like you guys, like you should you should like look at the admin salary sometime, like.
Yes, yeah, yeah, it's it's clear that there's a disconnect. And as soon as there's a change in the weather, teachers go from being the hero to being the villain. And the fact that we are willing to go out on the streets and fight for our kids in the rain and the cold of Oregon winter, no, we're the villains. We are putting them all back in their COVID boxes like yeah, that ain't it.
Yeah, that really sucks, Like no, it's it's.
Just, thankfully, the negative kind of vitriol that we see mostly online where the trolls live, it does seem to be like loud minority. As with any form of tolling or counter you know, we do hear from community members that have more legitimate concerns, but they are I'm really supportive. I'm a little worried about this one aspect, but I'm
with you guys, you know, and that's valid. I told my students as we were getting ready to go home for the long weekend quote unquote, you know that it is okay to feel a variety of emotions like I'm sad, I'm gonna miss you guys. I don't know when I'll get to see you again, and that makes me anxious and I'm excited to go fight for you guys to
get us what we deserve. Like, so even letting the children know this is totally normal, and that's my same message to the adults, like it's totally okay if you've got some mixed emotions. Yeah, and we're going to be out there fighting for the kids. I hope you're not mad at me for very long, but I'm gonna do it anyway.
Yeah. And that's another thing that's kind of like weird about this is like the way the negotiations have gone. It's like this is happening, like because a lot of strikes happen at the beginning of the school year, right, and so it pushes back the but this is but this is like okay, So like you've gotten in, you've met the kids, you're like teaching them to developing your relationship, and then management is just like, no, this is the moment we're going to force everyone.
Yeah that just sucks, Like yeah, and I don't think there's ever a great time to strike, but we definitely hope to be the least impactful. You know. We want to make sure that our families have what they need. We want to make sure that our staff have what they need. We didn't want to go too long. We don't want to be striking in the middle of winter or during a break when students are already out. Yeah,
it's there's never a great time. And I feel I feel really confident that our bargaining unit has really worked to make this the least detrimental to our students as possible, Yeah, while still maintaining the validity of a strike, of a big collective action.
I mean, I think this is this is something that
care workers struggle with a lot, Right. It's like one of the reasons that it's it's hard for teachers to strike, that it's hard for healthcare workers to strike is because like, yeah, like you don't do this job unless you care about the people that you're like it's your job to care for, Like you don't, you wouldn't know, Like no one will put up with these conditions if they didn't care, right, And you know, and that's I think there's this really grim way in which just becomes this sort of trap
of like this is it becomes this and you see this, like this is the thing I've been I've been talking to like people who like abortion workers, and they talk about this too, where it's like there's this this kind of trap you get in because it's like you know that you are the only person providing the service that these people really need, and your bosses use that to underpay you use it to you know, have unacceptable conditions,
and it sucks that. It's like, you know, the the foundational elements of an actual any kind of society that's actually good, like the fact that people care and love like love each other and care for each other is being used as a weapon really shitty conditions.
It's weaponizing our passion and our care for our kids. And that's also something that tells you that it's serious. If if teachers who know that our students rely on us, we love our students so deeply, if we are at the point where we're finally striking it's been bad for a while. Yeah, yeah, and you were kind of mentioning this earlier, but teachers are so many things to our students, like I am their teacher. In some cases am a care provider. In some cases, I'm a therapist. In some cases,
I'm their nutrition expert. Like they are coming to us for everything in some cases, and so to be willing to say I have to leave now to get us what we deserve, I'm going to make sure you're okay. It's so hard, it's so hard to say goodbye to these kids, and it's so necessary. Yeah, and that's that tells you that we that it is also that important
that we have gotten to this point where we need to. Yeah, and the students do seem pretty I mean I have the benefit of being at fifth grade, but the students do seem to understand pretty well. Some of them are incredibly activated little unionists, little union fighters as well. We had some of the fifth graders sent letters to the Oregonian and to the to the school board and to the superintendent. And they're very eloquent. They I mean, they've
been living the conditions. They are the voice and it is they are trying to shout loudly, and you know, we're trying to amplify that. Like I am striking for them. I will benefit, but this is for them to have a better outcome.
You know what, other services are provided by a bunch of workers who are not getting paid enough and are probably understaffed legally. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that, but they haven't done the crackdown on us yet, so I can say whatever I want. Damn it. It's products and services that support this podcast and we are back.
