Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

An Open Letter to Minneapolis Teachers From a Black Educator

A first year NYC educator shares their admiration for the fight put forward by the Minneapolis Public School teachers and their determination to win.

Carmin Maffea

March 24, 2022
Facebook Twitter Share
Luigi Morris/LV

Dear Minneapolis teachers setting the example for us all,

I write this letter in the barest and realest way I feel I can present myself. I am a twenty-six-year-old Black assistant teacher whose Haitian immigrant mother endures daily the agony of arthritis in her hands while caring for patients as a nurse’s assistant; whose Haitian immigrant father works seven days a week for almost twelve hours a day driving a NYC yellow cab. One of the deepest things I share with them, rather than ties of a shared home, is our experience with exploitation.

My parents suffer the same exploitation today as they did when raising me and my three siblings. And I — a degree, a job, and a shattered dream later — am an assistant teacher struggling to make it through the stress of the workday. Even as I pen this letter of admiration now, I feel my heart trembling within the tight walls of my chest. A chest that is so tight from stress and anxiety, I feel it won’t expand despite the depth of my breath. 

As an assistant teacher, this is my first experience teaching in a classroom and every day I am tasked with more than I can handle. I was recently responsible for covering Social Studies for a whole grade of about one hundred students. I was responsible for preparing the lessons, printing material, testing, and grading all the students’ work. This is while I am already responsible for 107 students in another subject.

I initially didn’t know how long I would cover until they eventually told me it would be for two whole months, even though I told them I was suffering and feeling overwhelmed. I couldn’t sleep through the night because the conditions were too awful. Instead of easing me into the workload they used the coverage as an opportunity to evaluate whether they will hire me full-time next year. They later wrote me up for not collecting enough exit tickets by the end of my coverage.

School officials purport our school is a leader in racial equity. However, children in white affluent neighborhoods would never have just one first-year teacher assistant responsible for educating over one hundred students. Our students deserve better.

Many of my coworkers cry on their way to work. Many who drive don’t sleep enough. And a close coworker who regularly suffers from panic attacks due to work stress had one at the school just this week. 

This experience isn’t isolated within my school. I’ve been on panels with teachers from El Paso, Chicago, and Minneapolis and our experiences all have the commonality of being, put bluntly, awful. I have close friends in South America who are also teachers and their schools are dilapidated just as schools are in the hoods of the US. The overcrowded classrooms you guys are taking a vehement stance against, likely look like the classrooms my closest friends were crammed into growing up due to the mass closures of public schools in New York City. 

Our schools are crumbling, our working conditions are terrible, and our students’ experience in school is unworthy of them because of the many years of attacks on education. These attacks killed unions and closed or underfunded public schools. They were delivered by the cold hands and cold smiles of Democratic and Republican politicians alike. 

You are not only openly voicing the pain of educators everywhere so potently it compelled me to write this letter, you are also showing educators and students everywhere that we do not have to be demoralized, that we are not alone, and that we can fight against our abominable working conditions together. You reminded me that my coworkers and I run the school and that without us the school wouldn’t function, that me and my students’ families want the same for the kids — a quality education — and that we can fight tooth and nail, side by side with power that can erupt cities to win the conditions required for kids to have a quality education. Many of those things you guys are fighting for, within the place of the rebirth of a global movement that fought for Black lives. With this struggle, you are continuing that fight for Black lives right now. As you hold the line, just know, you are inspiring educators and workers around the world to fight with the same ferocity. 

I send my admiration, my love, and my solidarity to every striking Minneapolis educator. My experience at work was slowly dwindling my convictions to fight for better conditions. After seeing you fight the behemoth that is the state of public education, my conviction and determination is boundless once again.

Black and proudly, 

Carmin (proud member of Left Voice)

Facebook Twitter Share

Carmin Maffea

Carmin is a revolutionary socialist from New York.

Labor Movement

Three tables full of food, with signs hung above them. One says "The People's Pantry: FREE FOOD." Banners hung from the tables say "Free CUNY" and "Cop Free School Zone"

CUNY Administration Cracks Down on Student and Worker-Run Food Pantry

Students and workers opened "The People's Pantry" seven weeks ago as part of a broader anti-austerity campaign at CUNY, leading to several direct confrontations with the administration.

Olivia Wood

March 19, 2023

Temple’s Grad Worker Strike Ends with Important Victories 

The last report on the strike from a union teacher at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Jason Koslowski

March 17, 2023

Teachers and Education Workers Set to Strike! Tens of Thousands Rally in Los Angeles 

A three day strike was announced by two education unions at a rally attended by tens of thousands of members. The workers are calling for increased wages, reduced class size, and an end to harassment by their employers.

Julia Wallace

March 17, 2023
A sign drawn on a small whiteboard, in trans pride colors. Text: "CUNY Graduate Center and Professional Schools Workers for Trans Rights" Beneath the text is a chain of 9 smiling stick figures in different colors, all holding hands

CUNY Union Chapter Unanimously Passes Resolution in Support of Trans Rights

The Graduate Center chapter of PSC-CUNY, the faculty, staff, and graduate worker union of the City University of New York, passed a resolution pledging support to all workers fighting the anti-trans bills nationwide.

Olivia Wood

March 12, 2023

MOST RECENT

Customers clear shelves of water Sunday at Fresh Grocer in West Philadelphia.

A Chemical Plant Just Poisoned Philadelphia’s Water: A First-Hand Account of the Crisis

A company dumped thousands of gallons of poisonous chemicals into Philadelphia’s drinking water. This is an on-the-ground account by a Philadelphia worker and socialist.

Jason Koslowski

March 27, 2023
A group of protesters, in the front of whom are a line of protesters wearing red vests. In the front right corner, a white sign reds "vive la retraite," with a skeleton wearing a red hat in the middle of the sign on a black background with a text bubble on its left that reads, "oiv a bosse, c'est pas pour en crever!"

“French March”: The Right to Revolutionary Optimism

Evoking memories of '68, the students enter the fight against Macron. In our chaotic world, the future can only be built in the streets.

Eduardo Castilla

March 26, 2023

Joe Biden Is Deporting Russians Who Escaped Putin’s Draft — Let Them All In!

The United States is deporting Russians who sought asylum following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is a heinous attack against war resisters and shows that the proxy war in Ukraine is about capitalist rivalry first and foremost.

Sam Carliner

March 26, 2023

On Monday, Germany Will Experience a “Mega-Strike”

On March 27, German railway workers and public sector employees will shut down the whole country. All trains are being canceled. Airports, freeways, hospitals, and daycare centers will all be affected.

Nathaniel Flakin

March 25, 2023