Wow, it is about money

[waterrat]

YellowDog:


I am in no way painting a picture of pity, it is the exact opposite. Do I feel bad for the wife, NO, she has a job, just like the rest of us. We all pay taxes, and suffer the Ontario life. My wife and I are both born, breed, educated and worked on the Eastcoast. MY POINT IS;

I don't like the way the mentality that the average voting citizen in this prov has towards teachers. My bride is a professional, she loves her job, and she is very good at it. HOWEVER, since moving here, she has learned to be bitter. This prov has a false sense of entitlement towards the role of teachers. She feels under apperciated and used up on a daily basis. In her and my opinion, teachers are a glorified babysitter. EXAMPLE: Snow days. In the Eastern part of the country, where to get crappy weather, a SNOW DAY is a snow day. Period, No Buses, no kids, no teachers. HERE, a snow day is for the buses only. School is open, and teachers are required to make every effort to show up. It is business as usual. The parents get mad if they have no where to take the kids. They are not concerned about the bad roads, buses stuck or teachers risking life and limb to get to work.

I do not want to make this pi^%$g contest. They work hard, make a good wage, and are under appreciated,

And last time I checked, we still have a Liberal Gov't

[Fishy Wishy]

EXAMPLE: Snow days. In the Eastern part of the country, where to get crappy weather, a SNOW DAY is a snow day. Period, No Buses, no kids, no teachers. HERE, a snow day is for the buses only. School is open, and teachers are required to make every effort to show up. It is business as usual. The parents get mad if they have no where to take the kids. They are not concerned about the bad roads, buses stuck or teachers risking life and limb to get to work.

I don't expect that. What I expect. Is that if I can make it to work, my kids can make it to school (with my assistance), then why can't the teachers be expected to make it to work, and the other students to school. I don't possess and superhuman ability or skill.

I think society is getting over pussified.

There's whining and excuses for everything. Take another page from you earlier post. ADD/ADHD, how come every kid seems to have that or a learning disability or or or these days? Didn't seem to be a problem when I was growing up. Oh ya bad students were also flunked back then too.

[yellow dog]

I don't expect that. What I expect. Is that if I can make it to work, my kids can make it to school (with my assistance), then why can't the teachers be expected to make it to work, and the other students to school. I don't possess and superhuman ability or skill.

I think society is getting over pussified.

There's whining and excuses for everything. Take another page from you earlier post. ADD/ADHD, how come every kid seems to have that or a learning disability or or or these days? Didn't seem to be a problem when I was growing up. Oh ya bad students were also flunked back then too.

Actually Fishy Wishy they had occupational classes for kids ADD/ADHD back in the 70's. Unfortunately these kids were made fun of because they were not entirely integrated into a regular classroom setting. I can remember this classroom was full of students falling well behind everyone else and some had major behavioral issues. Fortunately some of these children I knew very well and grew up to be very successful individuals.

[Oddmott]

YellowDog:


I am in no way painting a picture of pity, it is the exact opposite. Do I feel bad for the wife, NO, she has a job, just like the rest of us. We all pay taxes, and suffer the Ontario life. My wife and I are both born, breed, educated and worked on the Eastcoast. MY POINT IS;

I don't like the way the mentality that the average voting citizen in this prov has towards teachers. My bride is a professional, she loves her job, and she is very good at it. HOWEVER, since moving here, she has learned to be bitter. This prov has a false sense of entitlement towards the role of teachers. She feels under apperciated and used up on a daily basis. In her and my opinion, teachers are a glorified babysitter. EXAMPLE: Snow days. In the Eastern part of the country, where to get crappy weather, a SNOW DAY is a snow day. Period, No Buses, no kids, no teachers. HERE, a snow day is for the buses only. School is open, and teachers are required to make every effort to show up. It is business as usual. The parents get mad if they have no where to take the kids. They are not concerned about the bad roads, buses stuck or teachers risking life and limb to get to work.

I do not want to make this pi^%$g contest. They work hard, make a good wage, and are under appreciated,

And last time I checked, we still have a Liberal Gov't

Ha-ha...wait... What?

Teachers - adults, I'm assuming - expect/need to receive special accolades and respect and pats on the back for simply going to work... The same as every other schmuck? Anything less is us taking them for granted? Oh...that's rich.

