When asked to picture a history teacher, a lot of us think of a boring, monotone teacher wearing a bland suit and lecturing, the kind of history teacher depicted in many cartoons. The history teachers at Whitney Young are far from bland and Mr. Ed Dziedzic is no exception.

Mr. Dziedzic teaches AP U.S. History, Honors Contemporary U.S. History and Honors U.S. History and he’s great at it. As former students, we can attest to the fact that Mr. Dziedzic is an awesome teacher. Mr. Dziedzic said that he created the Contemporary U.S. History class because he wanted to “teach students about more recent history and he wants to teach the class thematically as opposed to chronologically.” It’s been a huge success and each year more and more students take the class. A former student of his class, Isabella Peña ‘17, explained to us that Mr. Dziedzic is a “great teacher who truly lets his students take charge of their grades and the class. I wish I could’ve taken another class with him this year.” Every student that we spoke to described Dziedzic either as their favorite teacher or as the chillest history teacher.

While he is great at what he does, he didn’t start off as an educator. After his college graduation, Dziedzic worked at the Chicago Board of Trade for 13 years where he learned the ins and outs of negotiations and trade. He later realized that this was something he didn’t want to continue so, he “stopped and thought about what he really liked most and that was studying history and working with young people.” Although he didn’t stay at the Board of Trade, this formal knowledge of negotiations prepared him to be a major member of the Chicago Teachers Union, that he was raised in a union family also inspired his activism.

Mr. Dziedzic is a member of the CTU’s House of Delegates, and every Friday we can see Dziedzic sporting his CTU pride while wearing his bright red shoes and a matching shirt. He is considered the leader of Whitney Young’s CTU members; he always has the latest information regarding the CTU.

As students of Whitney Young, we have all heard rumblings of a possible strike and negotiations occurring within the CTU. We spoke to Aleksa Sorgatz ‘17 who said “I am worried that a strike would affect the college application process. I support the teachers and their decision to strike, if they choose to do so, but I wish the dialogue regarding it was more informative.” That seems to be the consensus around here. People are worried and confused. So, we asked Mr. Dziedzic the question that everyone is wondering- Is there going to be a strike? According to Dziedzic, “The answer is, I truly don’t know. It could go either way at this point. I predict that the strike authorization vote with result highly in favor of having a strike but, whether that will result in a strike- is a whole different story.” As time passes and deadlines approach, we will just have to wait and see if a deal is announced by October 10th at 11:59 p.m.