Montgomery, Alabama. December 1. 1955. As Susan Cain recounts in her book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can not Stop Talking, a public bus stops and a modestly dressed woman in her forties climbs into it. She walks in an upright manner and with great dignity despite having spent the day ironing in a tailor shop. Her feet are swollen, and her shoulders hurt. She sits in the first row of the black section and watches quietly while the bus fills with passengers, until the driver orders her to give up her seat to a white passenger.
She utters a single word that unleashes the most important civil protest of the twentieth century, a word that helps the United States find its best side.
The word is "No".The driver threatens her with arrest.
"You can arrest me," says Rosa Parks.And her response changes the course of history. Shortly afterwards, Martin Luther King gave a speech about how there comes a time when people get tired of being scorned.
As individuals, as a society, the time has come to say "No" collectively to the teachers who are marching because they want to continue inheriting their positions. "No" to the disgruntled teachers of Morelos and Guerrero and other states who think that the sale or inheritance of teacher positions is a true union "conquest".
"No" to those who are paid but do not work. "No" to those who get what they want by taking tollbooths on the highways. "No" to those who take pride in leaving 26,000 children without classes. "No" to those who demand that they not be evaluated. "No" to those who devalue merit and competition. "No" to those who have obtained private property [teaching position]. "No", as Rosa Parks told the driver who tried to force her to give up her seat to a white man.
I had always imagined Rosa Parks as someone impressive, bold, capable of dealing with a bus full of angry, racist passengers. But when she died, the obituaries described her as "shy and introverted". And I was comforted to learn that even the most insecure, fearful or quiet people can find the strength to oppose injustice and stupidity.
They can say "No" to those teachers who do not lose sleep over knowing that on the PISA tests, seven in ten Mexicans who complete elementary school demonstrate only basic or insufficient levels of Spanish and mathematics. "No" to the return to the classroom of the seven out of ten teachers who took the exam to compete for a spot and failed it.
"No" to those who defend things as they are and shout in the streets: "Hunger defeats us, but pride raises us up." "No" to those who want to play a role in cancelling the future of the next generations.
"No" to those who--in exchange for teaching without being evaluated--turn a blind eye to how [state] governors are involved in the sale of teaching positions, thereby ensuring a profitable business. "No" to the teacher-blackmailers who defend this union conquest as one accessed by way of "the custom", as happens in the Pemex and the CFE [Federal Electrical Commission] unions. "No" to those who by remaining in their posts are trying to recoup the investment they made to buy their teaching positions.
"No" to those who, using the best language of revolutionary nationalism that has served to protect their privileges, seize tollbooths, block highways and paralyze schools. "No" to the practice of exchanging teaching positions for sexual services. "No" to the privilege of a teacher who can never be fired but might not do the job well. "No" to the privilege of benefiting close relatives with a teacher position. "No" to those in this "heroic battle" who just trying to conserve the spoils.
"No" to those who march against merit, who shout against rigorous recruitment and harshly criticize training and performance evaluation, who raise their fists against transparency, fight against accountability and do not concern themselves about influence peddling. "No" to those who defend their conquest at any cost. "No" to those who accept continuation of one of the lowest places [among developing countries] on the PISA education evaluations. [MV Note: PISA is a project of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).] "No" to the conquest of the lucrative fiefdoms held in the hands of teachers.
"No" to the conquest of labor stability at the expense of academic advancement. "No" to the conquest of salable and heritable teaching positions at the expense of the country's children. "No" to those who reject education reform and ['No'] to perpetuation of a system that does not require its teachers to give their best. "No" to those who, like La Maestra ['The Teacher', Elba Esther Gordillo, now in prison for corruption], continue standing on the side of mediocrity, backwardness, and conformity.
"No" to those who deny that education reform is a great opportunity for many teachers to shake off the union yoke. "No" to those who reject the possibility of recovering their professional pride and lifting their heads while they persist in bowing them before the CNTE leadership. "No" to those who for too long have kept Mexico's children at the back of the bus. That bus is their country.
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*Denise Dresser is a professor of political science at the Autonomous Institute of Technology of Mexico (ITAM), writer and political analyst for newpapers and television. She holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University.