Teachers have their work cut out for them. Starting to get nasty, and the public is in no mood to cater to the teachers’ unions.

One comment in the Globe and Mail - “The strike game is a two-way street. The school boards should lock them out the day before teachers’ annual paid Christmas vacation.”

Would it not be real interesting if one or two schools do it?  Give the kids an extended Christmas holiday, until the teachers’ union caves in.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/ontario-teachers-set-to-strike-closing-many-elementary-schools/article5758844/?utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=The Globe and Mail&utm_type=text&utm_content=TheGlobeandMail&utm_campaign=99681444

Shameless behaviour in the comments, on the ones that are claiming they are teachers. A good thing that the comments are anonymous. School board staff, could get a lot of mileage out of the comments. And all the parent bashing, and how parents have become the road block for teachers to avoid the pain of the global economic crisis.

Another observation, are on the Canadian education blogs, being operated by the educators and the stakeholders in the public education system. They are becoming that much more bolder, on bashing parents in an underhanded way. Today, on the CEA site, in black and white - management side getting their digs in on parents, in much the same way as the the members of the teachers’ unions are bashing parents. The attitude - thou are prefect, and we know what is best for everyone kind of attitude.

” There are, however, another couple of explanations for the lack of innovation.

First, there’s the dreaded ‘guinea-pig’ syndrome, where any attempt to try something new is met with ‘so you’re going to use these children as guinea-pigs in your experiment, are you?’  I’m baffled by this reaction (and parents and politicians are equally guilty here) for two reasons: First, how many medical breakthroughs would we have missed if people had refused to take part in clinical trials? More accurately, it’s not the patients who are refusing the clinical trial. Kids generally enjoy being part of a new initiative. It’s the guardians of their interests who resist.

Second,  there’s the ‘not-invented here-syndrome’ . Most of the truly exciting innovations in education are trialled on the ‘terminally ill’: the students for whom nothing seems to be working.  But the treatment would work just as well on other students. The CEA have recently rewarded one such initiative: The Oasis Skateboard Factory. “
http://www.cea-ace.ca/blog/david-price/2012/11/3/innovation-education-why-dont-game-changers-change-game

I don’t know about others, but justifying the use of students as lab rats for untested education innovations, on the whole student population, other than the ‘terminally ill’ students, who are already the lab rats for untested education and pedagogical theory innovation - is wrong. Students only have one chance to get it right, and secure their futures. Being offered as live lab rats, will put their academic futures at risk, and in turned, download the responsibility and costs to the students in their young adulthood, to addressed their weaknesses and what was missed, while the students were engaging learning to be good lab rats, at the expense of their potential and future.

Is ‘terminally-ill’ student be the new term to replace, ‘the hard to teach’ students?  Perhaps, but on the flip side, the term terminally ill could be used to described the teachers’ unions. They have ailment that leads to chronic terminally-ill thinking, that makes union brass ‘hard to reach’. Further aggravated by being stubbornly glued to the status-quo thinking of the 19th century.

As some comments in the Globe and Mail have stated in so many way, looking forward for the teachers staying outside for hours on end in the freezing cold. The comments are always attached with the sentence, since they do so complained so much of being on supervision duty at recess and lunch time.

Perhaps some creative innovation might occur on both sides. Novel eh? If not, the teachers’ unions can line up, taking their turn, as the new lab rats, where other public sector unions have gone before and failed since the 1980s.

Back in the spring, when I first heard of the teaching contracts ending, I knew this was going to be a rocky school year.  And so it is. 

My husband and I had already started pursuing alternatives because of our dissatisfaction with the system, and so we visited various private schools. (There is a very good one in our area.)  Ultimately, we ended up choosing homeschooling for our two boys.  They are thriving, and we are happy to be taking full responsibility for their education. 

We realize this isn’t a viable or desirable choice for many, but it is working for us.  I know that I may be getting calls from some of my public school friends when school is out, and they still need to go to work.  I am happy to help out - their kids can follow along with my own in reading, writing and arithmetic.  We study hard in the mornings, and then play hard in the afternoons with extracurriculars.

