MiddleClassCentrist

There was an article talking about how Principals and other administrators are self medicating to deal with the high level stress. Their jobs have changed from mantaining the morale tone of the school to addressing the ever increasing number of entitled and overbearing parents who only care about their child and not the effect their child has on others... They don't really have any power to change a school either because they are simply pushing policies of someone higher up on the totem poll who gets paid more and wants to get paid even more by pushing policies... regardless of how assinine the policy is. That all filters down to teachers as well. One thing that is clear to me is that a huge problem is the special needs "integration at all costs" when it comes to teacher stress. Back when we were in school, the kids that would throw daily tantrums and hold classes hostage with their behaviour would be shipped off to specialized programs to focus on that behaviour and let children that were able to learn in the regular classroom setting... learn in a regular classroom setting. Unfortunately, giving specialized programs to violent, behavioural, or special needs students is "demeaning" to them. The truth is that they benefit from the specialized setting and perform better in where they are the norm, not the exception to stand out. The modern educational concept is that everyone's education should suffer by having little terrors everywhere to constantly derail the teacher's attempt to educate and have meaningful lessons. You can see the effect from year to year too. Teachers call them "crop failures". Years where there are so many bad apples and high needs students that the whole year of student learning experiences was so negatively effected for EVERY YEAR of schooling because no one fails grades anymore. The teachers had to spend their effort controlling tantrums, violent and high needs behaviour to the point where there are very few students with ambition or that stand out in positive ways because the teachers were drained in addressing the other behaviour.

The Star Article doesn't look at overall cost savings. They look at where they had originally legislated teachers to, and what they softened their stance to later. And there is still a court battle being fought over what the Liberals did to impose it by blocking teacher's access to human rights tribunal and labour law. Pension Envy is used by conservative hacks make an argument for taking away pensions from people who still have them. It's a bizarre conservative war on the middle class to support 1% earners goals of having more money at the expense of everyone else. Currently, 13% of a teacher's pay goes into their pension. I would be hard pressed to find any of my friends putting away 13% of their pay every week into a retirement savings right now in their 30's... The conservative mantra is to tear down the benefits of people who have them instead of encouraging people to ask for their own. It's quite sad actually. Time Off: Flexible time off is worth much more than non-flexible time off. Teachers have non-flexible vacation time that can't be booked whenever they feel that they need a break. They also only get to travel during peak season when it's really busy and expensive to go anywhere. It's really nice if you own a cottage/invested your life to pay for a cottage because you can be up at it all summer. If cottaging isn't your thing then it is definitely not an ideal career vacation setup. That being said, being guara the same time off as your children is ideal for having a family.

----I made this post before seeing the few above it, so it is redundant---- Your 240 number fails to take into account statutory holidays from working days, as the 194 days has them factored in. In Ontario, it's 229. Also, 194 days does not include the prep time before school starts. My wife goes in and preps her classroom and material well before the start of class. Comparing jobs by days worked fails to represent the actual intensity and stress or time consumption of the work. Teachers work 50-60 hours a week when you take into account everything they are required to(paperwork, evaluate work outside of class time, call parents, etc.), and volunteer to do (clubs, sports, competitions, food programs, student council, etc.). Numbers are UK so I assumed CDN teachers were slightly more lazy than their figures:[BBC Link]. The MOST PEOPLE that you compared teachers to in Ontario work on average: 36.6 hours a week. Remember, classroom time is not when they are planning, assessing, or performing administrative work. 1676 - hours worked by a standard Canadian each year over 229 days. ~2000 - hours worked by a Teacher over ~200 days. My hours are capped at 37.5 hours a week, and I make almost 6 figures, my benefits are better, and I rarely have to take work home. I WOULD NEVER WANT MY WIFE'S JOB.

I think that would lead to a better system because the parties would be more likely to compete for the majority of voters interests than try to appeal to a staunch minority support. Isn't that what parties are supposed to try and do? Appeal to the will of the electorate? There's also a lot of swing voters who move from PC to NDP and back. I do not like the idea of fringe parties holding the balance of power because they have a few seats from proportional representation.

