First of all I am past the teacher parent thing, I only hear about the what is happening with
the grand children. When I had children in school, I only had trouble with a teacher once
or twice in all my years. Forget about price indexes and forget about what the government
is doing or not doing. What is happening here is a labour dispute and unfortunately to some
degree both sides have chosen to fight each other in the media, thus damaging their
collective image at the expense of everything else.
The Union is not doing some of these other things they would normally do and the government
is swinging back, but both sides are up for this. In a dispute of this kind, both want to Currie
favour with the public. It is all part of the dance, the drama, the vetting of each others argument.
Government doesn't care about the the non curricular stuff, that was already taken care of when
it was decided that grade twelve student report card marks were to be kept track of, or did some
miss that little point?
I have watched this for a while now, and the main objective here is to put up a battle for position,
and eventually the public will want something done. Solution? The union will eventually tone it
down, and the Government will bow to the perception of public pressure and for the public good,
and come up with some money and shave a couple of students off the class size over the next
four years of course.
Government must take a firm stand next spring or fall could be an election year for an increasingly
unpopular government. The more howling the better for both sides, they will meet and have lunch
and find excuses for their new found positions, both sides will claim victory or there is a mutual
agreement in tough time etc, etc etc. This is no different that any other labour conflict, what is sad
is the kids get a front row seat to learn how insincerity and hypocrisy really works. Instead of
taking sides we should be shaming both sides into accepting responsibility for this mess.