hahaha Iced Tea 1 - Monitor 0
Hey, and I tired to be a heavy duty mechanic, but then I got laid. And went back to computers. Chicks like a man who can inline SIMD instructions in their sleep.
[quote=“Eso”]In reply to Mariena, who started this whole thread, I think I can summarize, through my amazing empathy, how the teachers feel.
Yes, your education will suffer as a result of this strike. You will have missed classes, the school year will need to cover the same quantity in a shorter time, and that sucks.
But your education has and will continue to suffer even more without accessible and qualified teachers who are genuinely interested in doing their job well.
MiG is a good example. When I was in high school, how often were myself and the other self-proclaimed dorks at school well into the evening, or on weekends, engaged in some display of abject geekery, tooling around with old computer parts, stealthily subnetting the school LAN, programming, video editing, etc?
MiG was there for all that kind of stuff, giving us the tools and environment to explore a field (in this case information technology), and fostering the skills that many of that crowd have since turned into careers.
The point is, you can talk about summers/christmas/spring break off, cushy job, easy hours or whatever. But MiG could easily have booted us all out the door at 3:00, and fucked off and gone fishing. He wasn’t getting paid for hanging out at the school with a bunch of teenagers. But he recognized that we were all eager to learn, and he was willing to invest his own time, and in many cases, money to facilitate that learning.
That is what the teachers are trying to protect. They aren’t interested in doing their job, if they aren’t allowed to do their job well.[/quote]
Same thing here - when I was in school we had a TV station to geek out on - and we spent a whole lot of after-hours time fiddling with S-Video, Comp and Coax cabling, playing with the Video Toaster, etc. If the instructor had not been there to let us fiddle with stuff that blew up all too infrequently…
Unfortunately, only after I spent $30k on college did I find out that the TV industry sucks. 
I completely emphasize with the teachers’ positions - having been a former youth leader and instructor in a large national youth organziation (not Scouts), the size of the group that you are charged with directly inpacts the quality of instruction and the ability to field questions.
I found 30 to be just enough. More than that, and you just do not have the time to answer everyone’s questions, and the paperwork stacks up.
I just don’t like the way the politics play into all this.
I dont know all the details of the strike but you know about the job when you sign up to be a teacher, sometimes it sucks, thats your life, putting these kids behind is not the right of the union, Teachers should know how hard it is to get good paying jobs, why would you put our children behind the rest of the world, they are not going to wait.There is alot of smart teachers out there you think one could have a better idea then full strikes!! Afere all I thought it wasn’t about the money but helping the kids!
Wow… just wow.
Mike
[quote=“Lemrac”]It is at these moments in time that I wish I had a car. I totally want to drive by and honk in support!
Right on guys! Don’t let the government push you around!
Workers of the World UNITE![/quote]
Yea that’s right! Fight the machine!
What would a half strike be? Letting kids rot in class but not teaching any thing? That’s not a bad idea you know, just bring an MP3 player, turn it up and phase those kids out.
I think it takes 6 years now to get a basic degree in education? Long time. Smarter kids know that the government doesn’t really give a rat’s ass about your education, otherwise university would be free, and that standing up and making demands HELPS kids in the long run.
Your right the government cant care less but that’s normal they never have and never will, I and everybody in the world knows teachers have always been over worked and under paid,I think teachers don’t get enough credit for what they do it is a tough job and union deals suck I know I’m in psac and iwa but if its a long strike the kids are behind and for the grade 12 kids its not about the long run they have to jump into the real world and not all of them have jobs handed to them so why give them one more disadvantage there must be a way to keep them on track
Some of those grade 12 kids are planning to become teachers. Wouldn’t it be nice if they had a decent wage and decent working conditions waiting for them when they graduate?
You seem to be missing the bigger picture here by a whole lot.
Mike
might just be missing the bigger picture, but isn’t this site here for stating your opinion and getting the facts from people that are in the know? It seems that most threads turn into a bitch fest and lots of instigating, who knows i might be one too. I wanted to put my opinion in as i see it so far, I will be looking into this more because I know allot of teachers, but I also know allot of grade 12’s that are not too happy.But I work 10 hours a day and spend time with my family so keeping up with all the facts most times is put aside. but I thought maybe there would be some here, even if my opinion is not the same as everybody Else’s, there should be somebody that has them without the usual bashing, not saying you but in general it seems to be the past-time of the site nowadays.I agree it would be nice if everybody got good wages.
