SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Highlows pass as patent leathers, jackdaws strut in peacock feathers…

The teachers’ unions are at heart industrial unions - but their members are highly-skilled, well-educated professionals. As a result, these unions feature a number of built-in contradictions.

Some of the contradictions are so obvious that they hardly need be mentioned, For example, the teachers’ unions position themselves as being on the side of the students - but fight to keep kids in classrooms with bad teachers. The unions claim that teaching is an extremely important job - but block higher wages for the best teachers and say that there’s not much teachers can do with disadvantaged students. The unions maintain that teachers are well-educated, highly-trained professionals - but insist they be treated like blue-collar workers.

Some of the other contradictions are less obvious. For example, the teachers’ unions position themselves as enlightened, progressive organizations that are looking to a better future, but in fact their policies are extremely conservative - in the sense that they try to maintain status-quo education policies. The teachers’ unions slam big business repeatedly, but they are themselves big businesses with large staffs and huge revenues. The teachers’ unions align themselves with left-of-centre political parties, but their policies hurt most the left’s traditional constituents - the poor and needy. 

These contradictions are just a beginning. I would be glad if readers would point out some more.