I once had a counsellor tell me that my only "problem" was my need for justice. She told me that if I could let go of my need to find fairness in this world, I would really reduce my stress. She gave me this sage advice about seven years ago and I can honestly say to this day... it is a big of crock of shit now as it was then. I think of all the wrongs in this world... not just the big ones but all the little acts of unfairness and I can't help but think "why?" I can't even imagine just letting go of the feeling a need for justice and fairness - it just seems like that would lead us to complete apathy. Don't get me wrong - I have definitely learned to manage my stress levels and to laugh off the feelings generated when I see injustice and unfairness but let it go? Never.
So, today I end my first week of school demanding justice and fairness for those who deserve it. As a teacher, I think of all those high up in education who consistently reward themselves with wage increases, travel budgets, expense accounts while those of us on the "front lines" are left to pick up the pieces left behind by dessimated budgets and an education system that is, above all else, ready to implode. Rather than thinking "what will best serve the needs of the students" we seem to be in this culture of "what will best meet the bottom line"? I have been lucky enough these last few years to be in a somewhat sheltered teaching position but, with this new school year, I have learned exactly how screwed up priorities in education are. As a teacher, I wonder how long I will last before I join the ranks of the completely burned out and disillusioned. As a parent, I wonder how long it will be before my own child falls through the cracks and no one listens to my pleas for help while government officials continue to pad their pockets at the expense of our youth.
On a personal level, I end this day wondering where is the fairness in the universe. Why do good people suffer while those with cold hearts and immoral behaviour flourish? It is days like this where I question the existence of any kind of supreme being or wonder if we are all just biology. If there is a supreme being: I'd really just like to ask: what the fuck do you think you're playing at? Stop being such an asshole.
While I can find laughter in almost anything, somedays I go to bed thinking: I just don't get it.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
And so it begins...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/08/31/bc-teachers-strike-student-impact.html
Teachers served strike notice the other day and comments on the CBC website demonstrate that, as a group, we are about as popular as Christy Clark at the SFU alumni only BBQ. Thankfully, after years of listening to angry, delusional rants from my former spouse, most of the comments do not bother me but make me wonder if these people would ever say these things to a teachers face. I doubt it... most likely because they would never admit to how ill informed they are.
Don't get me wrong: I love my job. I love almost everything about it. It's a great job but like any job - it has its good qualities and its bad ones. I could go on about how my job doesn't just go from 9 to 3 five days a week, September to June because, seriously, who hasn't figured that out? Oh right. The ignorant haters who write comments to the CBC. Normally, I don't reply to the comments but today I did. Here is the exchange:
Someone named VANSUN wrote (and the spelling errors are not mine):
"For most part of the summer, my daughter has to stay at home herself because none of her parents has a job like those teachers who can enjoy a two-month long vacation.
She has been patiently waiting for the open doors of her scholl and has been preparing for back-to-school supplies for quite a while. Autally, she gone to the malls with her friends a couple of times to shop her school supplies.
Now she had been ready back to school in great attitude and happy mood utill she learned the teacher's strike notice. She is actually crying and crying for going back to her long waited school.
May I ask those striking teachers stop taking my daughter and so many other boys and girls as hostages to get a raise for their own?"
I replied:
"I am a teacher and a single parent. I will watch your daughter during my two month "vacation" if you watch my son four evenings a week and Saturdays during the school year while I work planning, marking, supervising extracurricular activities, meeting with parents and doing report cards. Would you mind if your daughter spent a week at school with me at the beginning of July and end of August? That is where I am during part of my "vacation" cleaning up from the previous year and preparing for the next. During the summer, would you mind if I didn't give your daughter all of my attention as I work planning for the upcoming school year? For every hour taught, two hours usually go into lesson planning. I realize you are ignorant but hopefully you can do the math. I hope the ignorance is not genetic and just a learned trait so your daughter won't inherit it... I cried for your daughter. I love my job, never complain about the hours but am so sick to death of ignorance like yours thinking I work six hours a day, nine months a year."
After my comment posted, someone chastised me for calling VANSUN ignorant. By definition, ignorant means lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject or fact: uninformed. My referring to someone as ignorant isn't name calling - it is saying that they are lacking in knowledge and uninformed. So I will apologize for this: I am sorry if you are so ignorant that your primary gripe about teachers is that they "get" two months vacation in the summer and you do not. I also apologize if you think that teachers served strike notice because of a raise - go spend some time in your daughter's classroom and you will figure out why we served strike notice.
