Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Public Forums 05/16 & 05/23 at Holyoke Public Library
Staff at the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School will be holding a two-part community forum following their affiliation with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) labor union, to be announced at the school's Board meeting Monday night. On Saturday May 16th, and Saturday May 23rd parents, students, parents, community members, and the media are invited to discuss the school's new Union, and how a worker-student-parent alliance might achieve social justice and quality education. Meetings will be held at the Holyoke Public Library Community Meeting Room from 1PM to 3PM.
Since the school's founding in 2013, teachers, staff and students have struggled to realize the promise of an educational experience that actually embraces the ideals and vision of the school's namesake, Brazilian revolutionary educator Paulo Freire. But instead of a school that holds liberation for the poor as a main guiding principle, the administration has created an authoritarian environment that punishes students as well as staff for challenging racial inequality, both inside and outside of school walls. From the racially-biased preferential treatment, hiring and firing of staff, to the administration's complicity in the wider societal trend of criminalizing youth of color through the "school-to-prison pipeline," the Union members have concluded that the administration does not hear individual voices. Therefore, the Union has forged bonds of inter-racial solidarity that will speak collectively and be heard.
In the words of the school staff's organizing committee, because "we understand that the needs of the workers differ from the needs of the administration due to the hierarchy of power and privilege in our learning community, we now proudly stand as members of the Industrial Workers of the World, the union for all workers, and vow from this day forward to fight for the principles for which Paulo Freire stood and upon which this charter was founded—social justice and equity at all levels, encompassing both job security and wage equality for all workers from subs and essentials teachers to administrative staff to teachers, students, parents, and community members in association with the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School."
Founded in 1905 on the principle of organizing workers of all industries into One Big Union, the IWW was the first labor organization is US history committed to welcoming all workers into its ranks, no matter their race, sex, skill or national origin. We carry on that tradition in the fight against the system that exploits workers by keeping us separated. In the midst of a historic struggle for education rights happening throughout North America and beyond, the IWW stands in solidarity as an uncompromising voice for youth-and-workers' power.
For more information, email pfsj.iww@gmail.com.
Since the school's founding in 2013, teachers, staff and students have struggled to realize the promise of an educational experience that actually embraces the ideals and vision of the school's namesake, Brazilian revolutionary educator Paulo Freire. But instead of a school that holds liberation for the poor as a main guiding principle, the administration has created an authoritarian environment that punishes students as well as staff for challenging racial inequality, both inside and outside of school walls. From the racially-biased preferential treatment, hiring and firing of staff, to the administration's complicity in the wider societal trend of criminalizing youth of color through the "school-to-prison pipeline," the Union members have concluded that the administration does not hear individual voices. Therefore, the Union has forged bonds of inter-racial solidarity that will speak collectively and be heard.
In the words of the school staff's organizing committee, because "we understand that the needs of the workers differ from the needs of the administration due to the hierarchy of power and privilege in our learning community, we now proudly stand as members of the Industrial Workers of the World, the union for all workers, and vow from this day forward to fight for the principles for which Paulo Freire stood and upon which this charter was founded—social justice and equity at all levels, encompassing both job security and wage equality for all workers from subs and essentials teachers to administrative staff to teachers, students, parents, and community members in association with the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School."
Founded in 1905 on the principle of organizing workers of all industries into One Big Union, the IWW was the first labor organization is US history committed to welcoming all workers into its ranks, no matter their race, sex, skill or national origin. We carry on that tradition in the fight against the system that exploits workers by keeping us separated. In the midst of a historic struggle for education rights happening throughout North America and beyond, the IWW stands in solidarity as an uncompromising voice for youth-and-workers' power.
For more information, email pfsj.iww@gmail.com.
Monday, May 11, 2015
PFSJ Workers' Union Public Statement
The following was read by several workers at the Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, 05/11, as a means of publicly informing the board and administration of our forming a union:
Whereas, we come to you today as an intergenerational community that has chosen to collectively act upon its longstanding concern about the disconnect between the principles of Paulo Freire and the practices of the social justice charter school we have come to love that bears his name. And as such, we appreciate this opportunity to be heard, because as Freire said, “Any situation in which some men prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence;… to alienate humans from their own decision making is to change them into objects.”
Whereas, as individuals, we have from Day One, using various approaches, attempted to work in collaboration with the administration to create and implement a social justice working environment and curriculum that more closely reflects the needs and concerns of all students, their families, and the workers of this learning community to no avail, and we are not content with individual justice, but rather, seek systemic justice for all, throughout this institution,
Whereas the hiring of people of color for full leadership capacities in classrooms and administration is not a demonstrated priority of the current administration, and thus, the salary inequities between workers who are white and those who are not is alarming and does not mirror the social justice learning community that our founders articulated and envisioned,
From the Charter: The school will model social justice values and norms, and will build a collective awareness to foster equality and respect for all individuals.
