Dave Duley wrote:

>99% of all teachers are underpaid and grossly overworked!

     99% of everyone are underpaid and overworked.  What has that got to do
     with having qualified, and more important, motivated people teaching our
     kids?

>Teaching is the only Professional type profession that is controlled by the
>massivly underqualified!

     Any profession or occupation with government regulation is being
     controlled by the massively unqualified, consider the medical profession
     for example.

>One needs a bachelors degree, a teaching credential and 1 year of unpaid
>apprentiship only to be paid less than most construction workers and asked to
>work not only at work but in the evenings and during vaccations.  And then
>they have to keep taking classes to prove to the state that they are still
>worthy to teach.

     The real world is changing at a breakneck pace.  Teachers are isolated
     from that change.  Many technical teachers are teaching methods and
     concepts that are years out of date.  Why shouldn't they be required to at
     least attempt to stay current, and then evaluated on it?  Most technical
     people don't think twice about maintaining their education on their own
     time, why shouldn't teachers?  Many teachers use professional development
     days as paid days off, and how many professions get 3 solid months off
     every year, which BTW, is another example of strong teacher trade unions
     forcing outdated procedures on the general public.  Those 3 months
     originally allowed students to spend the summer months helping their
     families on the farm, which, in case you haven't noticed, most families
     don't have these days.  But of course the unions ferociously resist any
     attempt to adjust the school year to reflect the current reality, despite
     the financial hardship this places on today's families when they are
     required to pay for some form of day care for kids that are in school the
     rest of the year.

>Then  they elect housewives and baptist asshole ministers to govern the whole
>thing whilst mandating methods of teaching that failed in the 40s but somehow
>are now expected to work!

     And the teacher's unions fight any attempt at reform with walkouts and
     slowdowns and "Days of Action" protests.  Witness the recent attempts to
     correct the system in Ontario Canada.  Those housewives are sending their
     children to those teachers with the hope that they will be educated in a
     manner consistent with their values and aspirations.  Are you saying they
     don't have a valid interest in the operation of the schools?  Oh, and BTW,
     let's keep your arrogant, ignorant religious prejudices out of this, OK?

>If you could do your job with both hands tied behind your back and one leg
>wraped around your neck, then and only then would you be qualified to have an
>opinion of what teaching is really about!

     Oohh, clever, wrap it up with the "walk a mile in their shoes"
     argument, as if you have to be an engineer to know that someone
     screwed up when a bridge falls down.

     A close friend of our family, who was a teacher for over forty years,
     is appalled by the lack of professionalism and self centered attitude
     of today's teachers.  As an example, she tells of the system in
     Ontario where teachers are paid on a scale depending on how many
     degrees that teacher has acquired, regardless of the usefulness of
     those degrees.  One teacher she knew well accumulated multiple
     degrees, entitling her to an income equal to a Vice Principal, EVEN
     THOUGH MANY OF THOSE DEGREES HAD ABSOLUTELY NO RELEVANCE TO HER
     TEACHING DUTIES.  Some time later, a need was identified at another
     NEARBY school for the expertise provided by one of her degrees, but
     she refused to transfer to that school, and the union contract
     stipulated that she could not be forced.  IMNSHO that's fine, but if
     you don't go, you don't get paid a premium for the skill you refuse to
     use.

     Yes there are exceptions, and most of us can point to a teacher that
     we remember as "special" in our lives, but I for one am sick of this
     "pity the poor teachers" mentality being promoted by their powerful
     trade unions.

     BTW, Dave, by any chance do you have a teacher in your family?


     Martin R. Green