Just an aside that I think defines the lack of knowledge of most teacher bashers. All teachers must have at least two degrees - their primary designation such as a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, etc, etc PLUS a Bachelor of Education degree just to get into a class room. Then a lot of the teachers go on to get an Honours Designation in their subject area(s) through taking summer courses at Universities such as Queens, Toronto, Western which they need before they can teach above Grade 10 level. Add to that a Master of Education degree and/or a Masters Degree in their speciality such as Math, Science, etc. Some even go on and get a PHD. All of the above education beyond the 5 years to get the Bachelor of Education degree is usually done over the summer months when you accuse them of just sitting on their ass getting rich at your expense.
I just ran into an old work colleague at a party tonight. It has been 20-25 years, since we last spoke
He / she has a BA / MBA and I recall respecting his / her opinion / work ethic way back when
He / she bounced around from company to company and even started a small business .
Approx 15 years ago he / she got into teachers college and became a teacher.
I asked how he / she liked teaching
After laughing he / she responded that "I would not trade this for anything and began to list off the perks
1. You get the whole summer off
2. You put in your three classes a day & do "what ever" of the rest of the time
3. The money is fantastic for what you do
4. Most important of all the there is a complete absence of stress relative to what I experienced in the corp world.
Now I liked this person way back when and did not want to offend, so I was tactful asking about the current situation
He / she laughed , rolled the eyes , shrugged the shoulders and said one word ... union
Later I pressed him / her about the extra curricular / marking / prep time
The response was just as I suspected.
Most teachers get involved in extra curricular activities if they have a personal interest in the activity ie. football, basketball, drama etc.. If there is no interest , well...........
Prep time: ?? After two years of teaching the same subject @ an adolescences level if you do not know the material then there is problem
Marking: If you have your shit together you can have an entire classes test results marked in a couple of hours.
Now as I recall there is maybe three tests per semester & maybe 2 or three assignments per class
So that is a whopping 10-15 hours of marking time per semester per class , yet some here will have us believing they putting in 70 hours each and every week.
bullshit
He / she confirmed my argument all along, despite the con job some here are trying to sell, this is the most
overpaid cushy assignments and there is ample room to trim in order to reduce the provinces deficit and the burden on the taxpayer
We will need that $ for Health Care & soon
What annoys me more than anything is Teachers actually think the public is stupid enough to believe their propaganda.
Kind of Ironic since they theoretically educated the public