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http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-../oma.eop.gov.us/1997/4/9/5.text1
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
April 9, 1997
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR AL SHANKER
Lisner Auditorium
12:12 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much to all of you, but
especially to Eadie and the members of Al's family, to the members of
the family of the AFT, the other labor leaders who are here, and other
friends and admirers and those who are indebted to Al Shanker.
I'd like to begin simply by thanking everyone who has
already spoken and all the people at the AFT who put together that
wonderful film at the beginning. I think if Al were here and were
whispering in my ear, he would say, "This has been very nice, Mr.
President, but keep it short, we're getting hungry." (Laughter.)
I have to say also that Hillary very much wanted to be here
with me today. She worked with Al on a number of things over the last 15
years and a long-standing commitment in New York kept her away. But I
want to speak for both of us today in honoring a person we considered a
model, a mentor, and a friend, a union leader, a national leader, a world
leader. But first, last, and always, as the film began today, Al Shanker
was our teacher, and clearly one of the most important teachers of the
20th century.
In 1983, in April, the Nation At Risk report broke like a
storm over America and resonated deeply in the consciousness of the
country, that our country was at risk because we weren't doing right by
our children and our schools. One month before, I had signed a law
passed by my legislature establishing a commission to study our schools
and to improve them. And I had appointed my wife to chair the
commission. And we were eagerly reading this report and the reactions to
it, and we noticed that there was Al Shanker, the first leader of a union
to come out and say, this is a good thing, we need to do this, we've got
to raise these standards, we've got to hold ourselves to higher
standards, we've got to be accountable, we owe our children more.
That began what was for me one of the most remarkable
associations of my entire working life. Hillary and I had occasion to be
with Al on so many different occasions, and one of the previous speakers
said, you know, if you go to enough of these education meetings the usual
suspects are rounded up, and after a while we could all give each other's
speech -- (laughter) -- except for Al. (Laughter.) And it really did
make a huge difference. After a while you get tired, you get off the
plane, you're spending the night in another strange hotel room, you're
showing up at another meeting.
But if he was there I always kind of got my energy flowing,
my juices were running, and I knew it was going to be an interesting
time. He was always saying that the students he taught wanted to know,
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well, does it count. I can tell you whenever he talked, it counted. It
counted.
Over all the years it counted for me. In 1989 when
President Bush called the governors together for this education summit at
the University of Virginia and I was the designated Democrat -- stay up
half the night and try to write those education goals. I was always
consulting Al who was there -- trying to draw out of him exactly how we
ought to write this SO that in the end we could actually wind up with not
just goals, but standards that would apply to our schools and students
across the country. And we thought we had done a pretty good job.
It didn't work out exactly as we wanted. So, in 1993, when
I became President, we were working together again, and we drafted this
Goals 2000 legislation. And we thought, well, this will get it done
because the states will be developing their standards, but we'll have a
national measure of testing whether we're meeting those standards, which
is what we agreed to do way back in 1989 because Al Shanker wanted us to
do that. He knew it was the right thing to do. But it never quite
worked out because people always could find some excuse for it not to
count.
So, in my State of the Union address this February, I
announced the plan that is what Al Shanker wanted us to do all along,
that we would develop national standards and that we would begin to make
sure they counted, and we would begin with a 4th-grade reading test and
an 8th-grade math test, but that we ought to go on and do more after
that.
And after the speech, I called Al, as I had been calling him
since he'd gotten sick periodically, and I said, you know, I hope you
feel good now, because you've been telling us to do this for years and
years and years, and finally your crusade will be America's crusade.
Well, he only lived a couple of weeks after that, but he had to know that
what he did counted.
You know, I have to tell you that one of the things that I
valued most about him and one of the reasons that he had such a big
impact on me is that I always felt that I could say whatever was on my
mind to him without thinking about how I would say it. You know how we
all relate to each other, you know, when teachers talk to administrators
-- it's not that you're not honest with them, but you have to think about
how you have to be honest with them. Right? (Laughter.) Or school
board members talk to teachers or politicians talk to union leaders or
union leaders talk to politicians. It's not that we don't say what's on
our mind, but we think, well, we have all these sort of preconceptions
that we've learned over a lifetime about how people who are in some other
group view the world. So it's not that you're not honest with them, but
you know you've got to talk to them a certain way or you won't even be
heard.
I never gave a second thought to that with Al Shanker. I
never thought, here's this guy who grew up in New York City and I'm some
rube from the country and I'm a politician and he's a labor leader, he's
got all this stuff, I got to think about -- after about the second time I
was with him I never thought about it anymore. It's like a huge burden
lifted off your shoulders to realize you can say any outrageous thing
that comes to your mind if you believe it, and here's a person you can
trust to absorb it with a level of self-confidence and integrity that
will permit an honest conversation to ensue.
And I see a lot of you nodding your heads. You know I'm
telling the truth, don't you? You felt the same thing. (Laughter.)
And if we could all achieve that with each other, if somehow
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we could give each other the confidence to think and be who we are, the
way he did to all of us, what a better world we could build. And he did
it not to let us off the hook but to put us on the spot. That was the
interesting thing that I thought was so important. He thought that this
whole standards movement was essential for democracy to work, that it was
the only way we could ever give every child, without regard to their
background, a chance to live up to his or her God-given capacity. It was
the only way we could ever avoid the kind of false elitism that always
creeps into every society, was to give everybody a chance to reach high
and achieve high and find dignity and meaning in life.
He did not believe that how you learn depended upon accident
of birth. And he thought all the arguments used to deny the need for
some sort of national standards for measuring ourselves were ridiculous.
I'm very sensitive to that now because one of the things I heard him say
over and over again was he would compare standards. When people would
say, well, standards will tie the hands of teachers or they won't be fair
to poor kids and I heard all these arguments a thousand times. He
would equate it to surgery. Now, I'm sensitive to that now. (Laughter.)
And .I. thought to my self, how would I feel if Al Shanker --
I never realized it -- how would I feel if I had heard my surgeon just
before my recent surgery making all those arguments about there really is
no uniform standards here. (Laughter.) Well, there is, but I'm not
going to observe it because I have my own way to do it. I'd say, please
I'd like to have another doctor. (Laughter.)
We're laughing about this now, but this was a profoundly
wise man who lived with us. And because he was also a good man and a
self-confident man and he wanted us to be fearless and thinking, he made
us feel that we could say what was on our minds, but that we had to keep
being honest and reaching higher and going further.
Al Shanker once said something about Bayard Rustin that he
should have said about himself. He said the great thing about Rustin was
that he didn't put up his finger to see which way the wind was blowing.
He had the guts to say what he felt was right, no matter how unpopular it
was.