So there wasn't.
There's a thing I've been noticing. So I've been interviewing a lot of I've been interviewing a lot of service workers in the last god, like I guess like two years now. Jeez, I've been doing this for a long time now. But one of the things that I've been
noticing is a lot of people. And this comes back to something that you were talking about, which is that a lot of a lot of service workers, I mean people who are just beached as people who are you know, people who are just doing effectively random service jobs are being pushed more and more into having to care for people because the rest of the sort of whatever social safety nets the US used to have have just completely imploded.
And I think I want to get your opinion in this way, it looks to me like ground zero for this was the education system of right, all of the responsibility of you know this, these massive increases in poverty and its extagnating wages and police violence and like our completely dysfunctional mental healthcare system that all of this. The first people this was pushed on was y'all.
Yeah. Now, we're that first line of defense for the public good. And when you are gutting education, you are gutting the first safety net of the public good. And you know, the students will tell you that they are our future and we are the net that's supposed to catch them. And we've been underfunded and undersupported and under resourced and in many ways like privatized, where some of what will be the future populace are getting what they need and everyone else is left behind. And you can
see it in retrospect. You can see how public education has been deteriorating or forcibly deteriorated by some of those interests that are trying to privatize or have privatization yep in their mission. And the ultimate outcome of that is a deteriorated United States. Like the populace is suffering because of it, Like I wonder why democracy is starting to
fall apart when yeah, follow the dominoes backwards. Public education has been underfunded and undersourced for decades now, so our generation of workers are trying to repair the damage we witnessed and experienced and stop it from getting worse as it gets worse around us.
Yeah, And this is one of those things where this is kind of like there's been this kind of unholy alliance between like that I guess I call it like the sort of the charter school private school alliance between the sort of like Obama, Arnie Duncan, Oh my god, Paul vallis like technically liberal like neoliberal reformers, who were you know, trying to destroy teachers' unions, trying to like trying to force everyone in the charter schools, trying to sort of like I just and just just just blasting
holes in the education system of every single city they end up in. But it's just it's just interesting thing too, where like you have these people on the one hand, and they're the sort of like vaguely liberal wing of it, and then simultaneously you have this sort of like absolutely ferocious, like frothing right wing like evangelical shoe shape. Yeah, It's like someone I saw a well, I get they were going through their direction, but I saw I saw a
funny defiction of that. They called it like fish hook theory, where like you have this stuff in the middle, and then the far right people sort of bend back around into the middle because they found this one thing they agree on, which is that they hate teachers, right.
And you know, the public enemy.
Yeah. Well, and I think it's it's interesting too that like schools are specifically the place that when when the rights tried wanted to do their push back against racial justice, it was like they went to schools. They've been doing this with like LGBTQ stuff too, is you know, this
is like the rights whole game. I mean, since like desegregation has been trying to push people into private schools and privatizing the education system, and I don't know, it strikes me it's interesting that that, you know, there's been for a really long time, and I think y'all, like y'all the like Chicago teachers Unions has this has really been sort of the forefront of the fight against that of like it seems it seems like we're finally in a period with these people who have run this country
into the ground for the past like fifty years are finally starting to sort of like face the consequences and like have to deal with the people that they've been just destroying for so long.
Yeah, we are seeing it from the in side as it happens, Like I am experiencing as an elder millennial growing up in the nineties in the public education system, knowing now as an adult what I was not being taught or what was being left out or censored just due to systemic patterns that now we teach in a different way to make sure that that doesn't continue. And then we're seeing legislation in places like Florida and Tennessee. They're like stop doing that, stop fixing the problem, and
you can't put it back in the box. Like we see from the inside as things are are falling apart and people are being left out, and so we're inside public education screaming, knock it off. You did bad by us. We won't let you do bad by the next generation and the next generation.
Yeah, And I think like the other aspect of that, like is is the way that like school boards are being used to sort of like to take control of districts and like push all of this sort of just horrific, like queer politics stuff, and I don't know, like that that's a personal one for me because like my school, like I mean, I guess we technically had stuff, but like I don't know, like the resources available to all the queer kids that like that was like me and
like everyone I grew up with were like just terrible. And you know, I got to see the consequences.
Of that, right bare minimum if any.
