Bound together by a paperclip: Randi Weingarten on Why Fascists Fear Teachers

In the opening pages of her best-selling new book Why Fascists Fear Teachers, AFT President Randi Weingarten lays bare why America's educators have become constant targets of relentless attacks and manufactured outrage. "Teachers aren't being smeared and undermined because they're doing anything wrong," she writes, "but because they're doing something very, very right."

Speaking in a recent AFT Book Club conversation with AFT Wisconsin President Jon Shelton, Weingarten reflected candidly with members on why teachers have become such a lightning rod for anti-democratic forces, what compelled her to write this book, and why she remains hopeful about the future.

Defending teachers and public education

Weingarten was clear: The escalating attacks on educators are no accident. They are part of a coordinated campaign to destabilize public schools and weaken teachers unions because together, the two institutions form "the foundation of a democracy" and act as guarantors of "broad-based opportunity." Her book illuminates how calculated culture wars and authoritarian threats endanger the nation's future:

"I wrote this because I was really concerned about two things. Number one was all of this smearing of teachers and our union seemed to take on a different tenor. … It became a political culture war in a way that the far right in particular looked like they were really trying to kill [public education].

"There was an intentionality there that had nothing to do with school kids. The smearing of teachers was intense and was personal. I wanted to figure out why that was going on.

"I am sick and tired of teachers getting bashed for everything they do. We get very few resources for K-12 and higher education, and the first instinct of some politicians is to bash us or remain silent instead of helping us do some of the most important work in America."

That work, Weingarten pointed out, is exactly what puts teachers in the crosshairs. Public education, she said, is how "you create an educated citizenry that can discern fact from fiction and impart the skills and knowledge that young people need to achieve the American dream."

And that, Weingarten argued, is why fascists target teachers: An informed public, equipped with critical thinking and hungry for opportunity, is a death knell to fascism.

"It is the essential connection that we as teachers have in terms of helping young people see their futures."

Community as an antidote to fascism

In addition to building knowledge, teachers and public schools build community, she said. Schools provide one of the last remaining public spaces where people from different backgrounds come together and learn to respect one another.

"We create a public square, a public space where people who don't know each other, who are really different from each other, come together in community," she said. "That's pluralism. That is the essential nature of democracy. Because for we the people to be able to live in a society and act in a society, we need to create a pluralistic society, not a fractionalized one.

"So it is the pluralism, the safe and welcoming environments we try to create in classrooms and on campuses, where people who are different understand and respect each other," she said. "They don't have to like each other, but instead of seeing each other as enemies, we see each other for who we are, respectfully."

Shelton asked Weingarten about her decision not to call anyone a fascist in the book but instead to describe fascistic behavior. "I want young people to be able to arrive at their own conclusions," Weingarten explained. At the same time, she said she "intended the word to be a warning."

"Fascistic regimes survive by creating a fear of "the other." They demand obedience to a mythical past, where only the strongman can be trusted-not colleagues, not friends, not community."

In contrast, she noted, teachers have a history of creating communities that stand up for the common good. She underscored this point with a story from Norway during the Second World War: During the Nazi occupation, when Norwegian teachers were told to join a national alliance of Nazi educators or stop teaching, they resisted. When they were beaten in their classrooms, they still resisted. When the Nazis closed the schools, they taught in secret. They wore paperclips on their lapels to maintain anonymity while showing unity.

"It signified that they remained united, bound together like a stack of papers against Nazi rule," Weingarten said, pointing to a paper clip on her lapel. "The protest spread. Eventually, students took to wearing whole chains of paper clips like necklaces."

The Nazi government eventually sent approximately 1,500 teachers to concentration and forced labor camps.

"But still, the teachers kept teaching and students kept learning how to think for themselves," she said. "That's the power of community and the power of education."

Hope, solidarity and action

Despite relentless attacks, Weingarten said she remains hopeful. "There are some days that I'm optimistic and some days that I'm pessimistic," she explained, "but I am always hopeful."

She said she is hopeful because people are standing up to the administration's attempts to undermine the rule of law, and because every day, teachers continue to teach.

Weingarten also urged educators to take care of themselves.

"Fatigue, fear and apathy are the tools of autocrats," she said. "Find something that creates some joy for you and don't neglect it … do things in community. No one can do everything, but we can all do something. And those somethings add up."

Weingarten ended by reading a passage from her book that emphasizes why she has called it a love letter to teachers.

"Teachers solve problems for students, families, and communities. That begins even before a single textbook is cracked with fostering a sense of safety, dignity, and belonging for every child. So, I just want to say to all the teachers: thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you."

Watch the entire conversation here.

Get a copy of Why Fascists Fear Teachers here. Half the proceeds will benefit the AFT's disaster relief and education funds.

Access lesson plans on citizenship here.

[Melanie Boyer]