What I did find amusing about the reply to my comment was that this person told me to get childcare like people are "forced" to do during proD days and Spring Break. First of all, I paid my fair share of daycare expenses over the years so don't think that because I teach, I don't have childcare issues as well. ProD days are professional development or training days. Everyone gets training. Everyone. The logistics of being responsible for 20 to 30 (ideally)children make all day training impossible. That is just common sense. If we didn't continuing learning and developing as educators, parents would just gripe about that too.
Clearly, the commentator also missed the entire point of my offer to VANSUN... which is what I work during the regular school year so I can "enjoy" a two month long vacation.
It seems to me that many of these commentators - these two included - view teachers as publicly paid babysitters. And we have all seen the joke about how much teachers would make if each parent had to pay us according to current babysitting rates... I'm game.
Teachers served strike notice the other day and comments on the CBC website demonstrate that, as a group, we are about as popular as Christy Clark at the SFU alumni only BBQ. Thankfully, after years of listening to angry, delusional rants from my former spouse, most of the comments do not bother me but make me wonder if these people would ever say these things to a teachers face. I doubt it... most likely because they would never admit to how ill informed they are.
Don't get me wrong: I love my job. I love almost everything about it. It's a great job but like any job - it has its good qualities and its bad ones. I could go on about how my job doesn't just go from 9 to 3 five days a week, September to June because, seriously, who hasn't figured that out? Oh right. The ignorant haters who write comments to the CBC. Normally, I don't reply to the comments but today I did. Here is the exchange:
Someone named VANSUN wrote (and the spelling errors are not mine):
"For most part of the summer, my daughter has to stay at home herself because none of her parents has a job like those teachers who can enjoy a two-month long vacation.
She has been patiently waiting for the open doors of her scholl and has been preparing for back-to-school supplies for quite a while. Autally, she gone to the malls with her friends a couple of times to shop her school supplies.
Now she had been ready back to school in great attitude and happy mood utill she learned the teacher's strike notice. She is actually crying and crying for going back to her long waited school.
May I ask those striking teachers stop taking my daughter and so many other boys and girls as hostages to get a raise for their own?"
I replied:
"I am a teacher and a single parent. I will watch your daughter during my two month "vacation" if you watch my son four evenings a week and Saturdays during the school year while I work planning, marking, supervising extracurricular activities, meeting with parents and doing report cards. Would you mind if your daughter spent a week at school with me at the beginning of July and end of August? That is where I am during part of my "vacation" cleaning up from the previous year and preparing for the next. During the summer, would you mind if I didn't give your daughter all of my attention as I work planning for the upcoming school year? For every hour taught, two hours usually go into lesson planning. I realize you are ignorant but hopefully you can do the math. I hope the ignorance is not genetic and just a learned trait so your daughter won't inherit it... I cried for your daughter. I love my job, never complain about the hours but am so sick to death of ignorance like yours thinking I work six hours a day, nine months a year."
After my comment posted, someone chastised me for calling VANSUN ignorant. By definition, ignorant means lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject or fact: uninformed. My referring to someone as ignorant isn't name calling - it is saying that they are lacking in knowledge and uninformed. So I will apologize for this: I am sorry if you are so ignorant that your primary gripe about teachers is that they "get" two months vacation in the summer and you do not. I also apologize if you think that teachers served strike notice because of a raise - go spend some time in your daughter's classroom and you will figure out why we served strike notice.
What I did find amusing about the reply to my comment was that this person told me to get childcare like people are "forced" to do during proD days and Spring Break. First of all, I paid my fair share of daycare expenses over the years so don't think that because I teach, I don't have childcare issues as well. ProD days are professional development or training days. Everyone gets training. Everyone. The logistics of being responsible for 20 to 30 (ideally)children make all day training impossible. That is just common sense. If we didn't continuing learning and developing as educators, parents would just gripe about that too.
Clearly, the commentator also missed the entire point of my offer to VANSUN... which is what I work during the regular school year so I can "enjoy" a two month long vacation.
It seems to me that many of these commentators - these two included - view teachers as publicly paid babysitters. And we have all seen the joke about how much teachers would make if each parent had to pay us according to current babysitting rates... I'm game.
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