Striking!

So, I finally get a job in the career that I have spent a whole lot of money trying to educate myself to get, and BAM we go on strike. Now, those of you reading this that know me, also know that I, when I believe in something, tend to follow it up -- hardcore.
Well, here are some of my thoughts and things that I have learned about this situation.

Did you know that the Minister of Finance has the power to just give teachers an increase in wage (and I'm not even that pissed off about the wage-thing, I mean more money is great and I really do think that teachers don't get the money that they deserve as their job is all-consuming and they work far more hours than they are paid reasonably for, nor do I agree that the wage (of anyone for that matter) should be frozen for long periods of time because everything else is costing more - I mean, look at gas, or housing, for example) if he should choose to do so. Just LAST WEEK, when teachers were attempting to negotiate (to deaf ears, if you ask me) for a settlement, the Minister of Finance changed some tax rulings that now allow 500 MILLION DOLLARS to go to corporations!!!! Give me a freakin' break! Corporations DO NOT NEED more money. I really have trouble with this because not only was it not ever advertised that they did this (My Mom found out by watching the Legislature on Webcam on the internet until 2 in the morning), but there are soooooo many other people in our province that do not get the support that they need and deserve from our stupid government. Scammers... they decrease minimum wage to 6$ an hour (what the heck is that?) so that (in my humble opinion) rich companies, like McDonald's, can make more money and then they turn wround and give a huge whacking chunk of money to those (perhaps I'm off here) corporations!?? I'm sorry but if you really cared about the children of our province and you really wanted to make the BC Education system the best there is... you would take that $500 million and split it up between all the schools in the province and help to lower class size, bring librarians back, bring more learning-assistance and give teachers a little bit more money. Guess what? I guess that the corporations wouldn't even know the difference and it would make a lot of teachers happy AND perhaps please parents who have children who need a little more attention than they are getting in a class of 30 students.

How embarassing that our government chooses not to support us even though they are well informed (by select MLA's) on the issues at hand and how to resolve these issues.

So.. class size. Whew! I have been blessed with several different experiences in teaching. I have been in classes with few children and classes with a lot of children. I have enjoyed nearly all of my experiences, but let me tell you that it is a lot harder to meet the individual needs of 30 students than it is to meet the individual needs of 20. I'm sure that you can understand that. When there are 30 students in a class (and when you are not their regular classroom teacher) there are about a billion different things that you have to do and 30 students is a real challenge. I'm prety much tired out on this issue so I'm going to stop there.

It really bothers me when people think that, just beause they went to school, they know all that there is to know about teaching and about the education system. Guess what... you don't! I don't either. Until you have taught in a classroom for a looooong time, like 30 years, you don't know everything about teaching, and you still won't after that point. you certainly will have learned a lot and you will be better equipped to argue any point, but you won't know everything, that's for sure. Until you know everything, in my opinion, you really shouldn't persist on bashing teachers and calling them names. In the recent month I have aread a great many letters to the editor of our daily paper that bash teachers and call them names and such... "glorified babysitters", "BC's biggest group of whiners".... you, sir, couldn't teach if you tried! The person that wrote those nasty words made me angry. Then, I realized that he actually did teachers a favour. He unified us.

Thank you for the support of the BCTF strike. I'm there 100%. I have to stop now, time to get my little boy up.