An Evening with Randi Weingarten and Jim DeFede

***Please note: This event will take place at the Coral Gables Congregational Church. Tickets are FREE and books will be available for purchase at the event. Can't make the event or want your copy early?

A rousing defense of public education as the cornerstone of American democracy, by the woman attacked by the far right as “the most dangerous person in the world”

Attacks on schools and teachers have long been a hallmark of fascist regimes: Throughout history, as many dictators rose to power they began banning books and controlling curriculum. Fascists fear teachers because teachers foster an educated and empowered population that can see past propaganda and scare tactics. Fascists fear teachers because they teach young people how to think for themselves.

As the head of one of the largest teachers’ unions in America, Randi Weingarten is among the last lines of defense for American public education. For decades, she has sounded the alarm that attacks on teachers are part of a larger, darker agenda—to undermine democracy, opportunity, and public education as we know it. After the Trump administration declared its intention to dismantle the Department of Education, that alarm became undeniable. This book tells the story of what teachers do and why those who are afraid of freedom and opportunity try to stop them. It explains why all Americans should care about attacks on schools and teachers—whether they have school-aged children or not. In the past as today, the fate of the United States is inexorably intertwined with the fate of public education.

Drawing on history, stories from teachers on the front lines, and decades of experience with America’s public schools, Weingarten argues that teaching students to think critically is the key to defeating would-be dictators. She encourages teachers to continue focusing on their vital mission to help young people thrive—creating opportunity in safe and welcoming classrooms, promoting tolerance, and teaching problem solving, critical thinking, and healthy debate. She cautions against censorship and complacency, looking to the past to warn us all about what can happen if we devalue teachers and public schools.

A manifesto for our time, Why Fascists Fear Teachers is necessary reading for every American worried about the future of our democracy.

Randi Weingarten is an American labor leader, attorney, and educator. She has been president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) since 2008, and is the former president of the United Federation of Teachers. Prior to her election as AFT president, Weingarten served for 11 years as president of the United Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 2, representing approximately 200,000 educators in the New York City public school system, and was a teacher of history at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood from 1991 to 1997. In 2013, the New York Observer named Weingarten one of the most influential New Yorkers of the past 25 years. She was included in Washingtonian’s 2021 Washington’s Most Influential People, City & State New York’s 2021 New York City Labor Power 100, and in 2017 received the Roosevelt Institute’s FDR Distinguished Public Service Award.

Jim DeFede has been an award-winning journalist for sixteen years, first with the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, and then with the Miami New Times. His work has appeared in Talk, The New Republic, and Newsday. He is currently a metro columnist for the Miami Herald.

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