Breaking news....

[wittdooley]

Maybe they should get jobs where they are on minimum wage and actually have to do some work, then they can see what 'scraping a living' means. Schooling isn't work. I teach kids things all the time.

You mean, because teachers make SOOOOOO much, right?

This is the sort of attitude that abounds in the US as well, and is quite frankly, so insulting it almost doesn't warrant response.

Almost.

Today, teacher's are: Educator, Parent, Psycologist, Doctor, Motivator, Mediator, and for the younger levels, Cat-Wrangler, all at the same time.

And you know what they're rewarded with? Phrases like, "Those who can't do, teach." It's insulting.

And you know what my wife does with "all the time off" she has in summer? She tutors her incoming students that have reading deficiencies FOR FREE so that they can be as comfortable with her as possible for the next school year. Oh yeah, that's in addition to working a summer job so we can try and make a bit more money and not have to "scrape a living" because she's on a pay freeze for the next three years.

[eldargal]

Agree with Wittdooley on this one. Teachers in particular are horribly treated, have immense responsibilities and stress placed upon them then get rewarded with vitriol whenever they ask for better conditions which will ultimately benefit students. Even the humble bureaucrat gets a rough time. Bureaucracy gets blamed for everything, and hwo governments respond not with reducing the amount of regulation, red tape and 'burueacracy' but by cutting the number of public servants so there are fewer people overseeing said regulations, red tape and burueacracy. So it gets more inefficient.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

I should probably apologise for my poor attitude/manners, rather stressed out today...

Read the above.
I apologise for my comment, I didn't really think about it.
I can promise you that there aren't many teachers here that would do what your wife does, my stepbrother has had literally NO support with his difficulties at school, he's just expected to get on with it.

[Wolfshade]

Just remember that they are not striking because they are under paid for what they do, but because of proposed changes to the pensions.
*They will have to pay more into their pension pot
*Work longer
*Have a career based average pension rather than a final sallery scheme
So they will have to pay more in to get less out essentially.
Most private sector schemes are based on what an employee puts into their pension pot (with employer match funding to a certain threshold) to what they take out, these are usually invested in the stock market/bonds and with the current low returns on the markets most peoples pensions are not performing as well as they expected so will either have to pay more in to make the shortfall or take a cut in their pension.
As the government plans to raise the state pension age to 68 (one of the highest ones in Europe) then all workers will be affected by that not just public sector workers.
I can certainly see why they are striking, I just wish I was a civil servant rather than being in a PFI...

[Psychosplodge]

To be fair my dealings with them have been limited to the councils student finance people, and then later for two periods of time the job centre staff, and based on their demonstrated levels of competence they're lucky to have any sort of job...

And I have had some "experiences" with plumbers. e.g. taking 3 weeks to source a part I found in a day. to trying to charge 300 quid for a toilet repair

using your logic... all plumbers must be lazy cowboy's ?

Until proven otherwise, it's a reasonable viewpoint.



Nah just messing with you, I just have had unsatisfactory dealings with them is all, statistically speaking there has to be somebody competent there somewhere...

[Morgan Darkstar]

statistically speaking there has to be somebody competent there somewhere...

unfortunately i was on strike today.

[MaltonNecromancer]

Just remember that they are not striking because they are under paid for what they do, but because of proposed changes to the pensions.

This.

In a nutshell, we teachers pay for our own pensions (which is held in the Teachers' Pension Fund). All teachers in the UK pay into this unless you choose to opt out, which no-one does.

The UK government runs and owns the Teachers' Pension Fund. They have used the money from it to gamble on the stock market.

They gambled away £64 billion of our money - none of it was taxpayer's money. We teachers earned that money, through teaching long hours.

Now, when the Average Working Man says things like

Maybe they should get jobs where they are on minimum wage and actually have to do some work, then they can see what 'scraping a living' means.

I would respond with:

Firstly, not all jobs are equal. Teaching is a highly skilled job, and frankly the reason we're paid more than minimum wage is because we deserve more than minimum wage. I work 8.30 until 7.30 most days, as well as weekends, and it's not manual labour. It's demanding, emotionally draining, intellectually challenging work. Could you trawl through four pages of poorly scrawled writing, trying to decide if a person had used enough adverbial clauses at the front of their sentence combined with an overall sense of structure where openings refer back to closings, with well-judged vocabulary and an implicit understanding of purpose and audience? Because that's what marking year 7 work takes. It gets far more complicated with year 11 and sixth form. And that doesn't even include working ceaselessly to personalise learning, making a lesson on some sometimes bloody boring topics interesting and engaging for a massively disparate group of individuals who at best quite like you and at worse actively want you to die. Teaching is outrageously hard, and how dare you suggest that it's not

real work

Whatever your fatuous and tenuously defined little concept is. The day that being a manual labourer is somehow harder work than beaing a teacher (and I've done both) will never come. Teaching is far harder in every way but the physical.

Now, rage at facile insults at my profession aside, imagine you've paid in thousands of pounds that you earned. It was not given to you: you worked for it. Then the government stole it from you, and had the audacity to run a smear campaign, in which they call you a thief. And everyone believes them (because in their heart, everyone hates teachers. That's something I've come to realise. The masses at large hate us. We're a tolerated necessity, nothing more.)

How would you take that?

How does an Average Working Man respond to his government stealing his money?

From the responses here, I'd imagine he knows his place, realises that it's his job to be his government's victim (because it's been going on for the last 80 years in the UK - the Teachers' Pension Fund has been a source of easy cash for every government, Conservative and Labour, so "Voting them out" won't help because they all do it.)

Maybe the Average Working Man is spineless enough to take that massive hit (which in real terms is going to cost teachers about 20% of their pay packet - could you lose 20% of your pay each month? Because I sure as hell can't), but I kinda doubt it. I think he'd get good and angry, and start looking at legal action. Like us.

Spouting off annoyingly macho nonsense like

I don't strike every 2 minutes however.

serves only to illustrate

a.) You have NO idea what you're on about and
b.) No seriously, you have no idea what you're on about. In simple terms: we've been stolen from; we're not happy about it; voting will change nothing as it is the system at fault rather than a single political party, and thus striking is the only option we are left with.

Now, you might roll over and play good little serf. Fair enough - I suppose it's fine, "so long they don't take the yam from your savouring mouth" to quote Niyi Osundare. Well we refuse to. These people are not our lords and betters; they're just thieves with good PR.

Anyway, when they come for you, and steal from you, don't worry - we teachers will remember the lessons you taught us: to tell you to shut up and stop complaining, and maybe do some real work, like say marking 187 exams in your spare time.

[Wolfshade]

Don't forget that not all public sector workers are teachers and as of 2008 1 in 5 of the working UK population were employed within the public sector, this figure would also exclude those on PFI (or similiar) contracts, who while their activities are for public sector bodies e.g. the Ministry of Defence, are employed by a private industry e.g. BAE Systems so should arguably be slightly higher.
(Also that not all teachers are public sector workers).
Too often this issue is directed solely at teachers and they get banded with the "get a real job" attitude as mentioned by previous posts.

[Psychosplodge]

unfortunately i was on strike today.

lols

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Egads, a lot of hate coming my way! :/