I agree. If you don't know enough about the issues that matter one way or another, are you helping the system by voting? I don't think surperficial politics helps us. That being said, I am favourable to AV. Alternative Voting Alternative Vote keeps our current way of electing members by electing local MPPs. You rank as many, or as few candidates as you'd like. If your number 1 doesn't get in, they take all ballots who voted for #1 and add their vote to their #2 choice until a candidate achieves over 50% overall support. Example 1: Party A has been in power for years and suffered from multiple misteps/scandals but maintains diehard support. You feel that Party B best represents your vote but, you would vote for Party C over Party A if B did not get in. Your ballot ranks Party B, Party C as #1 and #2, you do not rank Party A. Example 2: You feel that a small party has brought a worthwhile issue to light and want to support that policy knowing that it is unlikely that they'll elect a representative. You can put that small party as #1 to show support of that policy, while knowing that small party member is not elected your vote will still count toward the overall political course of the province. No list of "party favourites" that are guaranteed to be elected and technically respresent no one, and the people winning have a "run off" support of over 50% through "Alternative Votes".

The question should be: Do you want to switch our electoral system from FPTP? Then, an alternate referendum should be done to decide which system we should switch to.

Another argument for electoral reform.

I found this statement humorous.

I really believe that the PCPO is suffering from life long politicians who have never been connected to what it is to be a citizen in the regular world. People with economics degrees who don't identify with reality. They will blame unions... But it was an internal problem. If anyone from the PCPO is listening. Next time, campaign on grass roots conservatism aimed at helping the little guy and sail to a victory. Aiming at helping big corps with a 30% tax reduction while planning to fire 100000 frontline workers as the start of creating 1000000 jobs huge optics problem. I really believe that the PCPO is suffering from life long politicians who have never been connected to what it is to be a citizen in the regular world. Part of that is their wealthy base, part of it is the trend of being a career politician.

She won because she didn't campaign on reality. Austerity is coming. The Liberals can't backtrack on the trap budget set for the NDP. But, just watch what happens in the next one... For example, I keep noticing that education funding seems to drop in their future projections. Look for it next time you look at their budget projections.

That's not really a fair comparison. Teachers work an average of 56 hours a week in Secondary when you include unpaid volunteer hours. Elementary up to 60 hours a week. http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/feb/28/primary-school-teachers-work-60-hour-week The example is from England but, even if we scale back by 10% to assume Ontario teachers aren't up to snuff with teachers in England, It's still 51 hours a week for Secondary, and 54 hours a week for elementary. And NO OVERTIME pay. My mother gets 6 weeks of vacation, and 5% vacation pay, in a basic service job. 46/1.05 = 43.8 weeks of work a year. She also gets paid overtime if she works more hours than 40 and is not allowed to work more than 40 unless under an emergency. She brings no work home. Teachers work week at 51 hours a week, standard work week of 40 (technically it's not 37.5 but, we'll use 40 to under estimate.) Teachers do not receive extra vacation pay for time off. Teachers do not get paid extra for working over 40 hours. It is also worth noting that teachers are never able to take advantage of any vacation deals, only ever peak season vacations that cost huge amounts of cash but, that won't be included. 9 weeks summer + 2 weeks christmas + 1 week march break = 12 weeks for teachers. 40/52 * 51(teacher work week)/40 (standard work week) = 51/52 equivalent standard private sector work weeks. (this was using the conservative figure of 51 instead of 56) Sure other people work overtime too but, most can claim overtime pay and be compensated for that extra work under law for a premium, hence the factor of 51/40 for teacher unpaid overtime as a regular work week. Keep in mind that teacher work week when looking into how Canadian teachers are quitting in droves because they can't handle it. The only reason these demands are sustainable is because we have a surplus of people who believe the rhetoric that it's an easy job... these people then quit.

The truth is that nothing will ever be low enough for many. Does anyone have the number on median wage for a university graduate? All Sun News ever compares teachers to is the a median or average wage, which includes high school students, high school drop outs, and high school graduates. Which is a clearly dubious inclusion when talking about educated professionals.

Are people not allowed to have a vacation? Why do we always have to look at teachers who do a lot of work at home and a lot of extra curricular work during the year? Joe Public ignores those facts when slandering them. Why do teachers get so much flack? Meanwhile there are plenty of civil servants who work 37.5 hours a week who take no work home, and are not expected to coach someone else's kids after school or take on an unpaid position. Why does the public have to target teachers, all. the. time.? Why do people think that it's easy to teach a class of 20-32 students, with 4-13 of them having special individual education plans with specific measures that need to be changed just for each student? And then considering that overbearing parents expect you to hold their child's hand through all tasks instead of trying to teach the students to be more self-capable. The reality is much different... Young teachers are overwhelmed at the job requirements and are quitting in droves. The only reason this model is working because we have so many people willing to take a crack, and fail under the stress and job requirements at being a teacher. We can thank the conservative mantra telling everyone how easy it is to be a teacher, and the reality of the job for this unique situation. http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/canada/overwhelmed-canadian-teachers-quitting-in-droves-350533.html

Well then I fell into the "headlines" too if he originally clarified at the beginning. Again being related to so many teachers, There are lots of non-teaching but "teacher" positions that aren't necessary. Teacher's will openly tell you where the waste is too... The problem is that when Administration cuts costs, it's usually on parts that matter so they can keep their pet projects. EA's are essential, the people boards send to conferences around the province on tax payer dime are not.