For entrepreneurial B.Ed’s out there who haven’t been able to break into the system with a full-time or even part-time contract, this is your opportunity.  Offer your services during the day to those families who will be stuck and need exactly what you have, without the bureaucracy.  Don’t let the gatekeepers keep you from pursuing your dreams.

Forum ran a poll on whether Ontarians support the teachers or the government.

The teachers won.

The government`s popularity has dropped like a stone since they decided to pick a fight with the public sector.

Union negotiated contracts are being voted down by grassroots members.

The Liberals have an election in the spring. The teachers dont. Right now it looks as if they are in third place. Not exactly a vote of confidence in their chosen direction.

Really Joe?  If you look at the polls running at just about every newspaper and radio website, the polls show 2 to 1 against the unions.  They are totally out of touch as the letter to the K-W Record shows.
The government’s popularity was dropping long before this.

Mr. Joe/Dean/Doug,

A few reminders:
1. Posting links to support your facts goes along way towards establishing credibility.. 
2. Don’t forget to take your cod liver oil this morning;
3. Keep drinking the cool aid. 
4. Don’t forget to mention us in your weekly activity report.

The latest from the Globe and Mail - where the comments are 99 % against the unions, so far.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-elementary-teachers-set-to-stage-one-day-strikes/article5830229/?utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=The Globe and Mail&utm_type=text&utm_content=TheGlobeandMail&utm_campaign=99723072

An interesting comment - where the union brass, is undertaking the initiative of declaring the ratification vote that took place in the Upper Grand School District, null and void.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CWwWey6rxPZGA_CPSXKsSk5mRA-6n6GOLZRfbdu04o8/edit

“While high school teachers in the Upper Grand District School Board around Guelph did approve their contract, the mixed union results are a sign labour turmoil will continue to disrupt many schools.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/education/article/1294193—ontario-teacher-protest-york-niagara-teachers-reject-tentative-deals

So the union brass of OSSTF did not like the results of an agreement that was reached in the Upper Grand school district.

What will happen, as the smaller school districts, further away from the big school boards, will fold like dominoes to vote yes for ratification. I highly doubt it teachers are crazy about one day strikes, in the smaller school districts, and their effectiveness.

In the Globe and Mail - ” I don?t expect many parents to be sympathetic,? said David Clegg, president of York Region?s elementary teachers. ?But I do expect them ? if they can be objective ? to understand the impossible position we?ve been put in by legislation that has completely destroyed a bargaining process that has worked in the province for over 50 years.?

Compared this to a letter in the latest issue of the SQE newslettter.

“Heterogeneous Classrooms
As a grade 7 teacher, I really don’t know how to bridge the gaps in my classroom. Without exaggeration, I have three students working at the grade 2 level (no support, no resources, no time). I’m not including the needs of about an additional half-dozen above grade 2 but still not at grade level. Oh, and it’s a split grade to boot. How can gaps like the one I annually attempt to fill even happen in the first place?  Ottawa, ON”

” I don?t expect many parents to be sympathetic,? said David Clegg, president of York Region?s elementary teachers. ”  Why should parents be sympathetic, when they too see the education outcomes of their own children and the knowledge and skills gaps that are missing in their children. Just imagine, what the classroom teachers are thinking?  Be loyal to the teachers’ union or not?

Or listen to the over-blown rhetoric of the ‘sky is falling’ line - the destruction of collective bargaining rights.

I somehow think, going to court will take years to sort out, and even more foolish to await for the outcome of the provincial election in the spring. The public or government will not be in the mood to play nice with the public sector unions. And in particular the teachers’ unions, that have held the students’ education as hostages and pawns on their chess board.

From the Star - “After months of teachers? job actions, ranging from cancelled after-school clubs to bare minimum report cards, a backlash is starting to grow among weary parents.

