POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
Support the teachers in their childish behavior?
I think it a bit shameful that the question can be asked.
All they were asked is to give a tiny slice back, and that
after years of receiving inordinate new returns as measured by the general
standards of our society today.
Instead of accepting their responsibility as very well-paid
citizens of Ontario, they squabble like unthinking and privileged teenagers
about rights being abused.
Many parents are afraid of not saying they support the
teachers because they are concerned about the treatment of their children
afterwards.
And that implicit intimidation is an important part of why
strikes have absolutely no place in education.
Our teachers are subject to no scrutiny in their work, are
not measured in any way by results or performance, receive quite extraordinary
benefits, and are paid at what can only be called an extraordinary level
considering their educations and expertise.
Most have only bachelor's degrees, many just general (close
to meaningless) general degrees, and many, many are expert in absolutely no
subject.
On top of that they have a genuinely useless certificate
from a teachers' college, reflecting about 8 months spent in a completely
non-academic environment, one where people like the disgraceful Director of
TDSB earn "graduate degrees" with second-rate thought, much of it
plagiarized, from "professors" who can't tell the difference.
Take just those credentials and see what other work you can
obtain today.
The effort will result in an honest "not much."
People with such qualifications work, by the tens of
thousands, as store clerks, restaurant staff, salespeople, and low to medium
grade office clerks.
Overwhelmingly, they do not, nor will they ever, earn
$80-90,000 with the most generous benefits on the planet short of senior
government officials. All for a short
work day and a very short work year.
Yet, we've heard over and over nonsense like, "Well, if
you want university-educated teachers, you have to pay for them."
We do pay for them, in many cases at nearly double the going
rate for their levels of education.
What is so distressing about this matter is the genuinely
childish and insanely melodramatic behavior displayed by a great many teachers
and their leaders.
Show some civic-minded leadership, show some concern for
kids, show some concern for the communities in which you live.
But, no, all we get is the equivalent of a pack of petty
beasts fighting over a bone or two in an alley.
By the way, the Minister of Education, Laurel Broten, has
done an outstanding job in difficult circumstances. Always calm, always in
command of the facts, always available to CBC for interviews, and clearly
sharply intelligent.
If we had more people of that quality in government, our
society could only benefit.
___________________________________________
"I thought this
government wanted to stop bullying. This latest tactic is bullying pure and
simple!"
Bullying?
Yours is a complete misuse of language.
The government is the employer.
The teachers are the employees, extremely well paid ones.
The employer today has financial problems, and it has asked
a very modest sacrifice of its employees.
Do they pitch in to help?
No, they whine about rights and other irrelevant nonsense at
a time when many would just like decent job.
It is the teachers who are bullying, bullying the kids.
_________________________
"So many people who comment on these stories have no
idea of how hard teachers work."
Oh yes they do know how hard (some) teachers work.
In fact, teachers are the ones who seem oblivious about how
hard others work.
Your comment is just the kind which irritates so many decent
and thoughtful people.
It is special pleading, and it reflects genuine ignorance
about the work of others.