Al Shanker would say something on one day that would delight
liberals and infuriate conservatives. The next day, he would make the
conservatives ecstatic and the liberals would be infuriated. He really
-- even though he came out of the, if you will, the left wing of our
society in the sense that he was a passionate union leader, when he
thought about the future, he never thought about what wing he was
seeking; he thought about how he could seek the truth and synthesize the
facts and move us all forward. And that too is a great gift that we will
sorely miss.
And again, I say, he let no one off the hook no one
not politicians, not administrators, not the public, not the students,
and certainly not the teachers.
In the last years of his life, he worked hard to bring
people all over the world together around democracy and freedom and
dignity. And he wanted teachers to lead the way. As the son of Russian
immigrants, he had a deep interest in the work of the United States
Information Agency, which has been sending American teachers abroad and
bringing foreign teachers to America to support the development of
democracy, especially in Central and Eastern Europe and the newly
independent states of the former Soviet Union.
I want to announce that today, from now on, teachers who
participate in these international programs in civic education will be
designated Shanker Fellows. (Applause.) Some of them are here with us
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today, and we thank them for their presence.
In 1999, when the first 4th graders take the reading exam
and the first 8th graders take the math exam, they, too, will be part of
Al Shanker's legacy. And if, God willing, our budget passes,
instead of 500 of those board-certified teachers, like the wonderful
woman we heard just before the Vice President and I came up here, that
Al Shanker worked so hard for, we'll have 100,1000 -- 100,000.
(Applause.)
He really believed if we could get one in every school they
would be magnets, they would change the whole culture of American
education. If this national certification movement, the standards
movement for teachers could just get one of those board-certified
teachers in every schoolhouse in America, it would change the culture of
education forever and change the whole way we thought about teaching.
And we are determined to do that, and that, too, will be part of his
legacy -- along with his love of life and music and art and bread; along
with all the energy that he put into his family and his friends.
Al Shanker's life fully reflected the wisdom of the words of
Herman Melville -- I bring out this quote from time to time and I don't
think I know anyone it applies to better. Herman Melville said, "We
cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our
fellow men. And among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions
run as causes, and they come back to us as effects."
Al Shanker's cause was education. And through his lifelong
devotion to it, he lifted up our children, our schools, our teachers and
others who work in our schools, our nation and our world. He was truly
our master teacher.
Today, education is the number one priority of the American
people. Al Shanker helped to make it so. His life was full of tumult
and controversy, of growth and triumph. But what I think he would want
to know is, does it count? You bet it does. It counts, Al; and we thank
you, we love you, and we bid you Godspeed. Thank you. (Applause.)
END
12:25 P.M. EDT
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THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
February 24, 1997
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
Hillary and I were deeply saddened today to learn of the passing
of Albert Shanker.
Al spent his life in pursuit of one of the noblest of causes: the
improvement of our public schools. Since 1964, he led educational
organizations -- first as the President of the United Federation of
Teachers in New York and for twenty-two years as the President of the
American Federation of Teachers. He challenged the country's teachers
and schools to provide our children with the very best education
possible, and made a crusade out of the need for educational standards.
He believed, as I do, that children should notgo through school without
learning the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.
Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Eadie, and his family
tonight.
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Noa A. Meyer
04/19/99 06:40:47 PM
Record Type:
Record
To:
Christine N. Macy/WHO/EOP
CC:
Subject: shanker tales
First time that the award is being called the Albert Shanker Distinguished award even though
they have given it under a different name in past years.
Thomas Hobart, President will introduce HRC.
POSSIBLE JOKE: Shanker was a great orator who could spellbind an audience. Every time
he gave a speech at the United Teachers there was a pool for how long he would speak. He
could easily talk for over an hour. There was always a pool and knew that there would be a
pool.
1983 a Nation at Risk - Al was the first to say that they were right that we were on the rising
tide of mediocrity. Statesman for public education. That era of reform that he started has kept
education on the front burner since 1983. He did a remarkable thing for public education and
unions. Stood up and said we need to make some changes.
Al was in the forefront of the civil rights movement. Under his leadership the UFT sent
station wagons to the south for voter registration in the 60s. He walked with MLK - in the
beginning of civil rights. Was there for the beginning of collective bargaining. Always fought
for the underdog.
Connoisseur of wine and loved to bake bread - which is a well known fact about him. Once
he was in Washington eating at the restaurant at the Hiatt hotel across from the AFL - CIO
and he ordered some olive bread. After he tasted the olive bread he asked the waiter to bring
him a cutting board and a knife. He went down to his room and brought up some home made
olive bread. He gave a piece to the waiter and some others working at the restaurant. They
were so impressed by the quality of his bread that they asked him to come and guest bake for
them. He obviously was a little too busy to work as a baker on top of all of his other interests
and responsibilities, but his expertise in so many areas should be noted.
He was known for the his busy schedule. On any given day he could be delivering a speech
over lunch in LA and then off to Boston to deliver a speech over dinner.
He was up every morning at 5 to do his morning reading and was on the go after that.
He always said that the best way to educate yourself on anything is to read everything you can
get your hands on.
He was a devout bargain hunter. Very busy person who always found time to shop. Loved
stereo equipment - could tell you just about anything about stereo equipment.
Multi-faceted human being who wasn't just a union leader or an educator.
New York Times in 1975 ran a photo that captured him walking by a "danger" sign during a
break from strike negotiations. That was how he was known - as a walking time bomb.
Movie, "Sleeper" Woody Allen takes up after a war and revolution about 100 years from now.
Woody Allen was frozen wakes up after 100 years. Someone asks him what happened and
someone explains that, "some guy named Al Shanker blew up the world with the Atomic
bomb." Viewed as a militant. But his image was later reformed with A Nation at Risk report
and his leadership in accepting its criticism and recommendation.
Charter schools not popular with this audience.
22-Apr-99 01:38pm
From-
Inside AT 1'- April ,
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aftorg
Remembering Al Shanker
Inside AFT
Inside AFT--Special Edition--April 9, 1997
CLINTON, GORE LEAD TRIBUTES AT SHANKER MEMORIAL
GATHERING
A courageous leader a steadfast friend a tireless fighter a gifted intellect
and, above all, a master teacher.
That's how Albert Shanker was remembered at a memorial gathering for the
late AFT president at Washington, D.C.'s Lisner Auditorium on April 9. Led
by President Bill Clinton and Vice President Albert Gore Jr., an array of
education and labor leaders shared heartfelt tributes and honored the lasting
legacy of Shanker, who died Feb. 22 after a long battle with cancer.
"First, last and always, Al Shanker was our teacher, and clearly one of the
most important teachers of the 20th century," Clinton told the crowd. "To
honor Shanker's contribution to education and his efforts to foster democracy
around the globe, Clinton announced that teachers who participate in the
United States Information Agency's exchange program in civic education
would be designated as "Albert Shanker Fellows."
