Re: Maybe it’s time for a new take on education (Letters, March 14)
I wholeheartedly agree with Tara Houle’s letter. I too have memories of my school years, in particular of my father’s position as a music teacher, which in time entailed elementary, high school and university.
I can remember high school students coming to our home weeknights and Saturday afternoons to get extra tutoring. It was later that I found out this was not done for profit, but out of the goodness of his heart and his concern for wanting to see a student develop a skill in which they were acutely interested. I can remember the entire high school band throwing him a surprise impromptu barbecue party in our back yard when they heard about his upcoming departure from the city.
I don’t know the pay schedule information these days as to whether teacher still (they used to) have the option of a salary divided over a 12 month period, or limited to the school term, but in either case, it was understood that it only took some common sense and budgeting to live comfortably.
I’m so tired of the teachers’ rhetoric, “We’re doing this for the kids.” You’re doing this for yourselves out of sheer greed because you know you’ve got the parents right where you want them, and you know how to hurt them. News flash: A 16 per cent raise over three years in today’s economy is outrageous.
I have an aquaintance, a teacher, who once invited me along on a fishing trip with two of his teacher friends. When I mentioned him taking a holiday to go fishing, I was corrected with “it’s OK, it’s a Pro-D day.”
It seems the teachers want and want and want without any regard for the average working class.
Which brings me to agree with Margaret Jestico’s letter (Others lucky just to have a job today, Letters, March 14). As stated, “The economy is such that many employees have had their wages frozen, and indeed consider themselves lucky to still have a job.”
Do the teachers have my support? Not in this lifetime. They should be lucky to have a job. Unfortunately many of them still will be on the payroll three years from now, when this nonsense starts all over again.
Leon Bateman
Saanichton