What follows is an insightful commentary on teachers’ union conduct. Anyone who saw John Stossel’s brilliant 2006 piece “Stupid in America” on ABC News will particularly remember Randi Weingarten, the president of New York City’s teacher’s’ union and of the American Federation of Teachers. A picture being worth 1,000 words, Weingarten’s snarling appearance would make an apt illustration for this seriously amusing commentary.  – John Dendahl, RMF president

Could spirits move teachers union? Bah!

By Peter Huidekoper, Special to the Rocky Mountain News

Published December 24, 2008

What is the difference between the teachers union and Ebenezer Scrooge?

An odd question? Not if you just finished teaching A Christmas Carol while also reading about President- elect Obama's nomination of a new secretary of Education.

My students knew ahead of time that Scrooge would change. This December, though, we looked closely at those passages where Charles Dickens shows us that Scrooge wanted to change.

A central question around the debate on Obama's choice asked whether the nation's education leader would be a "compromise" candidate, a "diplomatic reformer," someone keenly aware of the importance of the unions to the Democratic Party, who would nudge without being a threat to the powers that be? Or, instead, would Obama choose someone more confrontational - in the manner of the superintendent in the nation's capital, Michelle Rhee, who insists school leaders need to put "everything on the table" - including the teachers' contract and tenure - in seeking to improve the education system? Rather than "cut deals," Rhee says the federal government should "be bold and aggressive about reform and take on entrenched interests, including the teachers' unions."

That Scrooge has a capacity for change becomes evident early on in his visit with the Ghost of Christmas Past. On seeing himself as a boy, alone, cruelly left at school during Christmas vacation, Scrooge expresses "pity for his former self." Scrooge then wishes he could have done more for the boy singing Christmas carols outside his office on Christmas eve. "I should like to have given him something."

Similarly, when reminded of the jovial and generous way Mr. Fezziwig, for whom young Ebenezer had apprenticed, celebrated Christmas with his employees, Scrooge again hints at remorse. "I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now." An early sign that - given a second chance - he will become a true friend to the Cratchit family.

By the time the Ghost of Christmas Present appears, Scrooge is humbled. The magical night is having its effect.

"Spirit," he tells the Ghost of Christmas Present, "conduct me where you will." He admits that he went with the Ghost of Christmas Past "on compulsion, and I learnt a lesson which is working now. Tonight, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it."

But such "profit" is painful. In his final moments the Ghost of Christmas Present forces Scrooge to confront Ignorance and Want, and convicts the miser of his failure to help his fellow man.

Increasingly repentant, Scrooge is willing to undergo his last grim journey. "Ghost of the Future! I fear you more than any spectre I have seen! But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart."

In spite of the fierce exterior we witness in the opening scenes of the story, Scrooge has a chance for redemption all along - for inside, he wants better.

I was briefly a member of our teachers union close to 30 years ago (I recall being happy about the benefits of the dental plan). But the way the union reps poisoned the school climate with grievances and disrespect left me cold. When the union told me who to vote for in 1980, I was appalled.

I am in my 17th year of teaching now - only two as a union member. I have seen little in 30 years to make me believe the teachers union wants to change. I see no reason to believe it will stop defending the dismal performance of "the bottom 6 percent" in our profession. I see no evidence it has the capacity to recognize the obstacle it has become to the flexibility districts and schools need to better serve their students, especially those most at-risk.

I hear a union that is proud of its role in the system. Defensive. Not a trace of remorse. "Why should we change?" its leaders would ask. If the Ghost of Christmas 2020 or 2030 showed the teachers union its neglected gravestone, I doubt it would cry out, "Why show me this if I am past all hope?"

As Scrooge cries out.

Hence my answer to the opening question.

Scrooge was willing to change.

Peter Huidekoper teaches in Parker.