From Paulo Freire: The oppressors do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders.
Whereas, we can no longer deny the daily realities of what it is like to work in such an oppressive environment in which speaking these truths is looked upon as a threat to the power and control of the administration, as well as a reason for student suspension and worker termination, rather than an opportunity for us all to grow as a social justice learning community,
In Freire’s words: [T]he more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled. This person is not afraid to meet the people or to enter into a dialogue with them.
Whereas, this institution’s authoritarian leadership has become an obstacle to community solidarity between teachers, staff, students, and the community at large, producing a daily feeling of coming up against “brick walls” and experiencing disillusionment, apathy, indifference, sadness, and a sense of powerlessness that many teachers and students feel regarding their inability to self-determine their educational/learning and communal involvement,
As Freire explains: Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people--they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress.
Whereas, we understand that the needs of the workers differ from the needs of the administration due to the hierarchy of power and privilege in our learning community, we now proudly stand as members of the Industrial Workers of the World, the union for all workers, and vow from this day forward to fight for the principles for which Paulo Freire stood and upon which this charter was founded—social justice and equity at all levels, encompassing both job security and wage equality for all workers from subs and essentials teachers to administrative staff to teachers, students, parents, and community members in association with the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School.
We would like to close by saying that we come before you as imperfect beings with our own set of blindspots, who are willing to struggle and dialogue with others who are sincerely interested in helping our community rise to a new level of learning and growth—the on-going place of dialogue and social justice practice that the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School was always meant to be.
As Freire teaches us: How can I dialogue if I always project ignorance onto others and never perceive my own? How can I dialogue if I am closed to - and even offended by - the contribution of others? At the point of encounter there are neither yet ignoramuses nor perfect sages; there are only people who are attempting, together, to learn more than they now know.
Whereas, we come to you today as an intergenerational community that has chosen to collectively act upon its longstanding concern about the disconnect between the principles of Paulo Freire and the practices of the social justice charter school we have come to love that bears his name. And as such, we appreciate this opportunity to be heard, because as Freire said, “Any situation in which some men prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence;… to alienate humans from their own decision making is to change them into objects.”
Whereas, as individuals, we have from Day One, using various approaches, attempted to work in collaboration with the administration to create and implement a social justice working environment and curriculum that more closely reflects the needs and concerns of all students, their families, and the workers of this learning community to no avail, and we are not content with individual justice, but rather, seek systemic justice for all, throughout this institution,
Whereas the hiring of people of color for full leadership capacities in classrooms and administration is not a demonstrated priority of the current administration, and thus, the salary inequities between workers who are white and those who are not is alarming and does not mirror the social justice learning community that our founders articulated and envisioned,
From the Charter: The school will model social justice values and norms, and will build a collective awareness to foster equality and respect for all individuals.
From Paulo Freire: The oppressors do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders.
Whereas, we can no longer deny the daily realities of what it is like to work in such an oppressive environment in which speaking these truths is looked upon as a threat to the power and control of the administration, as well as a reason for student suspension and worker termination, rather than an opportunity for us all to grow as a social justice learning community,
In Freire’s words: [T]he more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled. This person is not afraid to meet the people or to enter into a dialogue with them.
Whereas, this institution’s authoritarian leadership has become an obstacle to community solidarity between teachers, staff, students, and the community at large, producing a daily feeling of coming up against “brick walls” and experiencing disillusionment, apathy, indifference, sadness, and a sense of powerlessness that many teachers and students feel regarding their inability to self-determine their educational/learning and communal involvement,
As Freire explains: Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people--they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress.
Whereas, we understand that the needs of the workers differ from the needs of the administration due to the hierarchy of power and privilege in our learning community, we now proudly stand as members of the Industrial Workers of the World, the union for all workers, and vow from this day forward to fight for the principles for which Paulo Freire stood and upon which this charter was founded—social justice and equity at all levels, encompassing both job security and wage equality for all workers from subs and essentials teachers to administrative staff to teachers, students, parents, and community members in association with the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School.
We would like to close by saying that we come before you as imperfect beings with our own set of blindspots, who are willing to struggle and dialogue with others who are sincerely interested in helping our community rise to a new level of learning and growth—the on-going place of dialogue and social justice practice that the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School was always meant to be.
As Freire teaches us: How can I dialogue if I always project ignorance onto others and never perceive my own? How can I dialogue if I am closed to - and even offended by - the contribution of others? At the point of encounter there are neither yet ignoramuses nor perfect sages; there are only people who are attempting, together, to learn more than they now know.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)