The only reason the cupboard is bare is because Mike Harris cut corporate taxes by $16 billion and Dalton McGuire, foolishly did not raise them. As Obama shows, people want the rich and corporations to pay more. They don’t want cutbacks anywhere.

Or peculiar ideas about democracy, human and civil rights where public sector unions have the right to override one and all, in their goals of advancing their best interests.

Instead of discussing the analogy of the loyal dog, the posters attacked the author, and one comment siting that organizations such as SQE should always state their beliefs upfront. But the teachers unionists, don’t have to because their intentions are honourable and understood.

Two other articles at the bottom, got the teacher unionists all in a lather like a rabid dog. ” The Ontario Teacher’s Union Is Holding Students Hostage”
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/samuel-mosonyi/ontario-teachers-strike_b_2444688.html

The second one - Teachers: The Classroom Is Not Your Pulpit
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/danielle-s-mclaughlin/ontario-teacher-strike-labour_b_2468883.html

It is obvious all three articles, including Malkin’s have cause the usual rabid reactions by the teacher unionists. Of interest, the author of Teachers: The Classroom is Not Your Pulpit is of great interest.  The author is president of - “The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is a national organization that was constituted to promote respect for and observance of fundamental human rights and civil liberties, and to defend, extend, and foster recognition of these rights and liberties.

The fight against abuse of state authority has not always won popularity contests for CCLA, but the Association has been a leader in protecting our fundamental freedoms, and has earned widespread respect for its principled stands on such issues as censorship, capital punishment, and police power.”
http://ccla.org/about-us/

Not only are the unions losing the public’s confidence, they have now become the target of CCLA. They too do not approve of the Ontario teachers’ unions action and how indoctrination is taking place in today’s public schools. Perhaps, they might decide to tackled the messy equity and social justice policies riddled with ideology, at the expense of the students’ education. Time will tell, but until than choice is the only option and pointing out the weaknesses of the teachers’ unions’ arguments that reduces education quality, suppression of civil and human rights of students, and poor outcomes of students.

Speaking about poor outcomes, the local CBC has reported on the shocking state of university students not being able to locate the continents of Earth. ““The Atlantic Ocean is labelled as the Mediterranean Sea; Africa is circled and labelled as Europe, with Spain and Italy being put in the middle of Africa,” she said.

Adler said she can’t believe her students’ lack of knowledge when it comes to geography.

“The revelation of how the school system here has completely dropped geography from young people’s education has been very striking to me,” she said.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2013/01/14/nl-students-dont-know-geography-115.html

Not surprising, only a few comments telling the readers don’t blame the education system, and unions because they are only following directives of the curriculum.

The education stakeholders, the very structure of the public education model allows the teachers’ unions to dictate the frameworks and parameters to delivered education services to students. By doing so, education quality is watered down according to the needs and agendas of the stakeholders, and comes at the price of students’ and their academic futures. But more importantly the right of all students to received an education that reaches their full academic potential and to be able to navigate in society in their adulthood.

Ingratitude of the teachers’ union. You bet, and more so today that is revealed in the data streams outcomes and the words, actions and deeds of the unions.

It would seem that there is change in the wind. Will the public sector unions in Ontario follow a similar path as some of their brothers south of the border, only time will tell.  Clearly, integrity and genuine public responsibility may become concepts whose meaning will have to be more carefully examined by some to refresh what they mean today outside of the legalistic zoo definition.

Here is a description of some kind of transformation which was recently triggered in Philadelphia. 
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/01/uncovering-union-violence.html

I am not suggesting that the Philadelphia situation equates to events in Ontario, but the underlying principles are similar.  Locally, I would suggest that entrenched viewpoints have spawned a level of arrogance over time and genuine concern for the customers has become a rather secondary issue. 

One of the fascinating things we learn these days is that if you want to grow a service, the most helpful folks to learn the most from are the folks quitting your service or the folks complaining about your service.  The core happy customers are not going to tell you much you need to know about how to improve.

Any organization that rests it’s position on the status quo and is not pro active these days is sowing the seeds of its demise.

Let me see, the percentage in private schools has hardly budged in 30 years, there is no desire to fund private schools with public money, the Liberals are losing support due to the fight with teachers, the Michigan governor who brought in RTW has seen his popularity crash through the floor, ....where is the big change. Wishful thinking?

Extracurricular activities are not a right. They are not covered in the Education Act nor in the teachers CA. They are a free gift from the teachers of Ontario and can be removed by the teachers whenever they do not feel appreciated. There is nothing the government can do about it unless they believe in slave labour.

OSP/aka One Syllable Pete/aka Joe/aka et al.

With the bunker mentality/rump defensiveness displayed todate, the sooner the field is opened to alternatives the better off future generations will be.  It is not the teachers who are unappreciated, it is their representatives who absent of any creative imagination keep sawing away at rhetoric which has been old for a long time.

Alterately, if current teachers representatives can find a way to refresh their minds and imaginations; to replace the rhetoric of pedagogical mystery with one emphasizing mastery then there is a chance they can get off the path to Drumheller Alberta and Dinosaur Park. Otherwise, the die is cast. Fossils they shall be.

Almost nothing needs to change in the worlds best education system although a continuing downward extension to more and more ECE and smaller classes always helps.