Chris Willems and Terence McTague see test-score mania and charter school politics as threats to the education taking place in New Haven classrooms.
On the other hand, after 19 and four years, respectively, teaching kids science, they remain continually inspired by their students and by their jobs.
Willems, who teaches at Metropolitan Business Academy, and McTague, who teaches at Career High, are active members of the New Haven Educators Collective, a group of public school teachers who have spoken out about both their union and the city Board of Ed administration. Willems grew up in Fair Haven, McTeague, in Hamden; they both attended University of Connecticut.
They spoke about both their teaching work and their advocacy on an episode of WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven.” Former New Haven Independent education reporter Melissa Bailey sat in as a guest co-host.
Click on or download the sound file at the top of the story to hear the full episode.
Click here and here and here for background stories about some of the issues they discussed.
This episode of “Dateline New Haven” was made possible thanks in part to support from Yale-New Haven Hospital.
