Individuals and groups in the community all-too-often fail to include teachers in their initial discussions about ways to impact student performance in New Bedford.

As long as there's an "us vs. them" mentality surrounding education issues in New Bedford, no real progress will be made. As it stands today, a lot of energy is being expended to win political skirmishes. Dialogue is marked by insulting comments from both sides, making meaningful progress more difficult to achieve.

Those outside of the school system need to be more respectful of everyone is the school system. Individuals and groups in the community all-too-often fail to include teachers in their initial discussions about ways to impact student performance in New Bedford. Recent initiatives spearheaded by UIA and the Education Roundtable are examples of how failing to include a group as fundamentally important to education as teachers can result in weak proposals and strong opposition.

To put it in better perspective, the leaders of these outside groups would do well to consider how they would react to a similar incursion on their "turf." How would a local church feel if the teachers union planned, announced and publicly advocated significant changes in how a local Catholic church served the needs of its parishoners without any input from the priest and laity? How would the Community Foundation feel if the NBEA launched a public campaign aimed at removing the foundation's top management so they could bring in someone new who would run the Community Foundation in a manner more agreeable to the teachers union?

Empathy can hold great power for those capable of it. We need more poeple to use it.

As long as we, as a community, are fighting over what to do to make things better, we will inevitably continue to flounder. We have to find a way to get the acrimony behind us and begin working together. We have to be inclusive of all stakeholders from day one on any new initiative. We need to respect each other.