Skip to main content
The power lies with you: fighting for education’s soul

Educators must fight for an inclusive, creative system that values all children

Striking members of the National Education Union (NEU) on Piccadilly march to a rally in Trafalgar Square, central London, in a long-running dispute over pay. Picture date: Wednesday March 15, 2023

LAST WEEK I experienced something of a dissociative moment. As a working-class girl from Newcastle who grew up poor under the Tories, deprivation shaped my life. What right did I have to address our members as president of the NEU?

Yet, being active in my trade union has profoundly shaped my life.

We’ve all worked with children who carry a heavier burden than we’d wish, impacting on their learning and success. Many of us were those children, and those shared experiences have driven us to work in education. A long-time campaigner against child poverty, I entered teaching determined to make a difference.

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
smarties
Features / 2 April 2019
2 April 2019
Tory cuts are leaving schools desperately searching for funding and depriving working-class children of vital creative education, writes SARAH KILPATRICK
Similar stories
Daniel Kebede 17.4.25
Features / 17 April 2025
17 April 2025

We face austerity, privatisation, and toxic influence. But we are growing, and cannot be beaten

(left to right) Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, P
NEU Conference 2025 / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025
Pupils in a classroom
Features / 22 March 2025
22 March 2025
MATT FLAMENCO warns of precarity of work, teacher shortages, demoralisation and curriculums filled with ‘corporate-speak’ as among the issues of concern to the education workforce today