If I had my druthers, and if we lived in a more perfect world, our teachers would be the most valued — and most highly paid — members of our society. After all, they are charged with shaping the minds of our youth, and in the process, they establish the very foundations of our collective futures. Read More
If I had my druthers, and if we lived in a more perfect world, our teachers would be the most valued — and most highly paid — members of our society. After all, they are charged with shaping the minds of our youth, and in the process, they establish the very foundations of our collective
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If I had my druthers, and if we lived in a more perfect world, our teachers would be the most valued — and most highly paid — members of our society. After all, they are charged with shaping the minds of our youth, and in the process, they establish the very foundations of our collective futures.
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What could be more important than that?
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Imagine the talent we could attract to the profession if we rewarded top-notch teachers with the seven-figure contracts that go instead, for instance, to people who chase pucks for a living or to those skilled at gaming the stock market.
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All that as a preamble to the current labour dispute in Alberta between government and teachers. The province’s educators are set to go on strike after overwhelmingly rejecting the latest offer by a nine-to-one margin: teachers deemed a 12 per cent raise and a promise of 3,000 additional teachers to be wholly inadequate.
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Noon News Roundup
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I don’t presume to have a comprehensive grasp of the complexities underlying the current impasse, or to have a full understanding of how overcrowded and under-resourced our classrooms are (although, as a health-care professional in our perennially stressed system, I can certainly relate).
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I also don’t really know which of the duelling sides is telling the truth: the government, which would have us believe their offer sets Alberta’s teachers up as the best-paid in the country, or the teachers’ union, which holds that the government’s offer leaves both them and their classrooms mired in penury.
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I do know that the Alberta government is grappling with a projected budget deficit this fiscal year of $6.5 billion; it’s hard not to lend them some credence when they say that the cupboard is bare.
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And I also know this: if the teachers go on strike, it’s not the government with the most to lose. Nor is it the teachers. It’s our kids who will be hurt the most.
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Doubtless, some students will cheer the “time off”, à la Pink Floyd’s “We don’t need no education.” But most of our kids are focused on learning and on constructing their futures, and a strike, coming after the deep trauma of the COVID pandemic, will cause more damage.
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Physicians are prohibited from going on strike, which often makes for difficult and uncomfortable negotiations between doctors and government; but we all can understand that it would be morally and ethically unconscionable to leave our patients in the lurch.
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