William Chops Westfield wrote:
>
> Get rid of the administrative "overhead" (I think this includes
> a large part of the union), distribute the money to the
> teachers, and the good ones will become great, and the bad
> ones will quit in shame or be fired.
>
> I was lucky enough to go to school just as this overhead was
> building up.  I had great teachers, I had great classes, I
> learned a lot.
>
> I fear for my children :-(

Yeah..

I live in a province where the government was forced to
finally say enough is enough. The school year had reached
about 180 some days, the year was legally longer but PD
(professional development) counted as school days. We had a
province wide teachers strike for several weeks because
"The government was out to dictate class size" They were
but it was a maximum class size. The teachers unions had
become powerful and the school boards were trading salaries
for class size and school resources for administration. Salaries
over the years had risen to very high levels. It was more
the use of resources rather than the available resources
that was the problem.

Schools are only one part of the equation. Learning can
happen anywhere and parents are responsible too. I took
a trip last summer to the artic with my two kids. At one
point we stayed for a few days with an Inuit friend and
his family 1300 miles from the pole. My kids know midnight
sun and that the Inuit don't live in snow houses. Canadian
geography and northern culture just became a lot easier.

(Anyone want to do a pole run some year?)

Walter Banks