SETTING THE AGENDA
Clinton also said Shanker's legacy is seen in major components of the
education agenda the President unveiled in his 1997 State of the Union
message, including proposed federal funding to expand dramatically
certification through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
and new national assessments in reading and math to make high academic
standards count for students.
"Today, education is the number one priority of the American people. Al
Shanker helped make it so," Clinton said. "But what I think he would want to
know is, Does it count? You bet it does. It counts, Al; and we thank you, we
love you and we bid you Godspeed."
TRANSFORMING THE DEBATE
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Gore described Shanker as a tireless fighter and a man of principle--someone
who battled not only for better schools but also for democracy and human
rights around the globe. On education, "he was guided by a simple standard,"
Gore remembered. "He went to work every day because he knew the crusade
to improve our public schools was good and necessary and right."
This lifelong battle for meaningful reforms ultimately transformed the
national debate on education, Gore stressed. "In a sense we were all
[Shanker's] pupils. Where we stand today is very different because of
where he stood."
As president of the union from 1974 to 1997, Shanker "didn't just run the
organization but changed it--and profoundly for the better," AFT secretary
treasurer Edward J. McElroy reminded the crowd. He described him as a
gifted leader who understood early on that professionals expected unions to
go beyond wages and working conditions and evolve into organizations "that
build the institutions where members work."
A NATION AT RISK
Education Secretary Richard Riley remembered Shanker's tireless advocacy
of a public education system worthy of this nation. "He challenged us to do
better. And when we did improve, he challenged us to do better even still,"
Riley said, adding, "It's our job to keep up the fight" for better schools.
Both Clinton and National Education Association president Bob Chase
remembered Shanker's early, courageous stand for school reform when the
landmark "A Nation at Risk" was released in 1983. "In retrospect, it changed
everything," said Chase, allowing teachers unions to "become agents of
change" in the education debate.
HUNDREDS AT GATHERING
A string quartet played as nearly 1,000 AFT staff and leaders, representatives
of government, education institutions, labor and civil rights organizations,
overseas trade unions and friends and admirers gathered for the tribute. The
program began with a video tribute that outlined the AFT president's early
battles to win collective bargaining for teachers; his early involvement with
the civil rights movement and his commitment to democracy and free trade
unionism abroad; his efforts to shape the education reform agenda; and his
expansion of the union to include paraprofessionals and school-related
personnel, health care employees and state and local employees.
Also addressing the Lisner audience were AFT vice presidents Sandra
Feldman, Thomas Reece and Lorretta Johnson; former AFL-CIO president
Lane Kirkland and needle trades union president Jay Mazur; George
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Washington University president Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, former New
York City Schools chancellor Anthony Alvarado and Rebecca Palacios, a
NBPTS-certified teacher from Corpus Christi, Texas; international labor
leaders Fred Van Leeuwen and Stefan Nedzynski; Rep. Eleanor Holmes
Norton of the District of Columbia and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New
York.
This special edition of "Inside AFT" was prepared by Mike Rose. Trish
Gorman, editor.
Back to AFT Main Page
American Federation of Teachers - 555 New Jersey Ave, NW - Washington, DC 20001
Copyright by the American Federation of Teachers. All rights reserved. Photographs and illustrations, as well as text, cannot
be used without permission from the AFT.
http://www.aft.org/shanker/shanker9.hmn
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New York Times
February 24, 1997
Albert Shanker, 68, Combative Leader
Who Transformed Teachers' Union, Dies
the education of their children.
By JOSEPH BERGER
Some members of the city's cen-
Albert Shanker, who rose from be
tral Board of Education opposed
ing a substitute mathematics teach-
such community control, fearing for
er to become a tough, canny labor
their authority. Mr. Shanker, the son
leader who to the 1960's transformed
of European Socialists who himself
New York City's United Federation
had marched in civil rights protests
of Teachers into one of the nation's
in Selma. Ala, was originally amena-
most powerful unions, died on Satur-
ble to the first experiments in com-
day at Memorial Sloan-Kettering
munity governance.
Cancer Center in Manhattan Mr.
In March 1967 an agreement was
Shanker, the longtime president of
reached between the State Legisla-
the American Federation of Teach
cure and Mayor John V. Lindsay for
ers, the parent organization of the
an extra $54 million in state aid to
United Federation of Teachers, was
education If New York City would
68 and lived in Mamaroneck, N.Y.,
present a school decentralization
and Manham
plan by the end of the year.
He died after a three-year bartle
Three experimental school dis-
with bladder cancer, said Janet
tricts were set up in three poor dis-
Bass, a spokeswoman for the Ameri-
tricts with large minority popula-
can Federation of Teachers.
tions - East Harlem. the Lower
Sandra Feldman, who succeeded
East Side and Ocean Hill-Browns-
Mr. Shanker as president of the
ville in Brooklyn. Mr. Shanker's
U.F.T. in 1986, on Saturday called her
Amoriated Press. ISSD
union gave advice to Rhody McCoy. a
predecessor a teacher's teacher who
Albert Shanker
black teacher who was named ad-
was "deeply committed to both pub-
ministrator of the governing board of
nc education and the labor move-
In the second act of his life as
the the Ocean Hill-Brownsville dis-
ment as a means of creating a better
life for all Americans."
president of the American Federa-
trice Mr. Shanker even arranged for
don of Teachers, with 800,000 mem-
voluntary transfers of some teachers
"He could be passionate about his
bers concentrated in Large cities, be
out of Ocean Hill and their replace-
beliefs," she said, "yet as the same
was widely regarded as a champion
ment by more ideologically conge-
time he had the rare ability to ro-
of rigorous educational standards. In
nial professionals.
think issues and come up with fresh
a column that he wrote weekly for
But in a turnabout in April 1968,
approaches as times changed."
Although he became a respected
years as an advertisement in the
Mr. McCoy summarily transferred
thinker on national educational is-
Week to Review section of The New
13 white teachers, assistant princi-
sues, Mr. Shanker is best remem-
York Times, he called for a national
pals and one principal out of the
bered for his combative role as the
competency test for teachers, pay
district against their will Mr. McCoy
bead of the 85,000-member U.F.T.,
increments tied to teacher quality
offered no specific pedagogic rea-
and more rigorous requirements for
sons, but It was believed he thought
the New York City teachers' union,
high school graduation.
that the professionals in question
during the turmoil of the dty's
In yesterday's column, be dis-
were trying to sabotage the decen-
school decentralization experiments
in 1968, turmoti that resulted in the
cussed the flaws of the self-esteem
tralization experiment.
movement to schools. Educational
"He called me and said, 'Some-
closing of most schools for 55 days
during the fall term and which were
authorities like Theodore Sizer
thing is going to happen and I'm
called him a "towering figure."
