Reviewed by Fred Glass
To watch Bill Morgan in his elementary school classroom in San Francisco is to see a master teacher in his element. That element would be children—laughing, fighting, sounding out words and sentences, being bored, eager to learn.
Morgan, 60, a member of United Educators of San Francisco, AFT Local 61, has been teaching for 32 years. Most of his students are kids of color, and many are Spanish speaking. They bring to his classroom their enthusiasms, their worries and a wide range of experiences drawn from different ethnic backgrounds and immigrant cultures. Morgan, fluent in Spanish, is aware of the need to address the origins and various identities of his students.
“It’s important to acknowledge their cultures,” he said. “It’s part of who they are, and we’re not a one-size-fits-all society today, if we ever were.”
The readings he assigns include books on Chicano icon Cesar Chavez, on a little girl who lived in Hiroshima when the U.S. dropped an atom bomb on the city at the end of World War II and Native American legends from Nicaragua.
“But it’s equally essential,” Morgan said, “to give them a way to understand their underlying common interests, what unites them all, as well as what distinguishes them from one another.”
As a result, his students also read, crayons in hand, Along the Shore, a 24-page coloring book that Morgan wrote, published by the California Federation of Teachers’ Labor in the Schools Committee. Members of that committee, including Morgan, have produced a number of booklets, videotapes, and other materials that bring the world of work and the labor movement into the K-12 classroom.
Along the Shore features images of longshore workers, their working environment and the various tasks they perform. Coloring books sponsored by unions and depicting the work of their members have been, if not common, at least not unknown over the years. A glance through the Labor in the Schools Committee’s files reveals coloring books underwritten by unions of letter carriers, autoworkers, carpenters and other workers. Where Along the Shore differs from most of its predecessors is in its direct description of the workers’ union and what it does.
Says one page, “A group of workers who agree to help one another to make their jobs better is called a union.” Another caption, accompanying an image of a meeting, says “At union meetings, the workers discuss ways to make their work better and safer.” In the background we see the ILWU banner and slogan, “An injury to one is an injury to all.”
“Virtually all of my students will grow up to be workers,” Morgan said. “Their parents are all workers. Yet there’s very little that our education system does to promote an awareness of work and the problems kids will face once they’re working. And there’s even less to acquaint students with the main conflict resolution tools they possess as workers: their union and collective bargaining.”
Morgan sometimes moonlights on weekends and evenings at San Francisco’s Moscone Center setting up conventions. As a dual member of Sign and Display Local 510 and UESF, he has a broad perspective on the need for unions in any industry.
“Most lessons focus on the individual,” Morgan added. “I try to help my students see that all workers have common interests, and those common interests are better served when we’re organized.”
Along the Shore is the result of a collaboration between the CFT Labor in the Schools Committee and the ILWU clerks Local 63 Education Chair Patricia Aguirre. The Diane Middleton Foundation and Sign and Display Local 510 contributed additional financial support for the booklet’s graphic design and printing.
Along the Shore costs $3 each, or $2 with every order of ten or more. The Spanish translation is by Sylvia Ramirez (specify whether you want English, Spanish, or copies of each). Order through cft2donnas@aol.com, or call 510-832-8812. For more information about other materials produced by the CFT Labor in the Schools Committee, go to http://www.cft.org/about/comm/labor/index.html.
