Sunday, August 16, 2015

The Apple Fell Far From The Tree

Education Intelligence Agency has the story about the legacy of Doc Buchanan:
All over the state, local unions formed and affiliated with the California Teachers Association or the California Federation of Teachers. But Clovis was unique among all but the very smallest of districts. It never had a union, and still does not, almost 40 years later.

Buchanan was opposed to unions, but he was apparently alone with the knowledge of turning them back. A colleague recalls Buchanan saying, “you need to serve your teachers and serve them so well that the trust is high, and they don’t feel they need a union.”

There has never been a group of workers who said to themselves, “We’re well paid, our working conditions are excellent, we’re treated with respect and our opinions matter… Let’s get a union in here!” Districts or charter schools faced with a union organizing drive should first look to their own practices and philosophies before worrying about what the union is up to.
I once worked for Buchanan's son.  He was not his father's son.  He was clueless, he was divisive, he was incompetent, and he might very well have been a criminal (I believe, but don't have evidence).  I mentioned him in this post--he was the arrogant, and entirely wrong, superintendent.

The amateur psychologist in me says he couldn't handle living in the shadow of his father.

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