SPECIAL ORDER OF BUSINESS HONORING ALBERT SHANKER

Albert Shanker was one of America's great sons, and his story is a story of America at its best. A child of immigrants who was educated in America's public schools, he rose to prominence on the force of his ideas, his integrity and courage, and his clear-eyed and unwavering passion for democracy. He understood that America's job in the world was to preserve, improve upon and spread democracy - and Al devoted his life to working on all three. This was the touchstone of his life's work, and it was through his involvement in the labor movement and in public education that he made his vision real.

Al was first and foremost a teacher. He understood that public schools were the core of our democracy because they were charged with making citizens, as well as transmitting knowledge. Al knew that public education was the way to knit together a diverse people with common knowledge, values and principles. He remained a teacher throughout his life, as those of us who heard his presidential addresses to this convention know so well. Always in quest of new ideas, he also held fast to old ideas that were good ones, regardless of how unfashionable or controversial they were. He listened patiently, he relished a good debate, he held firm to his principles - but he wasn't afraid to change his mind. In Al, we saw that great teaching and great leadership had much in common.

Al was a rare combination of activist, intellectual and pragmatist. One of his great gifts was his ability to explain complex ideas so clearly and compellingly that even his sworn enemies would often find themselves nodding in agreement. He loved ideas, but he was interested in getting things done.

And he did get things done. One of those things was collective bargaining for teachers, a historic achievement. Always ahead of his time, he recognized long ago that professionals needed unions as much as their counterparts in other occupations and, as usual, he was right. Thanks to him, the AFT is now a union that embraces professionals from a number of fields, united by their common interest in improving the quality of their profession and the quality of their work.

Al knew that a vital trade union movement was essential to freedom and democracy, because it provided workers with the means to shape their destiny. He understood that American democracy was a work-in-progress and that if democracy was to be sustained and all of its promises realized, then working people needed to join together to play a role. Unions, to Al, were a necessary counterweight to those in power, be they employers or government officials.

He carried these beliefs into his work on behalf of social justice, both at home and abroad. His early and steadfast involvement in the civil rights movement was not only a moral imperative but also a recognition that democracy could not thrive when citizens were denied their rights to participation, to achievement and to dignity. Al's international work gave hope, inspiration and tangible help to those abroad struggling to create free trade unions, and through them, a democratic way of life. His influence extends to countless people here and in other countries, from presidents to new teachers to kindergartners to the dockworkers of Poland's Solidarity and those who suffered under South Africa's apartheid.

Al set high standards for himself - and for all of us. As members of the American Federation of Teachers, we continue to meet those standards, carrying forward his legacy even as we mourn his passing. It will be our work - and the work of the generations that follow us¾ to build on his vision and keep alive his commitment to the labor movement, to public education and to democracy.