Movie misses mark

“Waiting for Superman” is an excellent new documentary about American education, an analysis that is both distressing and inspiring. It is essential viewing for educators in that the film illustrates much of the public distrust about education.

We educators must be keenly aware of these negative stereotypes so we can defeat them, both in practicality and in the court of public opinion. With that being said, I would like to attack one of the film’s premises in an attempt to improve the discourse a bit. I would like to challenge the film’s destructive portrayal of unions.

Sympathy for unions in general seems to be waning, and “Waiting for Superman” gives compelling reasons for union hatred. The film explores all the usual suspects of union ills: protection of lazy teachers, resistance to change, being dedicated to self-interest rather than student needs and the like. Although I have only worked in this school district, I can offer first-person testimony that unions have played anything but a stifling role in school administration.

I have had at least two incidents with unions that are strikingly familiar, one with the teachers’ union and one with the classified employees’ union (classified employees are school support personnel: secretaries, custodians, teacher aides). These events were separated by a few years and happened in different schools, but the union responses were remarkably similar and, I will argue, much more representative than is ever portrayed in popular media — at least in our community.

For example, we were once having productivity problems with a classified employee, so I met with two members of the CEA (Classified Employees Association) and explained why I was disappointed with the employee’s contribution. The CEA representative immediately replied, “We’re sorry you’re having trouble with one of our members. I promise you that this will be fixed or they will be removed.”

I was astonished by the high level of sincerity and cooperation I was shown — and they made good on their promise. The CEA took it upon themselves to be a quality control agent, spoke to their employee in a way that worked, and I and that employee went on to serve several more good years together.

Some years later, we were having trouble with a teacher. I met with the MSEA (the teachers’ union). After explaining the situation, the union leader said, “Well, that all sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I’ll explain this to our member and they will adjust, or you can proceed with steps towards termination.”

Unfortunately, neither mine or the union’s efforts effective and this case led to a termination.

I have always been intrigued why my own experience contrasts so radically with the union portrayals in the news and in documentaries like “Waiting for Superman.” My own experience of unions has been one of quality control, as cooperating change agents and enforcers of standards for their members. I have never had an employee I was having trouble with run to the help of a union and find safe haven there. Unions are responsible for policing their own, and I have seen that done.

But a defend-no-matter-what union position is what is consistently portrayed in every movie and news story I see. I am not an expert in this area, but I can speak about real experience in our community, and I have found unions to be only supportive of management’s quality control of teachers. In fact, I have fielded informal complaints from union leaders about why principals don’t take a more forceful role with the weak links within the teaching ranks, challenging us to do our job better.

“Waiting for Superman” has many legitimate critiques of education: the place of tenure, salary caps, funding inequities, the damage bad teachers can do, clumsy evaluation methods, the shortness of the school day and the school year, etc. These are all areas we educators need to reckon with seriously or we will find others reckoning with them for us. “Waiting for Superman” is an excellent, heart-wrenching documentary; however, at least in my Mat-Su experience, unions have not been the kryptonite that kills the Superman-like efforts needed for reform. This documentary shows Mat-Su schools that we are both light years ahead of some schools and that we have a long ways to go in others. A documentary that points out such waypoints is worthwhile and educational viewing.

Mark Okeson is assistant principal at Wasilla High School.