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Why Teachers Are Walking Out

For the last 10 years, I’ve been a covert operative in Women’s World, a.k.a. Public School. I am not a typical elementary teacher. I am male. And I am often confounded at what I have seen my coworkers silently acquiesce to, happily playing along, fueled only by the sense of the purpose they work from. I am not surprised that teachers in many states have had walkouts. I am surprised that they waited so long to start.

Obviously, I’m sympathetic to my colleagues. I’m also sympathetic to garbage collectors, Haitian farmers, and CPS caseworkers. In comparison, our job might be considered a breeze for the pay, with its dreamy holiday schedule and all.

Let’s not go down that rabbit hole, though, because the walkouts aren’t really ultimately about “pay,” the face usually presented.

Women are done being taken advantage of.

That’s what this is about. Don’t think that it’s a coincidence that mass walkouts are happening within a year of the #metoo movements, the sex abuse revelations, or the women’s marches.

It’s not just about pay. It’s about respect. It’s about boundaries crossed and people used. It’s about unrealistic, unspoken expectations systemically enforced, leaving the perceived inability to speak up for oneself. It’s about a mass of subservient people waking up one day to see the reality of what they’ve been putting up with all along.

When you hear stories and shine light into cultural blind spots, you start to see that there has been wide scale, nationally accepted inequalities kept alive for decades in the dungeons of school halls, among the nations largest female workforce.

Whiteboards?

I was in a data analysis meeting with my female colleagues, needing student whiteboards for math. (Imagine your teachers back in 1987 requesting an overhead projector. Basic.) A good set might run $50.

As a norm, I don’t request purchases from the “company.” I often forget it’s even an option. When I mentioned it to a co-teacher on the way to the meeting, she gave me a sarcastic, “Good LUCK…”

I said, “Hey, if this school, on its $10 million budget, can’t afford $50 whiteboards — how do they expect someone supporting a family of 6 on a teachers salary to be able to?” She said she had never thought of that.

She had never thought of that. This is our culture. Where you aren’t allowed to think about asking for your needs to be met.

The given is to figure it out. Because women will. Had I asked 20 different teachers about whiteboards, 10 of them would start spewing out names of stores. The other 10 (older) would give me some DIY weekend instructions that involve table saws.  Seldom would any of them think to say, “Umm, ask for them…”

Injustice and oppression thrive in places where the norms are never questioned. 

My boss didn’t think that way, either. Minutes before, my boss had told us, “We’ll do anything to help you.” Minutes later, I was met with a kind sigh, “Aren’t whiteboards pretty expensive?” One of our support staff spoke up, “Didn’t you ask me about those last year? I’ll get you some.” And she did. Possibly on her dime. I didn’t ask.

The fact that the whiteboards were such a small purchase actually illuminates the problem.

A man’s operative norm tends to be, “since it’s not a big deal, the company should have no problem helping you out.”

A woman’s tends to be, “since it’s not a big deal, you should be able to handle it yourself.”

Handle It.

— I’ve witnessed a teacher running a fever, surrounded by nurses taking her blood pressure, get up and stumble down the hall, on her way to wrangle kids.
–I’ve witnessed a teacher passing a kidney stone refusing to go home.
–I’ve witnessed a teacher get punched.
–I’ve witnessed teachers yelled at, demeaned, and criticized, and then go chase down the kid to make sure he is okay.

     And all that was just this week.  

Nothing we handle is a huge deal. But the sum total of all of the straws on the camel’s back [has] become a crushing weight for so many.

It’s not about the pay. It’s about all of the ways an entire sector of the country’s most selfless givers have been complicit to a system that has evolved to bilk them every way it can: of their time, their money, their energy, and their emotions.

Pay for it yourself.
Create it yourself.
Stay late and put on that function yourself.
Meet during your time. 
Work during your weekend.
Be kind to people yelling, ignoring, cussing, and hitting you. Then, make sure they pass the new standards.
…And be prepared to take bullets for them, too.

These things are not said as much as they are collectively understood, much worse.

Tacit expectations are the ones we feel least able to challenge.

See, behind each one of these expectations lies the unspoken threat — “Don’t you love your kids?”

A Woman’s Honor

I’ve learned that a woman will do almost anything to prove she’s a good caretaker and nurturer. The female honor code is, do it for the kids, no matter the cost. Don’t ask questions or be perceived as disloyal to your children.

And, while each woman should be responsible for enforcing her own boundaries, we should not be systematically violating them, either. I want the women of my world free to be fiercely loyal mothers and selfless givers, without some manipulative loser-of-a-school system taking advantage of her selflessness.

But we have an underfunded system who keeps pushing and stretching for every free woman-hour and donation it can get from those fiercely loyal mothers and their Boxtops.

The system, in many places, bears a creepy resemblance to an abusive husband. If she loses “him” [her job], she feels like she would lose everything. He constantly tells her she’s not good enough, and has spreadsheets with scores to prove it. He blames her for the kids’ problems, and offers no real help in fixing them. But she stays and puts up with him — because she loves the kids.

He is boxing her in, manipulating her, and implicitly calling her loyalty into question every time she doesn’t bend over [backward] to appease him and make him look good.

Should we be surprised that she’s finally walking out?

5 Powerful Stories of Christians Transforming Their Communities Through Faith and Action

Read five inspiring stories of Christians making a powerful impact in their communities, from rebuilding after disasters to supporting the homeless and marginalized.

WATCH: Huge Flash Mob Erupts into Worship in Chick-fil-A With the Song “Every Praise”

A Christian flash mob decided to bring church to Chick-fil-A in a whole NEW way by bursting out into praise with a powerful rendition of the worship song "Every Praise."

7 Key Facts About Tony Perkins and His Role in Christian Conservative Politics

Learn key facts about Tony Perkins, a prominent leader in Christian conservative politics, and his influential role in shaping religious and political discourse.