afraid it's going to hurt our relation-
so racially and religiously divisive
that the effects are still being felt
"I'm proudest of the fact that I've
ship,' Mr. Shanker recalled. "It
three decades later.
confounded people by being honest,"
was absolutely impossible to fathom
The dour Mr. Shanker became so
Mr. Shanker said in a July interview
except on the basis that be was
threatened or something had hap-
widespread a symbol of stubborn
with Joyce Purnick of The Times. "I
believe in traditional discipline and
pened there" in the district
combativeness that Woody Allen in-
cluded a reference to him to his 1973
that history should not be distorted
comedy "Sleeper." A character
for current purposes. But 1 also be-
A Testing Ground
played by Mr. Allen is frozen in 1973
lieve that smaller schools where
and awakens tn the year 2173 to learn
teachers and kids know each other's
For Community Control
that civilization was destroyed be-
names are more effective. I called
To Mr. Shanker and his union, the
cause "a man by the name of Albert
things as I saw them. so in certain
transfers were illegal, a violation of
Shanker got hold of a nuclear war-
ways I could be viewed as a progres-
civil service laws and union can-
bead"
sive educator and in other ways as a
tracts involving the right of workers
traditionalist."
to hold jobs unless charges of Incom-
Undoubtedly Obstinate,
Mr. Shanker, a former junior high
petence were proven They also wor-
school mathematics teacher, had a
ried that the action in Ocean Hill
But a Solid Negotiator
quickstiver intellect and was a pow-
would spread to other communities
erful debater, blessed with a memo-
where local figures who Mr. Shanker
At times Mr. Shanker was un-
ry for anecdotes and metaphors. But
called "vigilantes" would try to seize
doubtedly obstinate. But be was also
be rose to fame as a fighter more
control of the schools.
an artful negotiator and organizer
than a thinker, in his iron-willed bat-
To supporters of the Ocean Hill
who built the federation from a fee-
the against efforts by local black
district, the matter was a test case of
ble association into perhaps the
groups to take control of their neigh-
community control. Coming after the
state's most powerful union, that
borhood schools.
urban riots that followed the assassi-
could virtually veto appointments to
In the late 1960's, many blacks in
nation of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
the Board of Education and deter-
New York City were frustrated by
King Jr. and a wave of upheavals by
mine the makeup of the city's 32
the sputtering drive for integration
students on college campuses, the
local school boards.
and the school system's poor record
conflict seemed to crystallize the na-
He was also a pragmarist willing
in educating their children. They
tion's social fault lines.
in 1975 B put $150 million of his
pressed for school decentralization
The union prevailed in court but
union's pension funds at risk to save
in their communities, believing It
could not get political leaders like
the city from defaulting on its debts.
would give parents a greater voice in
Mayor Lindsay to use police to re-
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William
E
Albert Shanker at a rally in City Hall Park in September 1968 during the teachers' strikes. The walkouts
closed most of the city's schools for 55 days, putting more than a million children out of classrooms.
store the teachers
trustee to oversee the return of the
But in 1996, Mr. Shanker was criti-
"Lindsay told me dozens of times
union teachers.
cal of decentralization in his Inter-
during the strike: 'Al, you're abso-
Mr. Shanker spent 15 days in jail
view with Ms. Purnick Agreeing
lutely right, but do you want the city
for calling the strikes. For years
with many in education, he said that
to burn down?'' Mr. Shanker re-
afterward, he was often demonized
local school board elections contin-
called "I said, 'Where's it going to
for tarnishing his union's reputation
ued to produce corrupt board mem-
stop? That's blackmail"
for Idealism and leaving a legacy of
bers, very low voter turnout and con-
In September. Mr. Shanker called
tensions between blacks and Jews.
fusion over unnecessarily complex
the first of three citywide strikes that
The accusations were deeply
ballots.
crippled the nation's largest public
wounding to Mr. Shanker, whose in-
"It's all a shame and it's a moral
school system. The walkouts suc-
tegration efforts began when he was
outrage," Mr. Shanker said "But
ceeded in closing 85 percent of the
a college student at the University of
how much does that have to do with
city's 900 schools for a total of 55
Illinois and picketed segregated
whether the kids are going to read on
days into November, putting more
movie houses and restaurants in Ut-
grade level or not? There's some
than a million children out of class-
bana. But he always defended his
correlation, but I would say not
rooms and forcing tens of thousands
decision, comparing the expulsion of
much Because you're still not going
of working parents to scramble for
teachers to Nazism.
to educate kids, because you have no
child care arrangements.
"To me, what was going on here
educational plan our there."
During the days when schools
was the same thing." he said. "Push-
The leader of the strike than
were open. union teachers bad to
ing a guy out of a principaiship be-
changed New York was, for most of
endure angry crowds outside many
cause he's white. Taking a bunch of
his life. a tall, lanky and ungainly
schools. Inside the Ocean Hill
teachers and calling them all sorts of
intellectual with black horn-rimmed
schools, members of the Black Pan-
anti-Semitic names and threatening
glasses and a mournful CBSL, like
there and militant local leaders like
to kill their kids or their busbands or
Eeyore's in "Winnie the Pooh." He
Robert (Sonny) Carson, who had
wives. Somebody has to stand up to
loved Ideological debate and devel-
been invited in by Mr. McCoy, deliv-
this and say you're not going to profit
oped a pincer wit that enabled him to
ered antiwhite diatribes and threat-
by this."
excel at it. An introspective man who
ened the teachers' families. The at-
In the aftermath of the 1968
read widely in history and biogra-
mosphere was also poisoned by anti-
strikes, the State Legislature passed
phy. he also became a sophisticated
Semitism directed at the many Jew-
a law that decentralized the city's
baker of bread, a winemaker. an
ish members of the U.F.T. And-Se-
schools into 32 districts and gave
aficionado of African art and a seek-
mitic carcalls were shouted by pro-
elected boards the power to run ele-
er of the best stereo equipment.
testers and appeared in newspapers
mentary and juntor high schools. Be-
Albert Shanker was born Sept. 14,
hind the scenes, Mr. Shanker made
put out by the Afro-American Teach-
1928, into a family that was hardly
ers Association. A student's anti-Se-
sure the law had strong protections
uncommon an the Lower East Side,
for teachers' jobs.
mitic poem was read on the radio.
Ylddish-speaking Russian trami-
Each time the Board of Education
grants with Socialist passions.
A Changing View
His father, Morris, delivered news-
gave in to Mr. McCoy's governing
hoard. Mr. Shanker ordered the
papers. He rose at 2 A.M. seven days
teachers to walk OUL He did this in
Of Decentralization
a week, pushed a cart stacked with
bundles of the city's half-dozen
the face of opposition voiced in many
"We wrote the decentralization
morning newspapers through a five-
of the city's editorial pages. the Ford
law," be said.
mile area of Queens, then returned at
Foundation and the prestigious Pub-
With turnouts tn school board elec-
10 A.M. to deliver the afternoon
Lic Education Association.
tions as low as 6 and 7 percent, the
newspapers. The young Mr. Shanker
The strikes did not end undl the
union's endorsements proved pivotal
hardly ever saw him and knew him.
