Union Rep to NYC Teacher: Leave me the fuck alone.

No, not verbatim. But that was the message.

Paperwork was the issue. And teaching. Or not having any time to do so.

Great system.Yeah. This is working really well.

>>>> Like death and taxes, certain things will be with us forever. Teaching will always involve paperwork . But , just as certainly, teaching is not only paperwork. At least it ought not to be.

Our union (UFT) seemed to “get” this at one point; even pushing for a safety-valve mechanism in the 2007 contract to guard against paperwork excess and abuse. (And that’s as it should be. They were teachers at one point. I think. Weren’t they? ) So… what happened?

I lobbied for *years* to get a ”paperwork reduction” committee established (as per Art 8-I, Sect. 1. BTW, people should actually READ THE LANGUAGE of the contract.) in my district only to be repeatedly stonewalled by the unelected UFT “UNITY” District Representative then in charge. When I approached him face to face at the Delegate Assembly… after a number of emails on the topic went unacknowledged…. it was like I was speaking a language other than English.: “PaperWHICH?” “ReductionWHAT?” “CommitteeWHO?!?”

He quickly gathered his wits. We didn’t NEED a paperwork reduction committee, he explained. The UFT had everything under control. There was a lawsuit making it’s way thru the courts… the outcome of which would surely end “excessive paperwork” as we then ( This was about 3 years ago, I’d say.) knew it.
I went home that night and googled every possible phraseology-combination that might elicit a reference to the UFT being involved with a suit the subject or object of which was paperwork reduction. Finding nothing, I emailed DR ( “Flash”, I decided that this one needed a name.) again. No response. ( Don’t these folks know how to click the “reply” button ?) Meta-message: “Leave me the fuck alone.”>>>>>>>
The rest:
http://paulvhogan.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/paperwork-thin-i-thought-we-were-supposed-to-be-teaching/