Been a hectic two days. Spent one of them reading the online Journal of a young woman, wife of a friend, who is in the final stages of a year long battle with Leukemia. Exhausting to read, and I can't imagine how exhausting to live. More about that another day.
Last evening I happened to be listening to a phone in radio program about the Education component of our province's latest budget, delivered yesterday. Inevitably, the talk turned to teachers, and what a spoiled, overpaid, under worked lot they are. Some of the views were strong on opinion, and very short on accurate information.
My ex-wife was a teacher, and my son is a teacher. Both of them were/are typical of the teachers that I know: committed, passionate and hard-working to the point of over-achievement. I'm sure there are teachers in any system who"come at nine, leave at three." But I've only met one, and he's not in any way typical.
My son, for example, would not be free of school in summer until the middle of July, when all his year-end paperwork was done. He was back in the building August 15 to start preparing September classes. Some spring times, he developed pneumonia because of the exhaustion he was experiencing. People who bitch about teachers have never followed one for a day. Try it…you won't like it, and you'll be glad when it's finally over, when the last paper is marked at 9:50 in the evening.
Teachers aren't perfect, but the last time I looked, neither are their critics, and neither am I…(yet!). So I say, UP WITH TEACHERS! Without them, our kids would never make it in the real world. They would have fewer role models to follow in life, and they wouldn't learn how to learn.
This past week in our local paper, a grade twelve student paid tribute to her Social teachers, who -
she says - helped to bring her up. And one of them is taking a group of grade twelve students to Europe this summer to visit world War One graves. Each student has a soldiers name, and has researched him thoroughly. The grave they visit will be of someone they "know" as best you can, a century later. I ant that teacher, and any other like him to be held in highest esteem, and given lots of respect and support. They do what many parents couldn't do, or wouldn't do. AMEN.
Last evening I happened to be listening to a phone in radio program about the Education component of our province's latest budget, delivered yesterday. Inevitably, the talk turned to teachers, and what a spoiled, overpaid, under worked lot they are. Some of the views were strong on opinion, and very short on accurate information.
My ex-wife was a teacher, and my son is a teacher. Both of them were/are typical of the teachers that I know: committed, passionate and hard-working to the point of over-achievement. I'm sure there are teachers in any system who"come at nine, leave at three." But I've only met one, and he's not in any way typical.
My son, for example, would not be free of school in summer until the middle of July, when all his year-end paperwork was done. He was back in the building August 15 to start preparing September classes. Some spring times, he developed pneumonia because of the exhaustion he was experiencing. People who bitch about teachers have never followed one for a day. Try it…you won't like it, and you'll be glad when it's finally over, when the last paper is marked at 9:50 in the evening.
Teachers aren't perfect, but the last time I looked, neither are their critics, and neither am I…(yet!). So I say, UP WITH TEACHERS! Without them, our kids would never make it in the real world. They would have fewer role models to follow in life, and they wouldn't learn how to learn.
This past week in our local paper, a grade twelve student paid tribute to her Social teachers, who -
she says - helped to bring her up. And one of them is taking a group of grade twelve students to Europe this summer to visit world War One graves. Each student has a soldiers name, and has researched him thoroughly. The grave they visit will be of someone they "know" as best you can, a century later. I ant that teacher, and any other like him to be held in highest esteem, and given lots of respect and support. They do what many parents couldn't do, or wouldn't do. AMEN.
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