Sandra Feldman - Teaching Career

Teaching Career

Upon graduation in 1962, Feldman worked for six months as a substitute third grade teacher in a public school in East Harlem. But she realized she did not have adequate training and entered graduate school in 1963.

From 1963 to 1966, Feldman worked to obtain a master's degree in literature at New York University. She continued to be active in the civil rights movement, participating in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.

While in graduate school, Feldman worked as a fourth grade teacher at Public School 34 on the New York City's Lower East Side. She immediately joined the AFT (which had only one other member at the school). When New York City teachers won collective bargaining rights in 1960, she organized the entire school staff within a year. During this time, Feldman became an associate of Albert Shanker, then an organizer for the United Federation of Teachers.

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