American Federation of Teachers

In Molly Pollak’s second-floor Manhattan apartment, the spare bedroom is filled with decades of classroom memories.

“Those are all my high school yearbooks,” Pollak says, pointing to a shelf stacked two books deep. “Those are my middle school yearbooks. There’s more over here.”

But after 40 years teaching English to middle and high school students, there’s one book Pollak will never throw away. It’s a big book with a striking orange cover, sitting proudly on a table in the living room.

She received this book a few months ago. It was the end of the school year and the students were taking off for the summer.

But Pollak was taking off for, well, forever — a bittersweet moment in the life of any teacher.

As news of her retirement spread, Ora Bayewitz-Meier, one of Pollak’s former students, reached out to other former students and invited them to write in. They did. Eagerly.

She received 75 letters. These weren’t just a paragraph or two — many are pages long.

“I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that you changed my life,” wrote Rebecca Rosenthal, who took Pollak’s English class in the 1990s.

Letters To The Teacher Celebrate A 40-Year Career

Scott Walker continued his union-bashing platform in Nevada this week, which didn’t turn out so well for him. It seems that Republicans prefer unions 14x more than they approve of Scott Walker. (Side note: Reagan was pretty down with unions too).

Jeb Bush recently released his tax plan, bringing us back to the hay-day of “Reaganomics,” or the trickle-down theory, which has been proven to be dead wrong and a major factor in the demise of the middle class. (Side note: even Reagan raised taxes on the rich and closed loopholes that benefited the wealthy).  

And, just about every candidate has opposed Immigration reform that would create a pathway to citizenship for millions living in the shadows, but what they’re forgetting is their old friend Reagan said, “amnesty for those who have put down roots and who have lived here even though some time back they may have entered illegally.” (Side note: Reagan signed immigration reform that included a path to legalization for nearly three million undocumented immigrants). 

7 Union Heroes To Remember This Labor Day