Figured this sentiment – said better than I’d be able to – should probably be reiterated as much as possible in the world of “pink slips and yellow unions.”
We must defeat arguments such as this one: “We can give, say, attorneys for the Union reasonable raises; there are only about sixty of them. We couldn’t do the same for teachers; there are 20,000 of them.” No. This is no argument. First, I want to know whether teachers are important or not. I want to know whether their salaries are insufficient, whether their task is indispensable or not. It is on such questions that this difficult and long struggle, which calls for patient impatience on the part of educators and political wisdom from their leadership, must be centered. It is important to fight against the colonial traditions we bring with us. It is imperative that we fight to defend the relevance of our task, a relevance that must gradually (but as quickly as possible) become incorporated within society’s most general and obvious stratum of knowledge.
The more we acquiesce to being made into coddling mothers, the more society will find it strange that we go on strike and demand that we remain well behaved.
Conversely, the sooner society recognizes the relevance of our profession, the more it will support us.