I ‘ve never met the Toronto Star’s Heather Mallick, and so I really can’t comment on what she thinks or believes. But I would love to buy her a coffee this summer and talk about her “favourite things”.
Heather’s column in today’s edition raised some good points and astute observations about the current (and future) labour dispute between Ontario’s teachers and the provincial government. Her suggestion that we “lower the temperature” on the rhetoric resonated with me a great deal.
But towards the end of the article, Heather popped my bubble when she signed off with, “Let life as we know it continue. I will keep writing on my favourite topic — the failures of our education system — safe in the knowledge that there will still be a system to fail.”
Huh?
Heather, forget the coffee…I’ll buy the beer!
I wonder why the Catholic school boards are so upset? Could it be – “The deal gives the union more say in the hiring of occasional teachers, as well as individual teachers the right to determine what kind of diagnostic tests their students should undergo — decisions normally made by principals and superintendents.
Senior Liberal officials said they were “flabbergasted” the trustees bolted over the issue of hiring supply teachers, noting that the Catholic boards had agreed on more than 90 per cent of the items discussed.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1221829–ontario-catholic-teachers-reach-deal-with-province-agree-to-wage-freeze
As a parent, I would say a great deal for teachers, when the classroom teachers have control to determined the diagnostic tests, without the principals and superintendents approval. About time, because many of a struggling student would benefit if the teachers had the final say.
Back to Heather Mallick, she is correct in my eyes – “A strike would invite a wave of rage from anti-tax fanatics, the chronically resentful and the astonished unemployed. It won’t bring Greece. But it will bring Wisconsin.
No one — well, no one but the PCs who have their own Thatcherite reasons — wants to see that. Teachers should tell union negotiators to go back to the table and work out a sensible deal. If not, we’re headed for a winter of discontent.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1222853–mallick-ontario-teachers-unions-need-to-compromise-on-wages-sick-days-bank#comments
Globe and Mail – read the agreement
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/incoming/read-the-agreement-between-ontario-and-the-catholic-teachers/article4393004/