The Online Reflector

A teachers’ strike in Chicago last month closed the city’s public schools for seven whole school days after teachers walked out of classrooms in the nation’s third-largest school district. An estimated 350,000 students were left without teachers, classes and school lunches, prompting concerns from working parents with no means of childcare for their children.

Exactly what the teachers were striking about remains disputed even now, after the Chicago Teachers Union ratified a new three-year contract to officially end the strike. The deal does include a decent pay raise but also instates a standardized test-based evaluation system, a longer school day and other measures.

Many educators have said that this strike was long overdue because it reflected national tension about education reform and teacher accountability. Such tension is undeniable, and any educator would agree. But tension does not necessitate a strike—it doesn’t mean that an entire district’s teachers should just not show up to class in order to get their way.

Our nation is lucky enough to have freedom that allows us to protest, and non-violent protests, such as strikes, have paved the way for much reform in history. In many areas, strikes are successful means of settling disputes, because they do capture media attention and require negotiation among the battling parties.

However, our public school system is not an appropriate arena for a strike, especially one as drawn out as Chicago’s. A teachers’ strike inevitably creates victims—the students. Students are unquestionably harmed from a seven-day hiatus from classroom instruction. Keep in mind that seven school days is nearly a week and a half of lessons, which could be close to a whole unit of instruction.

Did Chicago’s teachers forget about their students, the reason they supposedly show up for work every day? Or did the teachers simply deem their dispute more weighty than the education of 350,000 students? Either way, the extended strike that the teachers conducted was irresponsible and unprofessional.

Most in the educational system would agree that teachers are overworked and underpaid. But, as cliché as it is, teachers do not enter the profession for the money, but for the passion. That being said, an ideal teacher should be most concerned about his or her students.

Teaching requires a sort of sacrifice similar to motherhood, meaning teachers should first be advocates for their students before being advocates for themselves. The Chicago strike exhibited teachers acting in complete opposition to their students’ best interests, and it is unfortunate that students had to suffer in this way.