State Education Commissioner,
and it became evident in a few years
be ance said, as "this angry, disgrun-
James Allen Jr., suspended the
thar the strongest force in decentral-
tied guy who grabbed a rull and
Ocean Hill board and appointed a
ization was the United Federation
coffee and went out to work again."
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His mother, Mamie, was a sewing
machine operator and a member of
Sidney Hillman's Amalgamated
Clothing Workers. So grueling was
Focusing Efforts
her work that Mr. Shanker once vis
On the National Scene
ited her factory and could not recog.
nize her as she sat bent in sweary
After the upheaval of the 1968
concentration at her machine.
strike, be began turning his attention
If both parents bequeathed a sym-
to the national labor scene, and in
pathy for workers, it was his thrifty
1974, in an action that fractured their
mother who taught him how to nego-
friendship, he succeeded Mr. Selden
Liate "I'd have to wait half an hour
as president of the union's parent.
while she bought three tomatoes," he
the American Federation of Teach-
once said
ers, but also retained leadership of
The family moved to the Ravens-
the U.F.T. for another 12 years.
wood section of Queens and he re-
"When be moved to Washington,
membered his childhood as miser-
be became an education statesman
able there. Many of his neighbors
and began thinking about things that
listened on radio to the anti-Semitic
needed to change." said Diane Rav-
preachings of Father Coughlin and
Itch, a former Assistant United
the younger ones sometimes took
States Secretary of Education. "How
their venom out on Mr. Shanker.
do kids learn best? What is the best
way to organize a school? How do we
"At the age of 12. I was 6 foot 3 and
maintain standards?"
110 pounds.' he recalled. "I was Jew-
Ms. Ravitch said he was a voice of
ish and living in an Irish Catholic
common sense. "This is a field con-
neighborhood, so everybody took
sumed with trends and fads and peo-
turns beating up the biggest kid"
ple get carried away with the newest
As a result, he mostly stayed in-
thing." she said, "and be never gets
doors. listening to radio or collecting
carried away."
stamps. But at 14 he joined the Boy
With time, Mr. Shanker's confron-
Scouts. When the scoutmaster was
tarional attitudes seemed to mellow.
drafted into the Army, the teen-age
"We got to the 1980's and we had
Mr. Shanker ran the troop on his own
too much of an adversarial relation-
and persuaded boys to join with the
ship," be said in a 1992 interview of
same zeal he would later employ to
relations berween unions and school
enlist teachers into his union.
boards. "You don't get much done
Mr. Shanker attended Stuyvesant
through conflict."
High School and the University of
Mr. Shanker is survived by his
Illinois. He started a doctoral pro-
wife; four children. Carl. of Gaithers-
gram in philosophy at Columbia Uni-
burg. Md, Adam, of Mount Vernan,
versity, but running out of money
N.Y., Jennie, of Philadelphia, and MI-
and patience, he took a year off in
chael, of Tarrytown, N.Y., and a sis-
1952 to teach at an elementary school
ter, Pearl Harris of Cleveland
for a salary of $38 a week He never
finished his doctorate.
Moving to a junior high school in
Astoria, he found he liked teaching
intellectually gifted classes. But af-
ter a run-in with a principal over
what Mr. Shanker felt was lax disci-
pline, he was assigned to the bottom
classes in the school.
His relief came in union activities.
Teacher unions then were astonish-
ingly ineffective. There were 108 of
them. in part a result of bitter dtvi-
sions over Communist loyalties and
over pay differentials that rewarded
high school teaching more than ele-
mentary teaching.
The anti-Communist Teachers
Guild was a weak group of 2,400
members. Mr. Shanker edited Its
newspaper, which was then deliv-
ered in unmarked envelopes. an indi-
cation of how suspicious authorities
were of leftist unions.
Along with colleagues like David
Selden, he organized individual
schools, visiting three out of every
four in the city. One person he signed
up was Edith Gerber, a Queens
teacher. who became his second wife
in 1960 and who went on to head a
mentoring program at the City Uni-
versity of New York
In 1960, a merged body of teach-
ers' unions, the United Federation,
won the right to bargain for all teach-
ers. Mr. Shanker, then the union's
secretary, became its star. He had a
knack for running meetings, letting
opponents vent so much steam they
infuriated the majority, who would
vote against them.
In 1964, while in his mid-30's, Mr.
Shanker was elected president.
Three years later. he shocked New
Yorkers unaccustomed to strikes by
white-collar professionals by leading
a teachers' walkout over issues of
disciplinary procedures. The action
resulted in the first of two jailings.
3
22-Apr-99 01:18pm
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AMERICAN
in 1611 KRSH MENT. 1.11.
SANDRATELDMAN
FEDERATION OF
MASHINGTON DC 20001-2079
PRESIDENT
202-874-4400
EDWARD
TEACHERS AFLICIO
Suck NEW
NATTACOUR
Receive
Nataska
/
Fax Cover Sheet
School we safety are locate trying info. TN M title about
Here 7 The
DATE: 4/22/99
456 2239
TO:
OFFICE DE THE FIRST LADY FAX: 454 2878
DIRECT: 20213936356
FROM:
CELIA HUNT LOSE
PHONE: 202/879-4458
AFT Public Affairs Department
FAX: 202/879-4556
RE:
SCHOOL SAFETY STATISTICS ITALKING POINTS
Number of pages Including cover sheet: 5
Message:
/ HOPE THESE ARE HELPFUL. PLEASE CALL
IF you NEED ANYTHING ELSE.
Ctt2
22-Apr-99 01:19pm
From-
T-457
P.02
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internal use
SCHOOL SAFETY
Most schools are safer than the community at large. Students are more than twice as
likely to experience serious violent crime while out of school. (White House
Conference on School Safety). Shocking incidents such as this belie the fact that
schools are safe havens for teaching and learning.
Large schools are more likely to report serious crimes. Less than one-tenth of small
schools report serious violent crimes.
(1998 report of the Educational Testing Service Policy Information Center)
(Columbine has 1,800 students)
The number of guns on school campuses continues to drop. Schools have done a
good job of reducing the number of guns on campus. But ready access to firearms is
a pressing issue, as this incident makes tragically clear.
Violent incidents rarely occur out of the blue -- it is critically important to respond to
warning signs. Involve counselors and family members. Various measures can
prevent low-level incidents from escalating into violence.
