Show I Teachers Teachers' Strikes All ll across the country school budgets are skyrocketing sky roc k e n g Funds have to be provided for new or improved buildings and facilities for updated textbooks and visual aids and for rising salary requirements for teachers teachers teachers teach teach- ers and administrators But in spite of all efforts teachers by and large apparently apparently apparently are not satisfied There Is Isreal isreal isreal real danger that teachers' teachers strikes strikes once once unheard of but now by no means rare will rare will spread and intensify WHAT DO TEACHERS WANT WAl T During the past decade or so teachers have become much more fully organized than ever before Their federations and labor unions are more aggressive aggressive sive si ve and more articulate in local communities and they have stepped up their lobbying at state capitols What are they after The essence of most teacher demands mands de of late has been money Even in cases where 10 local c a I school boards have often quite reluctantly to be sure agreed to large salary increases greater fringe benefits benei bene bene- fits i ts and improved working conditions conditions con con- teachers are reported to be still sUll unhappy PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION They are also groping for something which their profession profession profession sion has lost during the past several years the spontaneous respect of the child and of the community Time was when everybody understood educations education's educations education's educations education's tion's general purpose Now there Is much confusion and difference of opinion be ben between be- be tw tween n teachers school officials officials officials parents and business men regarding educational goals An eminent American professor sor Rev Dr Henry Van Dyke once said The true object of education is to train one to think clearly and to act rightly That and other wholesome definitions of our educational goals have been obscured in recent years as we have overemphasized di diplomas diplomas diplomas di- di and degrees while undervaluing un undervaluing undervaluing un- un the development of human qualities of mind and spirit not measurable by tests and examinations UNCLEAR THINKING Most of us are sadly aware that the influence of the church upon our young people Is no nowhere nowhere nowhere no- no where near as pervasive as it once was Unfortunately too there has been a breakdown of discipline in the home On the theone theone theone one hand hand alert to the competitive tive ve nature of our society we we urge our children toward di diplomas diplomas diplomas di- di and degrees that we hope will open the door to good- good paying jobs On the other hand we give our children the bad example of ratIng rating rating rat- rat Ing comfort ease and self in much too highly We try too hard to Insulate ourselves from tension forgetting forgetting forget forget- I I I I ting that tension is itself a sign signI of life and that some anxiety is I the price we must pay for being intelligent Is it any wonder our teachers have difficulty emphasizing emphasizing I sizing and encouraging clear I thinking NEW PERSPECTIVES NEEDED Teachers' Teachers strikes are a mis- mis take They are against the public good and they do grave harm to teachers' teachers interests They are a wrong approach and are tantamount tantamount tantamount tanta tanta- mount to an admission that teachers themselves are not notI I thinking clearly or acting right right- ly Where persistent n negotiations e go tl a- a Hons have left teachers short of their goals the truculence and antagonism Implicit in a strike only emphasize that the strike weapon Is still not the answer Most school boards recognize the importance of teachers in community life In most cases the stubbornness and recalcitrance recalcitrance recalcitrance trance of officials in the matter I of teachers' teachers salaries is based on cold fiscal facts rather than on indifference toward teachers teachers' teachers teachers' teachers teachers' teach teach- ers' ers needs Everybody loses when there is a hardening of hostility be between between between be- be tween school boards and teach teach- ers What is needed are new perspectives on the whole question question question ques ques- tion of education and how it is isto isto isto to be financed and a closer relationship between our secondary secondary secondary sec sec- schools and our colleges and universities |