On a personal note. I always rather liked reading Mikes posts.
Always nice and neat. anywho yeah so… yay for smaller class sizes ; nay for over worked underpaid teachers / support staff.
Yay or Nay…
Just a thought but why is it you work 10hrs a day? is it because you need the money? wouldnt it be nice if you had say a union that could help you to get a better contract which would mean you only had to work 8hrs a day in order to get by?
Thats the thing I dont understand why is it everyone tries to break the balls of the unions? They help us get what we deserve from teh rich folks who would just as soon pay someone $2 an hour for the same job because it means more money for them. Yes it hurts the grade 12’s but it would hurt the future students more if they had 50-100 students per classroom and the teachers had no one on one time with the students wouldnt it?
It is, and you’re right.
So state your opinion, it’s valuable. But if you’re going to state an opinion, then you have to be willing to hear people who disagree with you.
You’re right here too. I’ve already deleted a bunch of posts from this thread.
So let’s try to keep it about the issues, and not about the personal attacks, ok? We can have personal attacks in a personal attack thread.
[quote=“goodbytes”]
Same thing here - when I was in school we had a TV station to geek out on - and we spent a whole lot of after-hours time fiddling with S-Video, Comp and Coax cabling, playing with the Video Toaster, etc. If the instructor had not been there to let us fiddle with stuff that blew up all too infrequently…
Unfortunately, only after I spent $30k on college did I find out that the TV industry sucks. Shocked [/quote]
Video Toasters…mmmmm! Donated one to our school years ago, it disappeared. S.D. sent a Mac TV system 4-5 years ago, same thing. They’re still there but claim is not one student had interest in TV stuff.
bullshit
Set up first ISPin town 10 years ago, found S.D. had cloned our setup piece by piece, and no teachers or staff would ever be customers. Total coincidence.
bullshit
Setup first IP videoconferencing w QOS. Discovered S.D. subsequently purchased identical equipment with total disregard to bandwidth needs for QOS and was offering to give it to same groups and agencies as our market. Total coincedence
bullshit
Started wireless delivery. Found S.D. connecting community groups free in our market. It was a public service.
bullshit
Had customers balk at price of color laser copies. Found they were going to school and printing hundreds of ad posters and invitations free at Adult Ed. Had to threaten legal action. Unaware of any confilct of interest.
bullshit
Had tree planters mention Adult Ed was closed and that’s why they were using our Internet cafe, which should be free too. Had to mention all the students we train and give work experience too.
bullshit
Discovered there was no budget for a French teacher one year, my kids ‘should’ learn a native language spoken by less than 50,000 people. Had to tell S.D. stupidity of teching languages spoken by less than 50,000,000 people (unless you were native).
bullshit
Just discovered from kids they go to the local takeout because school has no cafeteria.
bullshit
Step-daughter was schocked to discover big city schools in Canada sometimes have own swimming pools, cafterias, football teams, bands and cheerleader squads. She’s in Grade 10 and didn’t know this.
bullshit
Endured comments during last election that teachers were evil for mentioning the possibility of striking during the election.
bullshit
Watched all my old buds in the TWU have a contract shoved down their throats, read the ‘public condemnation’ of the most reasonable, most democratic union I have ever come across. Met some young people scabbing who somehow got raised lacking this big moral hole in their personalities.
bullshit
See my teacher friends out in the rain, also with a contract shoved down their throats, who I know enjoy their work and try to do it in spite of continuing cuts to actual teaching by the S.D.s along with a pissing away huge amounts of money on building mini-bureaucracies and useless tech gizmos and moronic decisions (using $x,000 provent circuits and wireless deliveries instead of $100 ADSLs). Have to be a dick to students who come in amazed that their resumes they made in school with Works on floppy are useless, that I will shred them and hire someone who can use Office.
bullshit
Come on people, give your teachers the tools and incentives to do their jobs properly. Let them speak openly and listen, because our country does not need more stupid people. Stupid people say ‘you can’t cure a problem by simply throwing more and more money at it’, and then their brain shuts down for the night. Smarter ones will say to make sure the money gets to the people who will make it work better, which in this case would be the teachers who do the day to day work. Not into the district office for ‘performance bonuses’, more political games and bureacracy building!