Yeah, and like you know, like in a in a really really like frothing right wing like really justconservative environment, and like, I don't know, it's it really seems like it's for a lot of people, it's gotten way better and all of these you know, like one of the assaults that we're seeing is like who just want to bring this stuff back right to.
The quote unquote good old days before all of us queer folks were coming out, And yeah, like put everybody back in the closet, hide all of the racism that you've unraveled and exposed, put it all back in the b put a bow back on the box. We want America to look the way it used to. Yeah, And that's that's a lie, and that benefited very specific populations and we won't continue to play that game. And I think that's another reason, like you said that you're seeing
the gutting of public education, is that it's scary. Public education is about truth and teaching critical thinking, and that is not good for people in power when their power has been achieved on the backs of marginalized groups and by historically underserving people and pushing people into the dirt.
Yeah, it's like it turns out that when your entire state is based on doing a rolling genocide across the entire continent, you probably don't want to tell people that that's like it's a bad idea.
Yeah, cats out of the bag America.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I wanted to ask to sort of what role has I guess, just twenty twenty in general, and I mean the pandemic too, but like I don't know, like I want to, I guess, like get a sense of what impact like the uprising has had on all of this, because it is, like I do think it is notable that you know, it's like three years after the uprising, it's we have the first strike in.
Right, so long. I think as a result of living through pandemic times, people really had an opportunity to reflect on what their lives were like, what they were living through that was unjust. I think a lot of inequities were revealed through having to shift our entire worlds, and things that had previously gone hidden or unnoticed or unexposed came to light and people said no more. I we have learned to do things a different way. We will
not go back to the broken ways. And so it makes sense to me that we are at this boiling point in repairing and trying to rebuild and reform after a global change. And you see it in the kids too. I mean they say about my generation as a millennial, that we've lived through numerous large scale traumas, and the kids of today have now as well. Like the students I'm currently teaching were second graders when the pandemic hits,
and they are forever changed. They were seeing, you know, the Black Lives Matter movement come alive on their television screens and in their cities. They grew up in civic action and global turmoil, and they are active. Even if I wasn't teaching current events in the way that I do, the students are bringing it to the room. Like the conversations are happening.
Yea, which is it's such an interesting like that generation. I think it's gonna be really interesting because I don't know I'm from this. I'm on exactly the borderline with everyone trying to figure out whether I'm a millennial or a zumer. But like my like my first memory is
nine to eleven. Yeah, so like you know, it's I feel like I got a kind of millennial experience, which is I got nine to eleven, two thousand and eight, twenty six well two thousand and eight, then like the twenty thirteen uprisings I guess was a bit off, but I got like thirteen up risings, and then like I get out of college or I get into college and it's twenty sixteen.
It's just like a mess. Yeah, it's hot mess.
It's this real Like I I I like, I became conscious the moments that history returned to the world. Yeah, but I don't know, Like, I think it's an interesting thing with like with these kids who've grown up, who are you know? I mean like, yeah, like their first memories are going to be like the pandemic and like twenty twenty that I don't know, Like I I don't know I'm interested in where these people are going to go.
But also I think this is you know, this all of this ties back into just the importance of what you and all of your coworkers do, which is that you're the people who are you know, like it, you're the people who are producing, like the kids who are going to who are I mean, hopefully they won't have to be fighting the same fights that we are right now.
Statistically they probably will, but yeah, like and you're the people who are sort of mediating their understanding of like what is happening in this world around them that's you know, increasingly terrifying and complex.
Right, trying not to give ten year olds an existential crisis, but yeah, coming into like they are at that developmental age where they are starting to have that existential crisis of Wow, our planet is out of luck, our educational system is rotten, our democracy is falling apart, like they are witnessing turmoil in every country like that it is. You know, they say that the youth's humor is very
nihilistic and dark, and it's just getting darker. Like thankfully, they give me so much hope and light in you know, a world where sometimes I don't even know want to be a part of the future, because the future looks grim. They are a light even in all of that darkness. And you know, I think they're really resilient. I wish they didn't have to be. I have my own big existential dread. And the kids are angry. The kids are
are upset, But the kids are all right. Maybe, yeah, if we can continue to support them.
And I think this is something that goes for everyone's like it. So insofar as we have obligations to anyone on earth, like the thing, the thing that we owe these kids is to try to make sure they don't have to go through the same shit that we did, because like that stiff sucked.