Although the vast majority of schools never experience serious incidents of violence,
every school must actively foster a safe and orderly climate for learning. Students in
small schools are less likely to get lost in the shuffle; alternative placements provide a
place for violent and disruptive students to get the help they need without disrupting
fellow students' education. Clear policies about expected behavior and consequences
for misbehavior. Active enforcement of these policies.
Zero Tolerance Policies. There is evidence that ZT policies succeed in making
schools safer and more orderly, Since the passage of the statewide Safe Schools Act
(which contains ZT policy), Texas has seen a sharp decline in the number of violent
and disruptive incidents on school campuses.
Involve every member of the school community in creating a safe climate. Students
should have a way to report their knowledge or suspicions of violent behavior. All
school staff should be trained in school safety techniques.
Schools are doing what they can to make sure students are safe. But they are only
one part of the solution. Young people are bombarded with violent images passed off
as entertainment. Many of them experience violence in their homes. Problems of this
enormity require a societal response. Schools will continue to do their part, but
cannot do it alone.
Classrooms
Held Hostage
Restoring Order in Our Schools
American Federation of Teachers
President Albert Shanker's
Address to the 1995
AFT Conference on Discipline and Safety
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Amin
Clinton Presidential Records
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marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
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visit the Clinton Presidential Library's Research Room.
of
Time
http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-15/22shank.15
Al's the best," gushes Bella Rosenberg, Shanker's longtime assistant. "He's a
phenomenon of the 20th century!"
Shanker's life story is the stuff of fiction. He was born on Manhattan's Lower East Side on
Sept. 14, 1928. His parents, Yiddish-speaking immigrants from czarist Russia, worked
hard to make ends meet. When Shanker was a boy, the family moved across the East
River to Long Island City, where his father, who had studied to become a rabbi, was a
newspaper deliveryman and his mother was a sewing-machine operator (and,
significantly, a member of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers union).
Shanker and his sister were frequently reminded of how bad things were back in the "old
country," yet life in the United States was no picnic. His father would begin his day at 2 in
the morning. ``It was a typical immigrant's job in those days," Shanker recalls. ``It was
really hard and dirty. The newspapers would be dropped off outside our apartment 365
days a year. Bundles and bundles of papers." His father would use a pushcart to deliver
the newspapers to houses and apartments on his route--an area about three-quarters of a
mile wide and a mile long. "He'd get back at 7 in the morning, totally exhausted. And
then he'd have some coffee and some breakfast. Then, at 10 o'clock, the afternoon papers
would come out, and he'd start all over."
Shanker's mother sometimes worked 70 hours a week, under hellish conditions. "The
shops were unsafe," he says. "The windows and doors were locked because they were
afraid the workers would take a shirt or pair of pants or throw them out the window to a
friend. There were no benefits. But because of the union, the workers eventually got a
40-hour week, and they got some health benefits, and they got some sort of pension plan,
and there were some safety regulations."
Growing up in a pro-union household, where Franklin D. Roosevelt was considered an
absolute god," Shanker developed an early interest in politics and social justice. He also
learned the hard way about prejudice. The Shankers had the misfortune of being the only
Jewish family in a neighborhood made up primarily of working-class Irish and Italian
families. When I'd walk through the neighborhood on Sundays in the summer," Shanker
recalls, ``all the windows would be open, and I'd hear Father Coughlin"--the popular and
controversial Roman Catholic priest and radio broadcaster-- with his anti-Semitic
messages coming through." Sometimes, children in the neighborhood would call young
Shanker "Christ killer," and once a group of kids even tied a rope around his neck in a
hanging attempt.
As a boy, Shanker was tall for his age; by the time he was 12, he had already reached his
adult height of 6 feet 3 inches. Yet, he was physically awkward and did not excel at
school sports. He did, however, excel in academics, and after attending elementary
schools in Queens, he was accepted to Stuyvesant High School, considered one of New
York City's top public institutions. He graduated in 1946, ranking 125 out of a class of
625. Shanker applied to Harvard but was rejected (``It was a great disappointment," he
has said).
So instead, he went to the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where he had a
cousin in the area. The year was 1946, and the university was overcrowded with GIs,
creating a housing shortage. That alone would have made it difficult for Shanker to find a
place to live, but he had to deal with another problem: anti-Semitism. "At the university
housing bureau," he says, ``some ads would say, `No Jews Wanted,' or `No Jews or
Negroes Wanted,' or White Anglo Saxon Protestants Only." When he finally found a
place to live, about eight miles out of town, he used a bicycle for transportation.
Shanker was surprised by the open racism he encountered in Champaign- Urbana.
`Blacks could not sit in the orchestra sections of the theaters, and no restaurant that
served whites would serve blacks," he recalls. "So I became a member of an interracial
committee at the local Unitarian Church, and we used to have sit-ins. Finally, we got a
hold of an old civil-rights law that was passed right after the Civil War, and we went to
court and got these places to open up."
Earning a bachelor's degree in philosophy, Shanker graduated with honors in 1949 and
returned to New York, where he enrolled at Columbia University with the intention of
acquiring a doctorate in philosophy. He completed all his courses but never submitted a
dissertation. "I was one of the promising philosophy students," he says. ``I was very, very
good at it. But basically, I ran out of money and patience."
In 1952, Shanker decided to take advantage of a post-war shortage of teachers and take
the substitute teachers' examination, `which, in those days, was fairly difficult," he
of
11
4/22/99 11:21 AM
nker Stands Test of Time
http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-15/22shank.h15
recalls. He passed the exam and was assigned to teach 6th grade at an elementary school
on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Upon his arrival, Shanker found out that he was the
fourth teacher that year to take on this particular group of students. ``It was very, very
tough," he says. "There were some students there from West End Avenue, which had
fairly well-to-do people, but there was also this daily influx of Puerto Ricans. So about a
third of my kids did not speak English."
It's clear that the seeds of Shanker's lifelong quest to elevate the professional status of
teachers were planted during those first few months in the classroom. "One of the stories
that I tell often," he says, ``is about the word professional,' and why I decided to become
part of the union, apart from my family background. And why the word professional'
used to turn me off.
"I'd been teaching for about a week and a half, and I had just terrible problems with
classroom control. And so one day, the door opened, and there was the assistant principal.
And he stood there with his arms stretched out and pointing. I didn't know what he meant.
And I was sort of beckoning him to come on in because I really wanted to talk to him. I
needed help on how to prevent these kids from cursing and shrieking. When I would turn
around and write things on the blackboard, they would throw things. But he just stood
there pointing and then finally said, `Mr. Shanker. There is a lot of paper on the floor.
That's very unprofessional.' Then he closed the door and walked away."