If you’re entering High School this year, you better be prepared to be smarter than young people anywhere else. By the time you graduate the stupid people will have convinced us to ship all our logs overseas to be milled, hire non-union offshore workers to work in mining and fishing and you’ll have to figure out how to make a living in that environment. Or how to change it!
Citytel actually helped our SD set up its own dialup ISP. But I’ll bet more teachers actually have Citytel DSL than SD52 Dialup service.
You should seriously complain about this, especially if the SD is using PLnet to “compete” with you – it’s publicly funded and not supposed to be used commercially.
As for “essential service” – if it’s so essential, why do we have weekends off? Why are some districts on a 4-day week? It’s not essential on Fridays?
Yeah, and I bet parents in the 4 day week district are STILL pissed off about that. School is garunteed free child care-but it’s NOT an essential service. It’s the one major thing the liberals have done that pisses me off, it almost made me not want to vote for them.
[quote=“jesus”]
Just a thought but why is it you work 10hrs a day? is it because you need the money? wouldnt it be nice if you had say a union that could help you to get a better contract which would mean you only had to work 8hrs a day in order to get by?
Thats the thing I dont understand why is it everyone tries to break the balls of the unions? They help us get what we deserve from teh rich folks who would just as soon pay someone $2 an hour for the same job because it means more money for them. Yes it hurts the grade 12’s but it would hurt the future students more if they had 50-100 students per classroom and the teachers had no one on one time with the students wouldnt it?[/quote]
Have you ever been in a union? If you’re doing the majority of the work, should your co-worker be paid more just because he’s been around longer? Unions are supposed to be out for the working man, but how do they help the hard worker? They keep the lazy people employed and he has to pick up their slack. Although unions have their place, there’s something to be said for a meritocracy as well.
Burns flashes back to simpler days. Springfield, 1909, back when
people smashed atoms by hand. Grandfather Burns catches one of his
employees trying to steal some atoms and has him taken away.
You can’t treat the working man this way. One day, we’ll form a union
and get the fair and equitable treatment we deserve! Then we’ll go
too far, and get corrupt and shiftless, and the Japanese will eat us alive!
As a former BC teacher, I can tell you there is profound disrespect from the BC Liberals towards the teachers. Here are some event, to name a few, that totally support this statement:
1-The College of Teachers fiasco that was going to be more like a Gestapo against teachers. The whole thing smelled so much of distrust that a great majority of teacher refused to pay their fees until certain changes were made.
2-The allegedly secret plan of the BCTF that the liberals used to do fearmongering during the election. The not-so-secret strike vote was taken but the BCTF didn’t intend on striking at all, nor did it want this to become an election issue.
3- And just look at the quotes from the Labour minister in theGlobe & Mail last week:
[quote]Mr. de Jong said it is difficult to negotiate if members of the BCTF are on an illegal strike.
“When you’re a law-abiding citizen, you don’t get to pick and choose which laws you want to abide by,” he told reporters in Victoria.
“This is not the kind of example you would expect from people who are teaching our children.”[/quote]
Such words are total provocation and show the lack of respect that the BC Liberals have had towards public educators ever since they first took power.
Bigger class sizes, freeze in salary even with the increasing cost of living and the lack of respect on top of that! I don’t think this is what people expect when they study hard to become a teacher because they believe they can help others in their education.
I’ve met and worked with a lot of great teachers when I taught in British Columbia and let me tell you that if 90.5 % of them said yes to a strike vote, then they deeply feel that it’s time the BC Liberals show a little more respect towards the people that spend a great deal of time with the kids of this province.
What’s got me really interested is what is going to happen when all of the provincial employee contracts come due. The Liberals gave everyone nothing (0,0 and 0) last time, and we even extended our contract after that with hardly a dollar to show for it. If the Liberals aren’t careful they could have a general strike on thier hands before too much longer.
I had hoped that they would smarten up and come to the table with something substantial. Seeing what they are doing with the teachers makes me think they are starting down the slippery slope to everyone being on strike.
Interesting times ahead for all I suspect.
Mike