Yeah. One of my teaching philosophies is the bee who you needed when you were younger? And I didn't even know some of the things I needed. But looking back, like now, as a queer adult living in a major city who grew up in a small town in Montana in the binding is I'm very, yeah, very aware of some of the things that I should have had as a young person, and that I am glad to be there for my students in that way. Even the difference
working with some people who've been teaching for longer. You see the difference in educational philosophy from run generation to the next and the bee who you needed when you
were younger. I'm very open to being neuro affirming, supporting our students that are on the spectrum or students with ADHD are students with anxiety disorders in a way that even the teachers of our generation when when I was a child, yeah, aren't necessarily on the site like we're getting better, we're making education less damaging to I think that's one of the reasons sometimes we lose public opinion
is people have negative memories of school. School has been harmful, and we're like, no, support us, Like I promise it's different now.
Yeah, but but I mean, but I think this is one of those things too, where like the Teachers Union in general, if you're looking at what is this, what is the single like group of people in the United States who actually wants to make school suck less? Like the most it's probably like slightly above that is students.
But the thing is, like students are organized enough to like right, and you know, and like I said, as much, really any know that this isn't to write off, like the incredible amount of student activism that I mean, it has been happening forever, but they don't have the kind of power that like teachers unions too, and teachers unions
are the social voice. Yeah. Well, and also the ability to like, like the ability to withdraw your labor and suddenly actually have a massive effect on the entire sort of like state economy.
Yeah. Yeah, we are united for our students, like the we are called a teachers' union, but we are united for our students because they don't yet have the ability, or the access or the social capital to be heard in the way that they deserve.
Yeah, I don't know. I think I think that's a that's a pretty good note to end on, unless you have anything else that you want to say.
First, I'm satisfied. I mean I'm not satisfied. I'm striking, but like, yeah, yeah.
So, how how can people well, A, how can people in Portland support the strike? And then b, how can people who are not in Portland who want to support the strike help?
Yeah, Portlanders are able to help support the strike. We have a strike fund set up for purchasing and some of the things that we've needed on our strike. Lines, like megaphones, like ponchos. All of that strike fund is being used to help strike captains such as myself around the city organize our pickets and our actions, and so donating to that strike fund is one way to make sure that every teacher in Portland is getting some support.
And then if you live in Portland, finding out the schools that are closest to you in your area, reaching out to those schools specifically, probably through social media since we will not be in our buildings, like using a school email wouldn't work, But reaching out to the strike in your area if you drive by and you see them, like giving them a honk in a horay and finding out where they need supplies to get directed to people
outside of Portland. Same thing that strike fund is very visible, sharing on social media things on our behalf really making sure that your own legislatures know how important public education is to you. Hopefully things in your state or area are going positively for educators, but chances are they're not
so I bet no matter where you live. As a listener, you a public educators in your area could probably use your support talking to school boards, talking to legislators and making change in education, making sure that kids are getting what they need. That fight is guaranteed to be happening everywhere.
Yeah, and we will we will have links to well, definitely a strike fund probably also will have links to social media stuff the description, so yeah, go go do that. And also yeah, yeah do you want I'm assuming you also people control the picket lines. M yeah.
Yeah. Anyone in Portland driving in any of our neighborhoods will find a school, will find a picket and you are welcome to join us. I know I'm in the Southwest region of Portland. Will be picketing in major areas as well as right outside our schools. So pretty much anywhere you see a sea of blue, give us a honk and hop out and join us for a little while, and we'll see you in some big visible spaces to be determined as we do some lar interactions.
Yeah, yeah, this is a This is the thing I will say from from experience is that like the Okay, so the more people there are, the better picketing is. And where there's a bunch of people on a picket, it rules. So go go to a picket. It's a good time.
You're you're you're joining us.
Yeah, you're fighting. You're fighting for a good cause, you are fighting for your class and yeah.
Yeah, hey, well, thank you so much for having me, and thank you to your listeners for giving us an ear.
And thank you, thank you for talking to me. It's been it's been great. And yeah, go go go listeners, all of you, go support the strike make sure they win. And yeah, go out, go out into your communities and do the same. It Could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zonemedia dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here update and monthly at coolzonemedia dot com slash sources.
Thanks for listening.