As one of two male teachers at the school, Shanker was asked to share ``snow patrol"
duties; whenever it snowed, he and the other teacher had to walk around the school
during their lunch break making sure the kids didn't get into snowball fights. The previous
year, however, the other teacher had done the job all by himself. So, at a staff meeting,
the teacher raised his hand to ask the principal a question. Shanker vividly recalls what
happened next: ``He said, 'Now that there are two men on the faculty to handle snow
patrol, would it be OK to rotate--you know, the first day of snow he goes, and the next
day I go?' The principal frowned at him and replied, 'That's very unprofessional." Some
40 years later, Shanker still laughs at the absurdity of the principal's comment. "So I got
to see that the word professional' meant to be obedient, don't rock the boat. The very
opposite of a professional."
Listening to Shanker, you begin to realize just how far teaching has come since those
post-war `Blackboard Jungle" days.
"Some teachers would be assigned to be 'floaters' in a school and had to teach in a
different classroom each hour," he recalls. ``A few teachers were always given the most
violent classes, while other teachers were out of the classroom most of the time on
`administrative assignments.' Some teachers got their pay docked if they were a few
minutes late because of a traffic jam, but others could come late as often as they wanted
because they had friends in high places. Some teachers were always assigned to teach the
subject they were licensed in and were given the same grade each period so they would
have the fewest possible preparations. Others almost always taught several different
grades, often out of the fields in which they were licensed." Even worse, when teachers
took sick leave, they had to bring in a note from their doctor.
Shanker's mother, who had seen her own working conditions change dramatically thanks
to the union, was particularly appalled by the fact that elementary teachers in New York
did not have a duty-free lunch period; unlike junior high and high school teachers, they
were required to supervise their students throughout the 35-hour school week. "Even in
the sweatshop, we have time for lunch," she told her son. "You teachers are supposed to
be so smart, but you're dumb not to have a union."
`Gospel of Teacher Unity'
No doubt Shanker would have given up teaching entirely if he hadn't discovered his life's
calling: union organizing. He joined Local 2 of the New York Teachers Guild, which had
been founded in 1917 with John Dewey as its charter member. An affiliate of the
American Federation of Teachers, the guild was just one of 106 teacher organizations in
New York City, and only about 5 percent of the school system's 50,000 teachers belonged
to it. Moreover, the guild was the only organization that supported collective bargaining
for teachers, a radical idea in those days.
``Members of the other groups said, 'That's a trade union thing," Shanker recalls. ``If you
get collective bargaining, you'll be just like the miners union--they're going to shoot you.
Or you'll be crooked, like the Teamsters union.' And we said, 'Look, you have 106
different groups fighting each other. The teachers ought to vote for one organization to
M
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Stands Test of Time
http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-15/22shank.h15.
the classic George Meany mold." (Meany was the longtime head of the powerful afl-cio.)
That same year, when Shanker was elected a vice president of the afl-cio's executive
council (a post he holds to this day), liberal Democrats all but gave up on him. "Once a
boat-rocker as a young Socialist rebel," A.H. Raskin wrote in The New York Times,
"Shanker has moved steadily rightward inside organized labor until he now ranks among
the most orthodox of union establishmentarians, a highly articulate defender of almost
everything George Meany does." (Shanker and Meany, both ardent anti-Communists, had
supported the Vietnam War.) Some observers speculated that Shanker would eventually
take over Meany's job.
Instead, Shanker, in 1974, was elected president of the AFT (although he kept his job as
president of the uft until 1986). The position, combined with his weekly column, gave
him national prominence, allowing him the opportunity to influence the education agenda
for the entire nation. He continued to press for collective bargaining, but school boards, as
Shanker said at the time, ``were no longer soft on unions." It was becoming more and
more difficult for teachers' unions to gain concessions. Shanker saw the writing on the
wall; he slowly began moving the AFT in a different direction, until, by the mid 1980s,
the union became strongly identified with school reform and teacher professionalism.
Ironically, the nea, which had once rejected the idea of collective bargaining for teachers,
had become the more militant of the two unions. Now, it was the AFT that was acting
more like a professional association ( in the best sense) by proposing educational
reforms," wrote Timothy Noah in The New Republic, `and the nea that was intent upon
protecting its constituency from criticismor scrutiny."
Meanwhile, Shanker's image underwent a remarkable transformation: The fiery union
boss had become a respected advocate of innovative school reform. In speech after
speech, he outlined proposals that he believed would finally turn teaching into a true
profession, including a national test for teachers, career ladders, merit pay, and, yes,
radical restructuring" of schools.
Sometimes, it was hard to believe what was coming out of the union leader's mouth. In a
now-famous speech he gave in 1985, which he called "The Making of a Profession,"
Shanker urged teachers to embrace these new ideas if they wanted to enhance their status.
Collective bargaining has been a good mechanism, and we should continue to use it," he
said. "But now, we must ask whether collective bargaining will get us where we want to
go." The New York Times ran the story on page one, under the headline, ``Shanker
Urging Shift in Strategy To Aid Teachers."
Suddenly, Shanker was winning praise from politicians and policymakers of all stripes,
including conservatives who had probably never before said a kind word about a union
leader. In 1989, Chester E. Finn Jr., who had served as an assistant secretary of education
under President Reagan, called Shanker ``one of the authentically insightful and
imaginative figures in American education." But he also argued that while Shanker was
taking the high road, "the AFT locals are simultaneously going on strike, battling
reforms, and defending the status quo as if everything were hunky- dory."
Others accused Shanker of jumping on the school-reform bandwagon out of sheer
opportunism. Mary Hatwood Futrell, who at the time was the president of the National
Education Association, told The Wall Street Journal that among `the people who are in
schools," Shanker was viewed as "being so far out on a limb that he can't come back.
They view him basically as trying to get headlines. He'll say or do anything if that's what
it takes."
Nevertheless, many of Shanker's ideas took hold, particularly the concept of national
certification for teachers, which is now being carried out by the private, nonprofit
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. But in recent years, the union leader
seemed to have become dissatisfied with the results of the school-reform movement. He
was especially troubled by the trend toward privatization, which he believed would
dismantle public education. In speeches, Shanker had stopped talking about radical
restructuring and had begun talking about restoring the academic mission of schools.
`That has to be the primary thing," he said in 1994. "Other things have to be secondary,
which they're not."
The clincher for his change of direction, Shanker says, was the 1994 Public Agenda
report, "First Things First." The study found that the public wants ``safety, order, and the
basics" and is uncomfortable with many school reforms. 'We think the public's right
about what our schools need," Shanker says, `and we think they should get what they
9 of 11
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4/97 -- TM: Remembering Al Shanker
http://www.edweek.org/htbin/tastwe..OR%26%28shanker%26and%2626199729
April 1997
EDUCATION WEEK on the WEB
EDUCATION WEEK
IN CONTEXT
THE ARCHIVES
TEACHER MAGAZINE
THE DAILY NEWS
SPECIAL REPORT
EDUCATION
TEACHER MAGAZINE:
Remembering Al Shanker
By Adam Urbanski
Commentary
"E.F. Hutton," I thought to myself; when Al
Shanker talks, everyone listens. I sat among
A friend and
Read the news
several thousand others listening intently to
colleague recalls
stories about Al
Shanker's keynote address. The normally noisy
another side of
Shanker's death in
this issue: "End Of
hall was now quiet. Unlike before and after his
speech, no one was leaving the room, no one was
the tough union
An Era At The
AFT" and "Albert
whispering.
president.