?Even though I?m self-employed and have flexibility with my time, it?s going to cost us financially to find alternate arrangements,? said Desmond Brown, a father of three in the Beach area of Toronto.

?I’m already unhappy with the job action they’re taking,? he added. ?Can’t they see they’re only hurting our kids? If they take it a step further and go on strike, it’s going to take a very long time before they ever get my trust back, or the trust of a lot of the parents.?

To Toronto mother Unah Grieve, talk of a strike feels like the last straw for parents who have been scrambling this fall to coach some teams themselves or booking time off work for holiday concerts now switched to the daytime.

?Now parents are getting really upset ? we feel like we?re being held hostage,? said Grieve, whose Grade 8 daughter said she went for math help after school this week but the teacher told her to come back during the day.

?Teachers are frustrated and I get that,? said Grieve, who had started a Facebook group against Bill 115 earlier this fall. ?But are the unions waiting for a new government to come in to settle this??
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1295168—laurel-broten-teachers-will-be-ordered-back-if-they-strike

And from NP - “Following through with strikes will only turn prevailing sentiment further against Ontario teachers? unions”
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/11/29/scott-stinson-ontario-teachers/

The poll was by Forum, one of the more reputable polling companies. Support teachers 45 percent support government 40 percent. Polls in ideologically based newspapers reflect their readership. They are meaningless.

Btw teachers do not run for election. Many Liberal leadership candidates urge softer line.

Grassroots teachers believe that free collective bargaining can,never be canceled or even circumscribed under any circumstances ever. That is why the grassroots are voting down negotiated contracts.

Latest pill Forum polling.

Suppirt the teachers 44 %

Support the government 39%

I believe that since we are no longer living in medieval England, the need for unions is coming to an end.  I grew up in Toronto in a time before teachers were given the right to strike and I long for things to return to the norm.  Stop holding students and their parents hostage.  Did you people become teachers to make a difference to children or did you become teachers to go down in history as the group that killed education in Ontario.  If you don’t want to teach, go drive a bus.  Our children deserve better.

That is one opinion that is out there. Lucky for teachers it is part of a very small minority.

Not as small as you’d like to believe!

As we can see in this present situation, a minority opinion nevertheless. The Forum Research polls show that most Ontarians support the teachers, not the government.

I doubt any parents want to take away their childrens’ teachers’ bargaining rights, we just want bargaining rights to stop infringing on education.  It’s not fair to the kids who have spent most of their life ‘busting their humps’ to make the grade in order to attend a good school, just to have their hopes dashed in grade 12 because the teacher’s union is unhappy with the gov’t. and won’t allow extra curricular activities, sports and after school assistance with schoolwork.  Kids have enough problems growing up….why are the people who claim they care the most about the future achievements of their students, the ones who kick them to the curb in the end.  I’m sorry, I just don’t get it!!

Anybody interested in the return of extracurriculars needs to contact the premier and tell him to recind Bill 155.

Fightbill115.ca

Unions are the heart of a Democracy! Time to reread your history of education for the world’s children. What future do you want for your children to float on a never ending sea of poverty dictated by undemocratic governments of Capitalist greed? Wake up! Unions promote their benefits and well being as the common denominator for every working person! See Walmart! Don’t undercut yourselves or your children’s future with never ending fear mongering that there isn’t enough to respect the human rights of Collective Bargaining! Education for our children’s future cannot be found in a society that doesn’t promote solidarity with the rights of those who teach!

If Teachers want my support then they must start taking action to ensure that workers in the private sector have the same benefits as they do.

They need to start driving Made in North American CAW/UAW cars (not Hyundai’s made in “right to work” states).

They need to stop shopping at any store that doesn’t allow their workers to Unionize (i.e Walmart).

It’s laughable when I hear teachers saying “The Government won’t stop until we’re all working for Wal-mart wages”.

The first thing you could do is to stop supporting Wal-mart wages and start supporting Unionized jobs!