Supporting Public Education is Patriotic
Supporting Public Education is Patriotic
There’s a lot of talk about patriotism, and a lot of it is, frankly, revolting. Is it patriotic to glorify Confederate leaders who sought to preserve slavery and destroy the Union? Is it patriotic to turn the Smithsonian into a propaganda machine and thereby ignore our rich and difficult history that generations have fought to include as part of the full American story? Is it patriotic to demonize the immigrants who make this country great?
But we on the progressive side of the world, and especially we in the labor movement, cannot let the president in Washington own patriotism. I learned from my father at an early age that dissent is patriotic, that it is patriotic to demand that our nation live up to the words in our founding documents, and patriotic to insist that we achieve the highest ideals of working people who built the United States. All of you, MTA members, demonstrate your patriotism on a daily basis as you start a new year and enter your school and college buildings and remake public education. The spaces of learning, research and public service that you awaken each year, and every day of the school year, are where public education – the foundation of democracy – takes place.
This past weekend, as I walked around the neighborhoods of Sunset Park and Bay Ridge in New York City, I was struck that in working-class neighborhoods, the buildings that really stood out were the public schools, often built as grand, full-block mansions in the early 20th century to accommodate the millions of new immigrants coming into the city. These buildings were statements of belief that nothing is more important to a community than its public schools. Maker of adults, builder of citizens, creator of just communities: These are some of the missions of your public schools. That is something to feel patriotic about.
Another way you can express your patriotism is by joining your fellow members and our union siblings across Massachusetts at the Labor Day Solidarity parade in downtown Boston! We need to show a united front across labor and community just as we did on No Kings Day and May Day.
MTA Events, Opportunities and Solidarity Actions
Save the Date – Labor Day Solidarity Parade (Boston)
When: Monday, Sept. 1, 9:30 a.m.
Where: Boston Common, at the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial near intersection of Beacon and Park streets
Just as all of you and millions across the country showed up for rallies and marches for May Day and No Kings Day, we need to do so again. Protests alone won’t stop rising authoritarianism, but they are necessary to demonstrate that we will defend our democracy. The MTA will be anchoring a stop along the parade on none other than School Street, where the first public school in the United States – Boston Latin – once stood. Please bring signs from your local contract fights, or any other signs you want to show to the thousands passing by the education stop on the parade route.
Labor Day March and Gathering (Holyoke)
When: Monday, Sept. 1, 10:30 a.m.
Where: Holyoke City Hall
Join the Holyoke Teachers Association, Springfield Education Association and other labor allies and friends in a Labor Day March and Gathering, starting from Holyoke City Hall and ending at Veterans Park with a speaking program, food trucks and a picnic. Register here.
Worcester Pride
When: Saturday, Sept. 6, 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Where: Femme Bar, 62 Green St., Worcester
The last stop for Pride season in New England is in Worcester, starting at 1:30 p.m. at Femme on Green Street. A march and festival will celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and offer a chance for allies and activists to get together. Registration is requested.
All Presidents’ Meeting
When: Saturday, Sept. 20, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. (Breakfast starts at 8 a.m. Lunch will follow when the meeting ends.)
Where: Sheraton Framingham Hotel & Conference Center, 1657 Worcester Road, Framingham
Please join us as we celebrate some recent victories and continue to build stronger locals and a stronger MTA! Registration ends on Tuesday, Sept. 16. Register today for the September 2025 All Presidents’ Meeting.
Note: Each local president should have received a unique registration link — please email MTAGovernance@massteacher.org if you have not. The link allows you to add guests of your choice – we urge you to invite a few local leaders/activists. If you are a member who would like to attend, ask your local president.
People’s Forum on Graduation Readiness
When: Monday, Sept. 29, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Where: Worcester YWCA, second floor boardroom, 1 Salem Square, Worcester
Massachusetts voters eliminated the MCAS as a graduation test, but now it’s time to determine what comes next. Please join the Worcester Education Justice Alliance, Citizens for Public Schools, Free Worcester Coalition and state Senator Robyn Kennedy, among other allies, at the September People’s Forum on Graduation Readiness. We’ll consider questions such as what should students know when they graduate and how should they be able to demonstrate their readiness to graduate? Please register in advance.
Save the Dates: Regional Member and Presidents’ Meetings
All presidents and members are invited to the following regional meetings. All meetings are scheduled from 4:30 – 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 14, Metro region - MTA Headquarters, Quincy.
Tuesday, Oct. 21, Western region - Holyoke Community College, Holyoke.
Wednesday, Oct. 22, Berkshires region, Pittsfield Regional Office, Pittsfield.
Wednesday, Nov. 5, Cape Cod region - CapeSpace, Hyannis.
Wednesday, Nov. 12 - Central region - Central Regional Office, Worcester.
Tuesday, Nov. 18 - Southeast region - Southeast Regional Office, Raynham.
Thursday, Nov. 20 - Northeast region - Northeast Regional Office, Middleton.
Political Education
Last week, I shared historian David Blight’s article about the abuse of history by the current regime in Washington. In that article, Blight quoted Toni Morrison’s 1993 Nobel Prize lecture. In it, she warned of “statist language, censored and censoring. Ruthless in its policing duties, it has no desire or purpose other than maintaining the free range of its own narcotic narcissism, its own exclusivity and dominance.”
“The systematic looting of language can be recognized by the tendency of its users to forgo its nuanced, complex, mid-wifery properties for menace and subjugation. Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge. Whether it is obscuring state language or the faux-language of mindless media; whether it is the proud but calcified language of the academy or the commodity driven language of science; whether it is the malign language of law-without-ethics, or language designed for the estrangement of minorities, hiding its racist plunder in its literary cheek – it must be rejected, altered and exposed. It is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind. Sexist language, racist language, theistic language – all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas.”
In solidarity,
Max and Deb