Shanker,
1928-1997."
I was a new delegate to the American Federation of Teachers annual
convention, but I already knew our president's reputation. This was a tough
leader who always had a plan and a way to make it a reality. He stood up
for what he believed--even if it meant going to jail. No wonder he
commanded such admiration and such undivided attention.
So at first, purely out of respect, I listened. Soon, I found myself leaning
forward so as not to miss a single word. He made sense. He spoke to me,
not at me. And it didn't even seem like a speech; it was as if we were
Read an Education
having a conversation in a living room. No jargon, no worn-out
Week profile of Al
Shanker, "Shanker
cliches--just plain speaking, frequently peppered with asides prefaced with
Stands Test of
"and by the way..."
Time," Feb. 21,
1996.
How refreshing--and how believable! He talked about what he knew and
what he thought I might want to know. He was right.
Years later, I was elected president of my local union. The day after my
victory, the telephone rang incessantly. "Hello," I said, answering yet
another call.
"This is Al Shanker, Adam," the deep, rich voice at the other end
announced.
"Hi, how are you?" is what I said. But what I thought was, "Oh, my God.
Shanker is calling me!"
"I'm OK. I'm calling to congratulate you and to say that if there's anything I
can do to help... "
"As a matter of fact," I blurted out, "I would like to speak with you about
some ideas that I've been considering."
"All right, come down and we'll talk."
I agreed and wondered what it would be like to finally meet Al Shanker
and speak with him face to face.
The day finally came, and Shanker waved me into his United Federation
of Teachers office in New York City. (He was then president of both the
AFT and the UFT.) "Come in, we're just tasting a new wine I discovered.
Not expensive, but very, very good. Will you try it?"
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"Sure. But just a little."
"All right. Here. Do you like it?"
"It's very nice."
"Do you want a case?"
"No, but thank you for offering. I really don't know that much about
wines."
"You don't? Well, then, you'll have to learn, especially the reds. Or else
what will we have to talk about?"
"Actually, there are some things I'd like to discuss with you."
"I know. We will. But the thing about wines, you see, is that they don't
have to be expensive to be good. And by the way, this Amarone goes great
with some chocolate biscotti I make. I always put a little hot pepper in
them, and the taste lingers on your tongue."
During lunch that day, I yielded to Shanker when it came to selecting the
wine. I secretly jotted down his choice.
Jotting down Shanker's choices of wine became a new habit for
me--though I was by then already accustomed to jotting down his poignant
words about education. Like so many others, I stole from him liberally and
shamelessly. His metaphors and anecdotes are legendary.
Shanker's talent as a wordsmith was astonishing, inevitably leaving an
indelible impression on the listener. And his common sense was truly
uncommon. Always impeccably logical, he was also a lateral thinker--a
relentless prober of possibilities. Sometimes he'd explore the question of
how we could make better or stronger that which we already had; and then
he would explore what else we could have that would be altogether
different.
An enigma to many, Al Shanker defied labels. He was both a progressive
and a traditionalist. He refuted the phony choice between compensation
and dedication (no reason why teachers shouldn't do well while doing
good); equity and excellence (the most insidious form of racism is to lower
standards for someone because of race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status);
and unionism and professionalism (the stronger our union, the more able
we are to build a genuine profession). And contrary to the popular
perceptions of Shanker, he also found effective ways to promote unity
without unanimity, rigor without rigidity, and authority without
authoritarianism.
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Shanker's fervor for strengthening public
Shanker had an
education in America was matched only by his
irrepressible
passion for promoting democracy at home and
vision for
abroad. He steadfastly believed that communist
teachers, for their
regimes would crumble--even when I and so
many others could not yet envision it. His
unions, and for
unswerving support of free-trade unionism and
our public
democratic impulses throughout the world made
schools.
an important difference. He was a champion for
freedom and human rights.
UFT President Sandra Feldman and I accompanied him on one of his
frequent trips to Eastern Europe before the fall of communism, nearly a
decade ago. After meetings with some of the heroic human rights activists
from Czechoslovakia's Charter 77 movement, we took some time for
sightseeing. It was a glorious, sunny day in Prague, and Al managed to
locate just about every bookstore and record shop in the city. I helped carry
all the precious "finds."
"I thought we came here to fight communism, not to shop," I murmured.
"You see these two as different activities?" he asked rhetorically. "And by
the way, if you do shopping right, communism will fall."
Shanker's endearing wit and sense of humor were as quick and evident as
his capacity for tenderness and affection. During that same excursion, we
attended an international conference on human rights in Poland in my
former hometown, Nowa Huta, near Krakow. This was my first trip to
Poland since my family escaped in 1957, and I was somewhat
apprehensive about my safety. Indeed, I was briefly detained, searched,
and interrogated by Polish soldiers upon arrival at the Warsaw airport.
Knowing this, Al checked on me each evening at our hotel before settling
in for the night.
"Why are you acting like a doting father?" I asked him jokingly.
"Because I promised your mother," he said with a wink. If he had not
already earned my immense respect and affection, he would have gained it
then and there. And it didn't matter that he'd never met my mother or
spoken with her. I've always wished that every teacher would have had the
chance to meet and know him as he truly was: both steel and velvet. Al
Shanker was not only the voice of teachers; he gave voice to teachers. He
inspired them to aspire to more. He triggered among them a revolution of
rising expectations, a continuing quest that will be his legacy.
Shanker had an irrepressible vision for teachers, for their unions, and for
our public schools. That vision will become a reality because of the
foundation he established and the leadership he modeled. He projected
strength but also made others strong; he spoke to the task no less than to
the heart; and he knew the bottom line, while he also saw the horizon.
The strong teachers' unions that Shanker helped build will continue to
strive for a more genuine teaching profession and more effective schools
for all our students. We won't forget his most recent admonition that "it is
no less the responsibility of a teachers' union to help preserve public
education than to negotiate contracts." (Yes, I jotted that down.) We will
do this by promoting higher standards for ourselves and for our students.
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We learned this from a wise teacher.
And by the way
Adam Urbanski is a vice president of the American Federation of Teachers
and president of its Rochester, New York, affiliate.
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AMERICAN
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Al in His Own Words
A Collection
Special Issue: Spring/Summer 1997
American Federation of Teachers
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