Clement Pinto, Wairoa College
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Teachers are people too! I wasn't denigrating plumbers. Far from it. Just pointing out the society's lack of deserved recognition of the importance of teachers as stated by President John F Kennedy. Teachers’ pay levels do not reflect the status and the importance of the job. Teaching is a noble profession, a profession that teaches all other professions. Over the last 10 years our workload and stress have quadrupled but our pay has barely met the inflation for the same period. Teachers’ pay levels do not reflect the status and the importance of the job. Mrs Tolley has been relentless in putting teachers and our union down. As you may recall, she made a dorkish proposal that all teachers should receive a pay cut to pay for the support staff!! She insulted one of the most professional and established of all unions, our own PPTA. At a meeting with the PPTA executive, Anne Tolley equated teachers to rats by reading a children’s story book about a rat that should be grateful for what he already has and to expect no more! We all know that our workload, paperwork, stress, students’ misbehaviour and their lack of effort is increasing steadily. Almost every teacher goes into teaching because they care about kids. However, the government does not realise that teachers are people too. We too live in the real world! We have families, bills to meet, mortgages, rents and debts to pay, expenses to manage, pay off years of student loans and to take care of the health, education and other needs of our children. Beyond that, we also have dreams of living a comfortable life, having some nice things in life, taking vacations and retiring with adequate savings. And what is wrong with that? We are people too! Recognise that a teacher affects the world. Indeed, we affect eternity. Don’t let them blame us, belittle us or make us scape goats. Don’t let them demoralise us. Stand tall, proud and fight the ignorant dummies in the Government. Let us ‘teach’ these wallies and show them that we are people of worth, dedication, integrity and people of substance that deserve some grateful recognition and thanks. |
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Bronwyn Cross
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Recognition, recession and pay cuts That's true Rufus. I don't think we should get into the business of denigrating other crafts. On the other hand teachers deserve better recognition of the challenging job they do. I'm always amused when people suggest that teachers should "join the REAL world" as if trying to keep thirty adolescents engaged in learning every hour for five hours a day somehow isn't real! I know the people making comments like that couldn't last a day in a secondary classroom far less a week! And don't give me the recession! Ruthlessly cutting the public sector as happened in the last depression will just prolong the recession AND NZ debt is only 13% of GDP compared with countries like Greece, Spain and Japan where it is nearer 100%. The government is panicking NZers into thinking the sky is falling as a justification for an ideological attack on jobs. Sacking public servants and cutting their wages just means they won't have money to employ plumbers and real estate agents (like Hon Anne Tolley). Meanwhile the real villains - the financiers who have stolen over $20 billion from New Zealanders - get off unscathed. It’s because of them governments have huge public debt because us taxpayers have picked up their losses. Now these same financial whizz kids say the only way to get the economy going again is to screw public servants like teachers and nurses. Here’s an idea. Let’s forget the tax cuts for the rich and the GST increases for the poor and use the money to stimulate growth which is exactly how we got out of the last depression after 6 years of the same failed retrenchment polices that are being recycled today. Teachers didn’t cause this recession and they sure as hell aren’t going to take the blame for it and meekly accept pay cuts! |
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Rufus Aldwich
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Who needs a plumberr? and yet when your toilets become blocked and the waft of stagnant excrement wafts through your home, who will then be desperate to call a plumber? These people undertake a great deal of training and have to be registered with a professional body by legislation and whose efforts are essential to a modern civilised society.... oh. yea just like teachers. Get real and face up to public scrutiny, there is a recession out there and real people are losing their jobs! |
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Clement Pinto
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Plumber Vs Teacher ....contd "Modern cynics and skeptics... see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing." John F. Kennedy |
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Carol
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The Two Education Ministers. It has been reported in the media that it took over 20 years for the Tertiary Education Minister, Joyce, to gain his Zoology degree. What is the educational qualification of our Education Minister Tolly, I wonder. Does anyone know? |
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Susan Steel
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Plumber vs Teacher What a fatuous argument, although it does support the widely held view in the community that teachers only work school hours. The teachers' pay claim should have nothing to do with hourly rates and everything to do with professionalism if you want to win the support of those members of the community out of work, or facing yet another year with no pay increase. |
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Clement Pinto, Wairoa College
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Plumber vs Treacher A plumber with a basic education and a little bit of training earns a LOT more per hour than a much more educated and trained teacher that does one of the most difficult and important jobs in society. How FAIR is that? |
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