Teachers Strike

[REVscene.net]

Are you for, or against it? More importantly.. why?

[FS1992EG]

I am for humans. Strike all you want teachers. But learn how to teach and inspire our youth.

I would ban cell phones and facebook from all BC schools.

[320icar]

I do not know who is at fault for this, but the matter of fact is public view see's the teachers as a whiny bunch of babies. Every year they strike. I'm sick and tired of hearif abou it.

That being said, i would gladly pay more tax every year for a better funded education system. Though i don't trust our government to handle more of my money and spend it on paid vacations and politicians 4th home

[FS1992EG]

Originally Posted by 320icar

I do not know who is at fault for this, but the matter of fact is public view see's the teachers as a whiny bunch of babies. Every year they strike. I'm sick and tired of hearif abou it.

That being said, i would gladly pay more tax every year for a better funded education system. Though i don't trust our government to handle more of my money and spend it on paid vacations and politicians 4th home

I wouldn't sent my kids for 12 years of schooling and you get a piece of paper in the end of it. Thanks a waste of a child and parent's time and money.

I would home school my kids or take them to private school.

Public school are like toilets, just keep flushing!

[REVscene.net]

B.C. teachers' strike: student walkout plans prompt warnings - Education - CBC Player

[jbsali]

call me biased but I'm all for it. my spouse is a teacher and I've heard about some of the nightmares she has to deal with. overpacked classrooms, kids with special needs without LSTs, budget cuts, most underpaid teachers in all of the country. I will admit that quite a few of the teachers are in it for the pay raise but the big picture is getting better education budgets and smaller classrooms.

everyone has their own opinion though.

[guurl]

i was listening to the beat in the morning on my way to work and it's funny how the students don't actually know what they're on strike for LOL

so when they're being interviewed they sound like a bunch of idiots who just want to skip out on school lul

[Hondaracer]

Who's profession doesn't have major problems they have to deal with?

And the rest of them don't have the power to start job action, have an amazing pension, or get two months off in the summers.

And yea bla bla bla say "oh no! But they work in the summers!"

I know 3-4 high school and elementary school teachers and for all the ones that do workshops and work in the summers, double the amount take the holidays for what they are.

I wish I could stop working and demand a 10-15% wage increase every few years.

[SpeedStars]

Was still in high school last year, so I've got "some" experience with the strikes. Its a lot more a union thing opposed to what the teachers want. Its more of a split decision between the teachers from what I know. A lot of them who are FOR the strike are in it because of the wage being lower than the rest of Canada. There are also a few teachers in it for the extra curricular activities funding and such. But there are also the other half who oppose the strike due to it cutting into teaching time, restricting the extra curriculars they can offer, and limiting their working hours (no after school help). In my opinion, having a strike isn't really helping with their cause

[Spidey]

People don't strike for the sake of striking. By striking they are losing money every day. So IMO, for a group to strike, there must be some huge issues that they believe need changing. For those who have friends or family members who are teachers, you probably are backing up the teachers.

If you had a profession where you were constantly doing Voluntary OT, spending money out of your own pocket, and getting a cutback in wage, I think you would be pissed.

There are government employees that work in a mailroom somewhere that probably are better paid and have better working conditions.

IMO the government should be spending most of their attention on education and health care. But instead they are spending money on bike lanes... I know I know that's a city of Vancouver thing...

[320icar]

Not true. I know a few ikea employees who earn more in strike pay then they ever did in a proper working paycheque. So yes, some people will be in the strike for the sake of striking

[nabs]

Originally Posted by FS1992EG

I am for humans. Strike all you want teachers. But learn how to teach and inspire our youth.

I would ban cell phones and facebook from all BC schools.

[off topic rant]
And WiFi, I can't believe they have WiFi in high schools now. When I was in school you got in trouble for carrying a cell phone on you during class times. And only 2 people I knew had cell phones, lol. [/off topic rant]

[Speed2K]

Do you feel your teacher is underpaid or overpaid?

