The Making of a Profession

I have spent more than thirty years arguing for unionism and collective bargaining, for better salaries and working conditions for teachers. We cannot abandon these goals-far from it-but today I am convinced that unless we go beyond collective bargaining to the achievement of true teacher professionalism, we will fail in our major objectives: to preserve public education in the United States and to improve the status of teachers economically, socially, and politically. It is unusual for me to be advocating professionalism. My experience with the way the word is used in schools has not been good. There was the long battle of professional versus unionist, the idea that it was unprofessional for teachers to work to improve their salaries and conditions through effective organizing, militant struggle, and political action. That battle we've largely won. There was also the way the word was used so often to beat teachers down. A few examples from my early teaching experience will explain why I haven't liked the term very much. I can remember my first exposure to it as a teacher. I started teaching in a very tough elementary school. I had great doubts as to whether I would make it, and after a couple of weeks, the door was opened and the assistant principal stood there. I remember thinking, Thank God, help is coming. I kept motioning him in, but he continued to stand there, sort of pointing at something, for what seemed like a very long time but was probably only thirty seconds. Finally he said to me, Mr. Shanker, there are a couple of pieces of paper on the floor over there. It is very unsightly and very unprofessional. Then he left. Soon thereafter I went to my first faculty conference. In those