M a r k D i l l e y

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Edwize : Professional Teacher Unionism: The Legacy Of Sandy Feldman

"In the last few days, my thoughts have often turned to Sandy Feldman, who recently passed away after a long and difficult struggle with breast cancer. As most readers know, Sandy was a past president of both the UFT and our national union, the American Federation of Teachers. But she was also a special person for me. Sandy was the person who initially convinced me that I could best pursue my goals as an educational activist, that I could best achieve my efforts to ensure that my students would have a chance to build lives of meaning and purpose, from within the UFT. She knew the power of collective, democratic voice for teachers, and she knew that such organized power could be used to great effect for our students, especially those with the greatest needs, as well as for ourselves.

Sandy and I met in strained circumstances, but we nonetheless quickly bonded. We shared a great deal in common, including love of political ideas and a passion for intellectual debate, as well as a background in the democratic socialist left and in the civil rights movement. I could call Sandy a mentor, but it would be an inadequate description, because in many ways, she felt like an older sister or a second mother. I never finished a conversation with her, including our last one in late spring, without feeling that she cared deeply about me and my welfare, as much as she was interested in the project on which I sought her opinion or the paper I wanted to discuss with her."

as opposed to this vision, is it really that dialectic?

Labor Notes - Choose Your Label ... Worker or Professional?

"Today, as in the past, unions are essential forms of organization that must represent the interests of working people. When a union places undue emphasis on the professionalism of teachers, it is getting away from the class position of teachers as workers, undermining the militancy of its members, and separating their members from their communities. Historically, professionalism has been used to divide us from other education workers (paraprofessionals, secretaries, counselors, vocational educators) and all of labor, when, in fact, we are all in the same boat."