Every poll I have seen on this issue has the public strongly supporting this teacher. 

Now the Edmonton school board is reviewing the policy.
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/canada/archives/2012/06/20120627-082758.html

If the public gets loud enough, the politicos start listening.

we don’t have a loud enough public in Ontario…...yet.

Tim Hudak had a great white paper launch today on making union dues voluntary,  but he might as well have been talking to gnats because the big news story and media was in Elliot Lake. A little bit of coverage but, with school out for summer, not on the radar too much that I can tell. Hope he presses harder on this….it’s time for some serious challenge to the unions in this province.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

He needs to be careful. It is one thing to give a zero mark and defend it with your free speech. This teacher is not being fired for giving zero marks, he is being fired for insuborination. In other words when told what to do he refused.

If he wins, insubordination will run rampant. Teachers will site this case and say, “we do not have to do what management wants, we can do whatever we want.” Is tht what you want?

Be careful what you wish for. The unions will have a field day if the teacher were to win.

What nonsense Doug.

Yes, it’s what I want, and apparently a whole lot of other people do too.

Heard this teacher on the radio yesterday and it’s ALL about his going against “management” (and I use that term loosely) and doing what’s right for himself, but also….wait for it, doing what’s best for the students.

As I wrote somewhere before I’d like to see whistleblower protection for educators, parents, and insiders from school boards.

Maybe SQE should run some letters to the editor soliciting stories like that, offering folks the opportunity to do what the system will not.

More proof that Doug is on the wrong side of public opinion when it comes to unions in this province.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Coyne+Ontario+Tories+take+unions+about+time/6851160/story.html

I think Doug needs to be careful…..

“Insubordination will run rampant.”

Really, when the public would like to see the teachers do a great deal more working for the best interests of the students and their futures, rather than carry out the mandates and edicts of those above them.

Besides no-zero policies, are the restrictions placed upon teachers by their unions and school boards, on employment other than their full-time jobs as teachers. Interesting reading, how the union brass prevents teachers using their skills and qualifications to privately tutor students, using methods other than the accepted and approved practices of the school board.

The white paper in Chuck’s link, is just the beginning on placing restrictions on unions, and correcting the deep systemic flaws of public sector unions that requires the public to be held hostage, going against their own best interests. In much the same way, the Edmonton teacher who chose not to be held hostage by no-zero policies. Brave man, just like parents who go public, risking their personal reputation and sometimes their sanity, to confront some aspect of the deep fault lines found in government institutions.

The Edmonton teacher had less to lose, because he had the option of full retirement; but stood up risking his personal reputation and respect to act on the behalf of his physics students. Physics, cumulative in nature, just like mathematics is not a subject that blends well with the underlying premise of not handing out zeroes. I also suspect, teachers would have a very difficult time trying to assess student’s knowledge by taking away the teacher’s ability to properly assess and evaluate students’ performance.

The no-zero policies actually do more harm to students and their futures, and more importantly, creates the conditions for teachers for compliance to work for the best interests of the education system, rather than the best interests of the students.

Doug states: “The unions will have a field day if the teacher were to win.” The individual teachers will have a field day, and not the collective called the union. And a lot of it, will be concerning the union contracts and agreements, that restricts teachers and how they teach in so many ways, as well as outside of their regular teaching hours.

When the normal union champions like the Toronto Star come out exposing stuff like this, we know that patience for unions and their long arm of interference and entitlements is wearing very VERY thin.

The ride’s going to end sooner rather than later too I’m betting.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1218387—tdsb-workers-given-253-000-in-gift-cards-by-union

Below an eye-popping report from the Star on gift cards

“An ongoing Star investigation has found that the money that purchased the gift cards originated with a special fund set up by the Liberal government. Over the last few years, the province has provided more than $17 million to school board workers across Ontario, intended to be used ?to enhance professional development and training opportunities for education support workers,? according to documents obtained by the Star.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1218387—tdsb-workers-given-253-000-in-gift-cards-by-union

Gift cards for professional development?

Another Star report - “He says the board?s ?facilities committee? will meet over the summer and provide a ?fulsome report? to the board at its Sept. 5 meeting. It was exactly what taxpayers have learned to expect from politicians facing embarrassing revelations.”
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/1216920—toronto-school-board-fights-public-anger-with-weak-promises

Would not used the word ‘fulsome’, and if the education official did, he deserves to be fired for showing such disrespect to the taxpayers’ purse, and his lame excuses that are offered to defend the status-quo in accountability and transparency.

” ful?some? ?[fool-suhm, fuhl-]  Show IPA
adjective
1.
offensive to good taste, especially as being excessive; overdone or gross: fulsome praise that embarrassed her deeply; fulsome d?cor.
2.
disgusting; sickening; repulsive: a table heaped with fulsome mounds of greasy foods.
3.
excessively or insincerely lavish: fulsome admiration.
4.
encompassing all aspects; comprehensive: a fulsome survey of the political situation in Central America.
5.
abundant or copious.”
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fulsome

And the school boards and unions want teachers fired for working for the best interests of their students?  Or when they do, the teachers are at risk of losing their jobs?  But not when the actions of the stakeholders within the education system, where there is concerted and deliberate effort to redirect student education dollars away from the students to pay for the perks of gift cards and other personal items that has nothing to do with student learning?  ,

FORWARDED ON BEHALF OF DOUG LITTLE

The teachers’ unions generally support giving zero for missed assignments that are not made up but if the teacher wins with insubordination, it will be ever more difficult to fire or discipline teachers for insubordination.

You folks generally like firing teachers or lifting liscences at the OCT right? This fellow makes that more difficult.

Come on Doug, the OCT has no problem disciplining teachers far more harshly, who are the whistle blowers and teachers who consistently work against standards and practices of the education stakeholders , that the teachers professionally view not being in the best interests of the public, the students and the communities. 

”  One teacher the College did identify was a teacher whose only crime was to break their secrecy rules.

James Black, a teacher and former discipline committee member, was publicly named by the College and suspended for two years because the College suspected he leaked information to the media.

The committee suspected (but could not prove) that Black gave information to a CTV reporter in 2006 who was probing the College?s practice of allowing teachers convicted of sex crimes to be reinstated after their licence was revoked. The College claims Black leaked information to CTV News about a teacher convicted of sexual exploitation in 1990, who was jailed 15 months and later sought reinstatement.

In 2009, the committee fined its former member, Black, $1,000, and suspended him for two years.

The College ruled that Black was guilty of a serious ?breach of confidentiality? which ?may have damaged the professional image of the College and its members. The need for a strong general deterrent is imperative in this matter.?”
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1062168

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1062170

” A teacher at the Toronto District School Board locked Grade 8 students in a storage cupboard at the back of his classroom on at least three occasions to discipline them. He also gave his math students a bizarre test he called ?City of Los Angeles High School Math Proficiency Exam? with mock questions using words like ?pimping? and ?knocked up? and asking them to tally drive-by shootings, drug trafficking, prostitution, theft and murder. Penalty: 20-day suspension without pay from his school board and a reprimand for professional misconduct from the College.”

Apparently the last example did not damage the good image of teachers. ” Breach of confidentiality? which ?may have damaged the professional image of the College and its members. The need for a strong general deterrent is imperative in this matter.?”

So much for professionalism, when the victims are the students - a slap on the wrist. But not when the teachers spill the secrets of the actions of a school, a school board who rather keep it secret and hidden from the public.