Paygrid: http://www.bcpsea.bc.ca/documents/39-SalaryGrid2010.pdf

Salaries over $75k: Public Sector Salaries - Vancouver Sun

The class size and special needs argument I'm okay with but salary demands, not so much.

According to this article an average teacher makes $81,500. I'm sorry, but I don't want to see my taxes go up to pay for a 13.7% increase because I think their remuneration is more than reasonable, especially when you consider their benefits package is one that most people would envy.

[jbsali]

Originally Posted by Speed2K

Do you feel your teacher is underpaid or overpaid?

Paygrid: http://www.bcpsea.bc.ca/documents/39-SalaryGrid2010.pdf

Salaries over $75k: Public Sector Salaries - Vancouver Sun

The class size and special needs argument I'm okay with but salary demands, not so much.

According to this article an average teacher makes $81,500. I'm sorry, but I don't want to see my taxes go up to pay for a 13.7% increase because I think their remuneration is more than reasonable, especially when you consider their benefits package is one that most people would envy.

it's not that easy to get into the higher grids to reach 72,000+. a majority of the teacher with under 20 years are making 35-50,000. Having gone to post secondary for 3-7 years, it's not a good return on investment. if you're dedicated to moving up in the system, you can get pretty high up but without a masters, a majority of the teachers won't reach anywhere beyond 65,000. just FYI

[Matlock]

I don't know too much about this, but my friend who is a teacher says they were getting there wages cut by 10%. That sounds horrible, especially when teachers (elementary ones anyway) do buy their own materials like classroom reading books, etc.

I don't really know how much they earn first hand, but some of these teachers deal with a lot of crap. Not a job that I would ever want to do.

[nns]

I think that anyone who wants to develop an opinion on this subject should stop reading this forum and start reading the comments in the article Speed2k posted; Wage Comparison: how B.C. teachers compare to others in Canada | Globalnews.ca

It provides a far better perspective than the hearsay in this thread.

[Pegacorn]

I think teachers definitely deserve to make more than $40,000/yr, but how do we know what a good number is? What's reasonable? Maybe a reasonable estimated hourly wage needs to be decided (based on other important professions, perhaps?) and then multiplied by however many hours the average teacher puts into class time and marking time over the 9-10 months that they work over the year. I'd expect you'd look into salary expectations before you went to teacher's college, if you were concerned about your return on investment. They shouldn't be scraping by and my understanding is that they're by no means living in poverty, but a reasonable salary needs to be decided on once and for all so they can just go back to enriching the lives of future generations. It's a tough fucking job, but it also has a lot of perks, not the least of which is having a job that actually matters, where you make a difference in the world. How many of us can say that? Anybody else worry about what the kids are learning about the world from the teacher's strike?

[Impreza]

I know some teachers work hard to help students and some don't care about their students. My daughter had a teacher that was going to retire and he didn't teach his class and my daughter almost had to repeat her grade. So we put her in for extra help for a year and she is fine now with fairly decent marks. My wife have a high school friend that is a teacher and WAS in her Facebook. He would count down to pro-d days and holidays. And during those teacher development days he would always post pictures of shopping trips to the state. I think some teachers are worth the money when they work hard for it. But some of these teachers are the most worthless ppl that is scamming the system. Recently I went to visit my daughter's sport day and I noticed there was a student in her class that needed extra help and and that student would yell at the teacher when things gets difficult. The teacher was very calm and was able to assist this student. Teachers like this need an extra pat on her back for not flipping her lid. I know I can't do it but I guess when there is passion for teaching and helping kid and you like doing, then you should belong in the system and I don't mind them making a bit more money but teacher who don't don't care just need to go do something else instead of milking the system for money.

[tiger_handheld]

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A good discussion is already happening here:

http://www.revscene.net/forums/69450...budgets-7.html

off topic: to the person who runs the rs.net username, whats the purpose of these discussions when some of the topics have already been discussed in other threads?