At Angry in the Great White North, one union member has a serious issue with Buzz Hargrove’s endorsement of Paul Martin and the Liberals:
I’m a member of the CAW, and am mightily pissed at Hargrove telling us who to vote for, as if we are a bunch of imbeciles that need to be led. FU** off Buzz and take that union hating SOB Martin with you.
Are you a union member or an NDP supporter? Angry is inviting more opinions.
I don’t disagree, but when you actually pay teachers less than you do the kid who babysits for you when you go out, what do you expect.
here are the numbers
$3.00 x child per hour
30 children per hour = $90.00
5.5 contact hours per day = $495
187 student contact days = $92,565
Don’t see many teachers getting that now do you?
Babysitters don’t have full-time jobs, benefits, and pensions. Plus, they’re in short supply these days, unlike teachers, so market demand pushes the price up. Still, if you find a kid who makes $92k a year babysitting, then you’ve found yourself a successful entrepreneur, I’d say.
High school science teacher here – going from memory (not the most reliable thing in the world), I’d say the science curriculum is dumbed down from when I studied 15 years ago. We certainly do put more fluff into the courses that used to be the case (moreso at the younger grades, but it’s creeping into high school courses as well). It’s tough to always notice what’s being left out when they revamp courses – but I know there are topics that we barely touch on now that were significant components when I studied.
Fair enough, Shane, I agree. But if the science curriculum has been dumbed down and the total curriculum load has gone up, then surely whatever the solution to the problem is, it’s not a reduction in class size.
I have the highest respect for good teachers, there are a few teachers who were among the earliest adults I correctly decided to trust and respect. I’ve taught formally a bit, and honestly I’m not that good at it. I think teachers should get paid good to very good coin if they are acheiving results.
I do not think Canada’s public education systems should be sacrificed to greedy elitists and their sycophants, as I’m afraid we’re seeing with the behaviour of unions and the left in general at this time. If we destroy the nuclear family in Canada, broken schools will be the least of our problems.
The nuclear family is already all but destroyed in urban schools.
Teachers now have to deal with children from broken homes, single parents (from the start, by choice) at much greater volumes than a mere 20 years ago.
In BC when they count class sizes, the special needs kids are not counted one- to -one. There is a multiplier, so a class of 30 may be 26 with 4 of them special needs. You don’t hear the union ever mention that, do you?
To understand the teaching of many teachers, read their claims of injustice, see the untruths and miscalculations. If they lie or mislead with that, how likely do you think it is that the politics in the classroom is any more accurate?
Bottom line is that teachers should be involved because they have a passion. It is not a job like manufacturing where you simply punch in and out.
enough
If you are a member of a union, you are a lazy degenerate incapable of putting in a full day of work. You suck. Period.
“If you are a member of a union, you are a lazy degenerate incapable of putting in a full day of work. You suck. Period.”
Yet another example of the right reaching out to Canadians everywhere.
Don –
hahaha. Great comeback; I grinned at that. I’m not a big supporter of unions, and I’m pretty right-wing myself, but Guv – come ON, man. Unless that post was an undisguised troll, you cannot be serious. I’ve worked with unions for 20 years, and while there are too many loafers and abusers hiding from work behind their shop stewards, there are lots of great people who would fare just as well in a non-union environment. It’s the truth.
*pinching self* That’s the first time I’ve publicly gone to bat on behalf of anybody who was a member of a union. Amazing.
ANYWAY.
Do you think that Paul Martin, in true Librano (Soprano-esque) style, introduced Buzz as “An associate of mine”, or as “a friend of OURS” ?
sjd(at)cogeco(d0t)ca
Don and sjd,
No. I’ve worked in union shops in the past and have had the misforune of contracting in Ottawa alongside PSAC slugs. They disgust me.
And as for reaching out, why would I want to associate myself with these creeps who think the world owes them a living? No, these people are simply a cancer.
Buzz Hargrove got it right. See his article in Dec. 6 National Post.
Oops. Dec. 7 for the Buzz Hargrove article.
AS for special needs, ESL & others being “integrated” into classrooms, with all the accompanying ” that entails: sorry,the lids off that crockpot.
One of the things that came out in the illegal BC teachers’ strike is that teachers are given EXTRA CREDIT vis a vis class size, when they have ESL or special needs kids in the class. This, despite the fact that special ed. assistants, ESL instructors..etc, etc. are thereto alleviate any extra burden.
So, an autistic kid equals 1.5 children (or something to that effect) in the class when determining class size, even though an SEA is there full-time or half-time depending on the severity of need, to help the child and thus reduce any extra ‘burden’ that his presence may cause for the teacher.
Can’t have it both ways, Teach!