A message to teachers from CEA President Sheila Cohen
Another school year means another year to have the honor, the opportunity, as well as the responsibility, to touch the “tomorrows” of your students.
CEA President Sheila Cohen.
In my life, it was my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Crowley, who lit a spark in me. She helped me to see possibilities in music and theater as well as teaching as a career. I think of her often, as I’m sure you remember stand-out teachers in your personal life.
Teachers are extraordinary people. We are like-minded in our passion for helping students succeed. And our union provides the opportunity for us to come together for students, teachers, and public education.
In the year ahead, all of us need to work even harder together to help members connect the disconnect between members’ potential misperceptions about union membership and the realities of the union’s mission, core values, accomplishments, and legacy.
We connect the disconnect when we take ownership that requires us to believe in the possibility that we are able to create a better future for our affiliates, our members, and our students.
We need to acknowledge—in fact, celebrate—our union’s possibilities. We need to allow ourselves to be pulled by a new conversation for living in the future, for problem solving, and for making improvements upon the past.
Through personal experience and collective action, membership matters. Through comprehensive CEA staff and resources that the union provides to local affiliates, we make a difference. Our union backs our teaching friends and colleagues. Our union supports members when someone says, “This isn’t right.”
Indeed, we are STRONGER TOGETHER.
