I'd Have Your Back If You'd Had Mine

   "Fire!!..." yelled Beuregard, the dog, when he was asked, "If that guy carries the hose, what do you do?"
  He replied that he yelled, "Fire!" when there was one.
  When I was a 10-11 year old girl, reading Pogo books for $1, I had no idea that Walt Kelly, the cartoonist, was writing satire.  I laughed, anyway.
  Although Walt tended toward the left in politics during the 60's, picturing an hyena, resembling Spiro Agnew, this particular set of frames in the 50's, satirized unions.  It was a little absurd, as the firefighters took off weekends and worked only eight hours during the day.  They wouldn't allow themselves to be taken advantage of by working weekends and nights, so they were basically running around, the dog and the rabbit carrying the hose, acting "as if" they had something to do, looking for more conveniently-scheduled fires.
   I'm still in a bit of a quandary regarding unions. Neither I nor my husband had union protection, and our lives were consequently, precarious, indeed.
   Broadcasters were few, and bosses often paid low or threatened not to pay at all.  Among themselves, it was something like the Big Brother House on T.V., where there was a continual, "watch your back" game of frequent elimination.  Doing well and getting your name in the paper meant being targeted, as well.
   Teaching, based on numbers in attendance, was quite stressful, and we had to go out as a sales team recruiting students.  Heaven forbid displeasing students, once you had them, in any way!  You might lose your class, at least, for the next term.  Some nights for adult education and weekends for children's drama were a must.  If you hired a substitute for a night, you found out you weren't getting paid, though you set it all up.
   Once you'd spent all the time you could in that capacity, after a unionized teacher bumped you out of a job for which you'd just been hired, you returned to subbing.  There, you had to listen to unionized teachers in the lounge talking about job auctions you hadn't the faintest idea how to be included in, sort of a Catch-22 setup, (there appeared to be a proverbial moat with alligators surrounding personnel, since experienced teachers cost more) or how some dumb sub had messed up yesterday's class, because they weren't even certified.
   If you were behind a magazine and, after putting down your reading, protested that certain subs were, in fact, certified, the teachers became wide eyed, nervous, and apologetic, explaining they meant most subs. If the sub was certified, like you of course, it showed.
   On that note, one morning, a little plaque on a regular teacher's desk greeted me.  It said, "There's no substitute for a good teacher". If the teacher hadn't considered her backup sub-human, perhaps, she would have had the consideration to keep it at home.
   Working for most charter school situations, on one hand, was hell, after which you'd find you were not adding to your retirement credits.  There were times you had to pay out of pocket for credits for actual teaching and subbing in other states, as well as parochial and adjunct situations, but charters were not covered, so there's a total of a year not counted, as well as arts formats and commercial remedial ones.
   Summer drama, paid by parents, was purgatory.  "We don't want to read this," protested the 5th graders, "After all, we paid for this!"  Another storyteller, who was teaching a writing class, had a couple of students who didn't want to write.
  But if you got into a charter with a purpose, such as the arts, it was close to behavior expected in the 60's. On the other hand, I love the arts and worked at that charter form for awhile after retirement. My gran-daughter, who danced before she could walk, will also be attending there.
   Kudos also to the development of  the Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff.
   So, since the unions gave me some benefits, while working full time and a half, and I'm benefiting somewhat now, I can't fault them too much.
   But, I've concluded, I never was a public school teacher by nature, anyway, a teaching artist (i.e. as in drama), yes, an artist, definitely. If you offered your drama expertise for an extra-curricular activity, they thanked you, but found it more economical to give it to the social worker.
   Thus, I detach myself from the issue, glad for all the good the unions have done, but knowing I would have had to be a more normal person, rather than an artistic one, (though some artists have been given that rare public teaching opportunity) to have benefited more and been blocked less.
   When I saw a sign in an auto repair shop that said, "If at first you don't succeed, to hell with it.  No use making an ass of yourself", it gave me pause.
   Guess that's why I "fired" myself....(i.e., retired when I did)...and before the subs (I guess the unions didn't want to bother to support their support staff) got privatized.

   Fast forward to the present: Sunday newspaper, March 6, 2016.  I used to think that Karma took too long to prevent major damage.  But I had to chuckle when I saw an advertisement that the private company is presenting, a job fair, calling for substitute teachers.  The employment standards seem to have come down, if they hadn't already, during my tenure.
   Could it be that people don't want to work in the school system, alongside teachers and for teachers without receiving at least partial credit for pension and benefits at the end?  Go figure.