Thread by @radfagg

As a young educator, I participated in nonprofit teacher training program where it was drilled into us that class size didn't matter, that students' ability to learn was dependent entirely on our abilities and techniques as educators #FairContractNow #PutItInWriting

The program was funded by the biggest names in the private sector, at the height of the charter school push. It's rhetoric was devoted to convincing us that the culpability for the disfunction in public ed. lay with students and teachers #FairContractNow #PutItInWriting

This rhetoric was toxic, not just because when we failed in many of our efforts as inexperienced educators we were made to blame ourselves and our students, but also because we were trained to look away from the roots of inequity in public ed. #PutItInWriting #FairContractNow

One of the first stats elite private schools brag about are their student to teacher ratios. For the same individuals sending their kids to these schools to lecture poor students and their teachers that class size doesn't matter is deeply cruel #FairContractNow #PutItInWriting

Any experienced (and honest) educator can tell you that it is damn near impossible to learn and to teach effectively in a classroom of 40 bodies, and that's on a good day. #FairContractNow #PutItInWriting

Now add in housing instability, hunger, mental health crises, lack of healthcare, and all the other things we force young people to bear the brunt of. Large class sizes are an intentional attack on the rights and futures of students and youth #FairContractNow #PutItInWriting

I support the #ChicagoTeachersStirke because fighting for public ed. is economic justice, because well-supported learning environments, nurses, counselors, healthy food, and small class sizes are a right #FairContractNow #PutItInWriting