And regarding the class sizes... If teachers weren't doing their level best to pad their own bank accounts with too-high salaries & compensation packages, and also to block as many younger teachers from gaining jobs as possible...there'd be plenty of $$$ available to hire more teachers to shrink classes and more EAs to help with students who require increased aid.

[fratri]

How much money is the government giving Toronto for that bus/train route?
Schools should remain open on snow days but the public has forced them to shut down, why you might ask.....because a few years back a kid got frostbite or something like that going to school on a really cold day so the family of the child sued the school board and won..... Know if the schools stay open, they are at risk of being sued.... Got to love it, only in Canada eh.....

[topher]

. EXAMPLE: Snow days. In the Eastern part of the country, where to get crappy weather, a SNOW DAY is a snow day. Period, No Buses, no kids, no teachers. HERE, a snow day is for the buses only. School is open, and teachers are required to make every effort to show up. It is business as usual. The parents get mad if they have no where to take the kids. They are not concerned about the bad roads, buses stuck or teachers risking life and limb to get to work.

I do not want to make this pi^%$g contest. They work hard, make a good wage, and are under appreciated,

And last time I checked, we still have a Liberal Gov't

Whats a 'snow day'? Welcome to the real world. My wife's a school bus driver busses have crap traction. And she's responsibke for 72 children's safety on the road. Canceling a school bus makes sense for me. Oh. and she doesn't get paid for a snow day. Myself I have to go to work, just like the rest of the province. We suck it up and deal with the crappy weather. Not to start a p@@@@@ing match but.
A)my last raise was .25% I got that by switching employers.
B) I have never had a sick day.
C) I don't have a pension plan
D) I have to WORK 12 months a year 5 days a week and be on call 1 week of every 5..
E)oay 25% of my benefits package. . 80%
F) and I get all this for 25k less than an average teacher....

But yet I have to thank a teacher for doing their JOB... THANX for wrecking my children's future. That's the only thanks I'll give a teacher..

Oh BTW I had to spend 3 years in school for my profession. And yes I'm at the top end of the scale.

[fratri]

Whats a 'snow day'? Welcome to the real world. My wife's a school bus driver busses have crap traction. And she's responsibke for 72 children's safety on the road. Canceling a school bus makes sense for me. Oh. and she doesn't get paid for a snow day. Myself I have to go to work, just like the rest of the province. We suck it up and deal with the crappy weather. Not to start a p@@@@@ing match but.
A)my last raise was .25% I got that by switching employers.
B) I have never had a sick day.
C) I don't have a pension plan
D) I have to WORK 12 months a year 5 days a week and be on call 1 week of every 5..
E)oay 25% of my benefits package. . 80%
F) and I get all this for 25k less than an average teacher....

But yet I have to thank a teacher for doing their JOB... THANX for wrecking my children's future. That's the only thanks I'll give a teacher..

Oh BTW I had to spend 3 years in school for my profession. And yes I'm at the top end of the scale.

Probably getting taught by teachers eh...

[johny]

Wahhhh!!!
Big whine, but tell that to your grandchildren who will be paying the Interest Rates on the Bazillions of provincial debt. It'll take decades to pay it off.
Doctors police, teachers, Public Servants... bend over everyone. The glory days are over and you'd better get used to it.
Unless you all want massive increases in your tax rates.
But Oh No, we don't want that.

So time decide who gets the cuts.
Hospitals-- easy hit-- about 1% of the population has a serious ACUTE medical issue at any point in time. Therefore at election time 99% don't give a $h!T about health care. So government cuts back.

Teachers: Majority of people don't have children in school at a meaningful point of education-- only meaningful point is high school graduation-- so they can screw over everyone else with no serious consequence.

Police-- rare for anyone to need one urgently-- therefore easy to cut back because at election time- virtually no one needs police so no one thinks about it in the ballot box.


Welfare, prisoners, teen mothers, schizophrenics, "First Nations", bureaucrats, illegal immigrants, corporate hand-outs, university students, ---- at what point do we draw a line and say "You have enough for a civilized society and you will not ask for more"?

Hello all: To get the ball roiling, I am anti union, have been an Army guy for 29 yrs, never had one. BUT, the flip side, I am married to a teacher. So here is the teacher side of the story. This is third party, and as a man, we all know I only listen to less than half of what she says.

It is not the money!!!!, It is about class size, and the prov. involvement with daily class activity. As like the rest of us, thay have lost sick days and severance, we got paid out, they did not. It was just gone, and a cap of ten days. And a twist added, if the go over their allotted 10 sicks days, they get a reduced pay any days after that.

