I'm sure any teachers reading this who have a an overly high opinion of themselves and their profession's value to society are ready to defend and preserve. Before you get your back up we know there are teachers who teach for altruistic reasons and others for the money.
I totally understand the value and purpose of a union. A union is to help keep the balance of fairness between delivery of product and services and the expectations set out by the employer. Here's the problem. The words "Balance" and "Fairness" by their utmost definition subjectively fluctuate and at times are undefinable in relation to the objective. However, you can define unbalance and unfairness. It's pretty simple actually. It's when the majority of the population sees the disparity of what one party is receiving compared to what the other party is receiving.
Message to the teacher's union: Stop holding our kids hostage and for ransom to placate your avaricious needs. The teacher's union is exemplary at constructing their fiefdom of self preservation full knowingly that working parents are at the mercy of their demands. I've spoken to teacher's with their mouths full of pie and they have admittedly confessed they do it for the money, and NOT to enrich the lives of malleable young minds. Sadly, for the most part a large majority of teachers in our public school system are glorified babysitters. There are the small percentages of teachers who have a passion for what they do and they do it to try and make a difference in a persons life.
Here is where we need change fast.
#1 - Salary freezes. This is so that the average teacher's wages can catch up to the reality of what it should be in relation to the power of inflation. This will also weed out those individuals who want to teach for the money as opposed to wanting to teach for the altruistic intentions of actually educating.
#2 Mandatory annual assessment of each teacher's qualifications via grading and testing the teachers respective to their curriculum. As well a basic psychological assessment to determine their values and approach to situations(similar to what police officers have to experience in their interview process)
This is imperative. Teachers are with our kids throughout the day. They are supposed play a major role in educational and social influence. Shouldn't all parents know that the teachers in the classroom possess a healthy mental disposition of values and approach in terms of communicating and interacting with the most influential demographic of the population?
#3 Teachers Pensions: It's like winning the lottery and it's costing the tax payers millions. Lower the pension amounts to 50% of their salary.
#4 No striking permitted. If someone in the union's opulent self governance cries woe is me, there should be no striking permitted. If anyone strikes....they are immediately replaced permanently by a by an eager, hungry and unemployed graduate of teacher's college who is waiting in queue for the golden opportunity of employment.
#5 The creation of more than one teacher's union. Let's face it competition increases value and performance. Our country needs to operate the teacher's system like a business. It's about accountability, value and performance. In our current educational systems climate there is not much of this.
With the ability to create multiple public sector unions of the same category, this will open the door to a more competitive environment of outside institutions vying to achieve contract with the government and more importantly super serving the tax payer.
The true spirit of the meaning of "Public Service" has lost its way and has been taken over by truculence, deviance, greed and unaccountability.
The unfortunate difference with business and government bodies is that one performs based on profit , accountability and performance the other performs based on self preservation and policies. If our country can run it's sectors more like a business, allowing for more competition of our tax dollars and eliminating the nonsense of the education systems machination process then we will truly see change for the better.
The irony is that the education system is making sure our kids lives are purely habitable, so that they are
completely unprepared for real life. As parents when we constructively
criticize our kids they don't get it because so far everyone's loved
everything that they've done, the teachers are going through the motions of standard curriculum. We are lacking real life classes such as ethics and how to treat others in school, in the school ground, during play, interaction with siblings, parents, teachers etc....Teaching the universal appreciation for respect and understanding is missing from our school system...this is a foundation for a better prepared and balanced future when they become adults.
Another class should be on Religion. Not just one religion, but many religions. If we can enlighten theses young minds with the common denominator of religions then they will come to understand the differences and similarities without prejudice and with respect of values..
Health, hygiene and coping strategies. This class would cover the fundamentals of diet, personal hygiene and etiquette, and how to manage stress...perhaps tying in meditation, yoga etc.
Value and Accountability Class. Children need a class about value and accountability. This class would involve teaching children about the value and importance of buying products, services and the accountability of delivering the products and services. This principle can be applied to every person whether they choose to be a trades person, scientist, artist, business person or athlete.
