This article can be found in Class Action: An Activist Teacher’s Handbook, a joint project of Jacobin and the Chicago Teachers Union’s CORE. The booklet can be downloaded for free, and print copies are available for a limited time.

Like the vast majority of workers today, I was not raised in a union family. I learned what a union can bring to the job, and about union democracy and decision making in the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators and the Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates. From mentors and colleagues, I learned what it meant to apply these ideals to my teaching craft and identity. Now I am seeking out new educators to mentor so we can improve our public schools.

Over the past four years, I have developed outreach for new and incoming union members in my school and in pre-service teacher programs. I have also used outreach opportunities to talk with pre-service teachers on and off campus, engaging them with questions that matter to them and the principle that matters to us all: dignity for students and teachers in the classroom.