They are paid on a 10 month year, 190 working days. The can either collect it all in 10 months, not draw UI during the summer, or take it over 12 months. During the last contract issue, last year, they had many items removed, first was the right to binding arbitration, the prov just walked away, passed a law sayiing it was illegal and ordered them back.

The also had three days pay taken off their salary, and legal way to contest it. They have not had a raise in many years.

Classsize: The current size is 21 kids elementary age. If there are special needs kids, they are sposed to have an EA(education assitant) per special needs kid. The purposed change would up the size to 30, and drop the EA. Save money. SO to walk a mile in them shoes, place yourselves in a class or 30 4 year olds, and have one in a wheelchair, and two with violent outbursts from any of the ailments. ADD, ADHA, Autism, etc.

Teachers are all permitted to have at least one forty minute prep per day, to mark, plan and eat. The new purposal is to have the board dictate what they do on these preps. The biggest one is do coverage for the EA jobs that were cut. Second it to run sports, clubs, field trips all mandated by the management. Sounds like fun eh!!

Report Cards: Every teacher has submitted grades/marks to the principal by the date demanded. It was a board decision to publish or not, but they have all the marks.

My wife is currently attending the year end BBQ, where she is prepping/cooking/serving free food to all parents and kids. Oh, and she just worked a full day first.

This entire new action from the prov is designed to drive out older teacher who are the top of the pay scale, one modeled after the Prov employee's union, to hire new teacher's at a lower scale, and do what they are told, just to keep a job.

So, as I stated in the opening, NOT a union fan, but am tired of all the crap my wife is through.

So to close, I will chastise most of the previous comments on the fact that they are all based on what the NEWS says, please, if you're gonna cast stones, get all the facts, not just what they want you to hear.

Ian Thomson

[terrym]

School buses now are controlled by "zones". If your school is within a zone that has hazardous conditions they shut them down. What reality is quite often the school itself is not necessarily in dangerous road conditions. The other reality is that even if the teachers are in the building as soon as there is a bus cancellation they don't teach that day. The day is another writeoff for students who aren't bussed in. In our school 15% are bussed. This is no different than when a teacher is not at work for illness ( quite legit and understandable they are exposed to snot nosed kids all day ) or some other BS school board junket. Any time a sub is brought in there is absolutely no instruction that day. They are there to be a warm bodied board certified babysitter. Another BS thing that they like to trade on is the "extra curricular" activities. Yes absolutely some teachers are quite devoted and give their own time and our kids are better for it. These teachers also benefited from that as students so got into the profession knowing this was part of the deal. But the reality is it's always the exact same teachers every year who do the heavy lifting and give of their time. If you have 25 teachers in a school, guaranteed that at least 15 of them are never involved yet they fly that flag as if they all did it. They don't. Anybody with kids in school can confirm this. My kids had a fabulous teacher who was involved in everything from grad, sports clubs you name it. I remember seeing her sitting on the sidelines of a rugby game grading papers. When I asked her why she was there she said no other teacher had stepped up and if she hadn't there would not have been a Rugby team that year. She had no time for that but did it anyway. She also told me she didn't know the first thing about Rugby. That young teacher had the respect and admiration of not only the parents but all her students. We lost her when she got bumped by another one with seniority. And no, we didn't have a Rugby team after she got canned.

[fishermccann]

Whats a 'snow day'? Welcome to the real world. My wife's a school bus driver busses have crap traction. And she's responsibke for 72 children's safety on the road. Canceling a school bus makes sense for me. Oh. and she doesn't get paid for a snow day. Myself I have to go to work, just like the rest of the province. We suck it up and deal with the crappy weather. Not to start a p@@@@@ing match but.
A)my last raise was .25% I got that by switching employers.
B) I have never had a sick day.
C) I don't have a pension plan
D) I have to WORK 12 months a year 5 days a week and be on call 1 week of every 5..
E)oay 25% of my benefits package. . 80%
F) and I get all this for 25k less than an average teacher....

But yet I have to thank a teacher for doing their JOB... THANX for wrecking my children's future. That's the only thanks I'll give a teacher..

Oh BTW I had to spend 3 years in school for my profession. And yes I'm at the top end of the scale.

Who made that career choice..... oh ya , you did. 3 years in school or 3 years post secondary? Maybe go back to university for 5 years and make a wiser choice, become a teacher, because it seems so easy.