I've heard a few people calling this. I could see it happening. After all, if something doesn't happen after this election that changes the makeup of the Provincial legislature... Won't the opposition parties look silly?

No one likes hearing the truth. The Obama model of "hope and change" politics is what the people want. Wynne already PO'd teachers by extending austerity measures from the Bill 115 MoU, a bill that was repealed and still being challenged in court. The austerity is coming regardless of who is in power. No one should think that it isn't, and the Liberal budget was simply a trap set for the NDP to fal into. It has not really been covered yet because it hasn't taken effect until the teacher contracts run out. But, if you saw the news about the strike pay enhancement for teachers... you know that they are preparing for it. I think Hudak would have been a lot better off if he had said from the start "Through attrition, we would find efficiencies of 100,000 civil servants." because that was what he meant. But, he chose the hard line sounding language to appeal to his base.

You can ask teachers and they'll tell you who isn't up to the professional level they want themselves represented as. Teacher's hate poor performers too, they don't like people sullying their good name. The problem is, with any beaurocracy, when Administration in the public sector is in charge of who deserves the raise the wrong people will be penalized. The people who will be penalized are the teachers who are tough on their students because they are trying to actually teach them something, parents don't want to hear about their kids failures or lower class averages. Administrators never see what goes on in the classroom, they are overloaded with paperwork and other duties the ministry and school board puts on them on top of their regular duties. This means that all you need to look good in modern education are a few extraordinary lessons to talk about, and to make sure that you stop in to be pleasant and happy with Admin, or give away A's so that parents think their kids have been super successful in your class. Teacher's know when someone is giving away A's, Teacher's know when someone is showing movies 80% of the time, teacher's know when someone shows up 15 minutes late, cancels classses for a day (illegal but happens), and let their classes out 30 minutes early because the classroom teacher didn't want to teach... If we could foster self-regulation of teaching, I think it would be more successful that the current model at weeding out poor performers.

I have no problem with the mention of non-traditional relationships, and non-traditional gender identities. It's not like they show how they work sexually together. Just that they exist. I don't believe in oppressing, demoralizing and demonizing individuals who don't fit the norm from a young age.

At the start of this I was predicting Hudak minority. Polls seem to indicate I was wrong. I don't agree with all of his policies but, at some point incompetence has to catch up with the party in power, doesn't it?

Maybe people in the private sector should understand that the whole point of the grid is to spread out the cost of a teacher... Starting pay of 45k isn't lucrative, especially for those with engineering, accounting or business backgrounds. If you are already working you'll now need to take 2 years off after this year to work toward your teaching degree too. Top end pay of 90k is worth working toward as the "light at the end of the tunnel" for those people. The argument of making more money in the private sector is somewhat true, if mostly for those with practical and in demand education(the people you actually want teaching). The reality for arts, socialology, history, phys ed and other interesting, fun or charitable but, not economically valuable degrees is they would have a hard time pulling off 60k, let alone 70k a year. The globe and mail had a good report on it awhile back where you could enter degrees to look at how better off you'd be if you took a degree over just going into the workforce with a High School diploma. You are actually worth less than a high school grad if you take an Art degree as a male.

There is no exaggeration, Moonbox said it best so I'll just quote what was said again:

I can open my wife's most recent paycheque... I can guarantee you that every pay cheque is deducted a similar percentage.

I disagree. I feel discriminated against heavily in this situation by Catholics who want to silence me by saying they are offended by how I take issue with how they actively discriminate against me and my children.

You can insult me all you like. But if I make 80,000 a year and am contributing 11.5% of that. (9200) And the government matches that 11.5% at 9200. Total contributions for the year are 18400. Do I need to do more math?

Maybe you didn't read where non-Cathlolics can't choose to go to their elementary schools. That's not a choice. And you ignored the definition of segregation which clearly applies, whether forcible or not.