By Michelle Gunderson. I want to paint a picture of teaching in Chicago for you. Ten years ago I was teaching music in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. Many of our children were impoverished and over 30 languages were spoken in our school. I had 847 students. I did not round the number to 850 for a purpose – …
By Michelle Strater Gunderson. On December 1, the Board of Education of the Chicago Public Schools announced its plan to shutter Harper, Hope, Robeson, and Team Englewood High Schools. All of these high schools are located in the predominantly African American Englewood neighborhood. With their planned closing …
By Michelle Strater Gunderson. If you are fortunate, every once in a while you will meet someone who breathes the fire of justice. In my life Sarah Chambers, a special education teacher from Maria Saucedo School in Chicago, fills that role. Yet, this is the teacher who the Chicago Public Schools suspended last …
By Michelle Gunderson. A picket line is sacred ground. As a labor organizer and teacher unionist, I do not say this lightly. Workers have fought and died on picket lines fighting for work conditions that respect the inherent dignity of human life. A picket line is hallowed ground sanctified by sacrifice. I am …
By Michelle Strater Gunderson. A teachers’ contract is not just about money. It’s an agreement between government and a community about how children will be treated. Now, don’t get me wrong – I will always advocate for reasonable compensation for educators, especially in light of the amount of …
By Michelle Strater Gunderson. I sat in the House of Delegates of the Chicago Teachers Union on Wednesday night waiting to be counted as a yes vote for our April first strike. I was number 39 out of 486. It is not common to be called out individually to vote at our union. Most of our motions are passed through …
By Anthony Cody. This was a big year for education. We saw the tortuous end of No Child Left Behind, replaced by a new law that will be subject to many future battles over the amount of tests and the stakes placed on them. Charter schools continued to be darlings of the corporate world, but diligent reporting and …
By Michelle Gunderson. The hunger strike for Dyett High School ended this morning on day 34. Once again I headed to the south side to be with my friends and fellow education fighters known as the Dyett Twelve. Education activists had been told that the hunger strikers would have an announcement this morning, and …
By Michelle Gunderson. We sit under the trees at Dyett High School yet again on Sunday night. The Dyett 12 hunger strikers sit in a tight circle while a crowd of over a hundred of Chicago’s activists listen in. I know almost every face in this crowd. They are people who understand struggle and know what the word …
By Michelle Gunderson. A circle of ten people sit outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office demanding a meeting with the mayor. They have not taken solid food for 12 days. The Dyett hunger strikers ask that a decision be made regarding their proposal to keep the only open enrollment high school in the Bronzeville …
