out of the turmoil of the industrial revelation and the great depression, america adapted a new economy, a 20th century economy, guiding our free market, with regulations to protect health and safety and fair competition. empowering workers with union movements. investing in science and infrastructure and educational institutions like u of i. strengthening or system of primary and secondary fed indication, and stitching together a social safety net. all of this led to unrivals prosperity and the rise of a broad and deep middle class, and the sense that if you worked hard, you could climb the ladder of successes. not everyone was included in this prosperity.
south korea, my favorite troika, there are strong union movements in those countries, and they do seem to work collaboratively with the management to try to professionalize teaching and hold these high standards. what s wrong with the way our unions and our school management interact today, that is always such a controversy? well, you put your finger on it. in the other countries you re talking about, this is a profession. excellence is rewarded. people who don t perform leave, and the unions and management have a shared view. in america, we ve long had a trade union model. al shanker, the iconic teacher s union leader pointed this out in a speech in 1993, where he said, basically, we re locked into a model of an assembly line worker in a post-assembly line economy. that s the change that has to happen. teachers have to become professionals, like lawyers and doctors, and no longer assembly line workers. shanker also had one of my favorite lines. he was honest about, he said, if you
depression, america adapted a new economy, a 20th century economy. guiding our free market with regulations to protect health and safety and fair competition. empowering workers with union movements. investing in science and infrastructure and educational institutions like u of i. strengthening primary and secondary education. and stitching together a social safety net. all of this led to unrivaled prosperity. the rise of the broad and deep middle class in the sense that if worked hard you could climb the ladder of success. not everyone was included in this prosperity. there s a lot more work to do. and so in response to the stain