My short post today on the decision of a couple-dozen Denver high school teachers to skip school last Friday did not sit well with one commenter and at least one educator. The commenter wrote:
How dare teachers take action about their professional concerns during professional hours! They should do this on Saturdays ... or at night ... like the rest of the professional world.
If I'm interpreting the sarcasm properly here, this person is suggesting that professionals in other industries commonly leave their workplaces while they're on the clock to protest at their company's central offices. To tighten the comparison, let's say we're talking about service industries--places where the workers, like teachers, get paid for serving others and have to be at their workplace at appointed hours to do their job, unlike someone who works in an office and tackles their various tasks at their own leisure.
Now, in what service industry are employees free to skip work--i.e., to leave their customers high and dry--to air their grievances? I find it strange that this commenter (who I would address directly if he or she hadn't left a fake name and email address) thinks teachers suffer some unique type of oppression when they draw criticism for skipping out, en masse, on the people they serve--i.e., students.
Of course, the whole thing is made more ridiculous by the fact that the teachers weren't even petitioning their employers, but their own union.
(I do realize that the Friday in question was the last day of school before summer, and probably very little instruction was scheduled. But the above arguments still apply to the general question of what we should think of teachers who skip class to address "their professional concerns.")
