Wednesday, January 27, 2016

What does experience truly mean?

There has been lots of talk and debate about the lack of experience that the Caucus of Working Educators will bring to the leadership of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT). And it is usually followed by the fact that it is a contract year and that the case presented before court is still being deliberated and that a win is just around the corner. The best one yet is that this is a divisive move and the union needs experience more than change. And that is when I realized that it was time to share a story and not an article or an op-ed. It was time to recognize that no union member came straight from the womb knowing how to negotiate an effective and fair contract. Not one union member came out of the womb knowing how to listen, I mean really listen to the body language and the room when a teacher or staff member is in the midst of a dispute with administration. Not one union member ever came fully prepared to the table without first being given the opportunity to learn.

We are all teachers. Our vocation means that we believe that students are sponges and ready to learn. But, we are also wise enough to respect and listen to the life experience that they bring from their family, community, and friends. When combined with the curiosity to learn more, a powerful thing begins to develop.....experience. This is dedicated to someone who passed on her keen insight into education and what it means to organize and do the hard work...

I am going to tell you a story about a teacher. She started teaching and did not fully understand what it meant to be in a union, but by her second year she was the recording secretary for her local. The next step was treasurer followed by a quick one year stint as vice president and then president for eight years. No one told her that she was too young at the tender age of 36 that she did not have enough experience to lead 15 school districts. And she was responsible for several contracts that teachers loved and district heads feared. She was open to the lessons all around her. She soaked up education and labor law so that she could ask the questions that each superintendent and school board that sat across from her dreaded....why....usually followed by concretely flawless evidence. She was even more fierce because she maintained her status as a classroom middle years teacher throughout this experience that she was developing and continuously honing her experience. This union member worked in the same conditions as her rank and file members. Her passion was derived from experiencing budget cuts, layoffs, and administrative manipulation firsthand. And she continues in retirement to provide necessary training to pass on her experience to now active members.

The Caucus of Working Educators has the same power as the main character of my story times 11,000. They are ready to connect their combined experience with the needs of the rank and file members because they are the members. Many have been teaching in the worst of times and continue to show up and show out. Many have already provided advice and defense for their fellow teachers as Building Representatives. Many have already made life long political connections with other unions and politicians to strengthen the battle to take back our public schools from state control and all that threatens public education throughout Philadelphia.  But first, we have to eradicate the exhausted excuses.

This is a story about experience and I know firsthand that WE experience comes with the undeterred will to listen, fight and win. And that is all the experience the PFT needs.

Friday, January 22, 2016

A love letter for 2016...to me

This is a love letter. One written about something that surpasses the simplistic idea of what many of us limit love at. This is a new year. One that has come with some bumps and valleys, but mostly it has demonstrated the beauty of my friends, family, and even strangers. And my faith has been tested time and time again. But that is the definition of faith, the belief in the unseen and unknown.

I promise to love this life more and more each year that I am given breath. And not to take any day for granted. I promise to look around me during my walks and to actually breathe during my weekly swims. I promise to be a blunt force of honesty when it comes to exposing the truth about every attack on public education and to provide solutions and pray that the right people hear it and respond in time before it is too late. I promise to take more time to simply be with me, away from the crazy, at least once every quarter instead once every 5 or 6 years.

This letter is to remind me why I love being a performing artist and a writer. An artist. One that can be unfettered by the constant strain between financial stability and joy, which at time strips my love down to the bone. This letter is to remind me what is possible. These vocations are separate but intertwined with my role of mother, teacher, lover, seeker, and fighter. I love being on stage. I love sharing a song with an audience. Hearing the notes fall off the page into the mist and combining with my voice to make magic. And, I love being on TV. Sharing a laugh with the crew while relishing in the excitement of being on the set. Meeting and chatting with Tina Fey! I love that the idea of love brought me to the City of Brotherly Love. And I am still here.

I love watching and listening to Maya create new art and powerful stories. I love watching her blossom into who she is now, and I am excited to see who she is to become. 

This letter is written at a time that I am reevaluating what love should and could look like in my life. At a time when friends are settling down and discovering new partners, I am simply loving the skin I am in.

This may appear and sound like I am rambling, but I am orchestrating a new reality with each word. Promises do become truths and can manifest into something real and magnificent if given the chance. THIS is my new confession as a single parent actress. I confess that I continue to want and desire more. 2016 is the year of a new and abundant harvest for my life!