Childish Behaviour of Teachers a Bad Example? (1 Viewer)

[Ziff]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200407/s1146578.htm

Teachers ban minister from schools, TAFE

The New South Wales Teachers Federation has passed a vote of no confidence in state Education Minister Andrew Refshauge and banned him from visiting public schools and TAFE campuses.

The 600 teachers attending the federation's annual conference say Dr Refshauge has made their working conditions worse.

Federation president Maree O'Halloran says Dr Refshauge is no longer welcome at the schools he is supposed to oversee.

Ms O'Halloran says if Dr Refshauge visits public schools, teachers will walk off the job.

"What we do is we send out to all colleges, TAFE colleges and public schools and we say what the conference of the Teachers Federation has determined, and how to implement that," she said.

"So that when Dr Refshauge visits schools, the staff at each school will determine how they would react. In most cases the staff will walk out."

The move comes just days after Dr Refshauge enacted new performance-based contracts for principals and changes to the transfer rights of teachers.

The teachers are angry he has changed their working conditions and feel that the Industrial Relations Commission did not give them the pay rise they believe they deserved.

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So what does everyone think about this? I think it's extremely childish behaviour personally, but knowing many teachers, this sort of behaviour doesn't surprise me. If they want to be paid like professionals - they should behave like professionals. Instead, actions like this expose the majority of teachers and the Teachers Federation for what they really are - immature, petty and conservative living in a world of fantacy where the Government or their beligerent union will protect them from having to face the real world of job relocation every 5 years, a proper salary and constant retraining/learning. Seems they just can't bite the bullet.

 

[neo o]

Well, I think he'll be welcome at any selective school, the principals will love him

 

[Rorix]

I wouldn't really call the teachers federation conservative but this is ridiculous.

 

[Generator]

I cannot see any problem. Are teachers not allowed to take drastic action in order to meet the challenges facing their profession?

Asquithian, just shut up about teachers and their holidays. You truly have no idea.

 

[Rorix]

I cannot see any problem. Are teachers not allowed to take drastic action in order to meet the challenges facing their profession?

Asquithian, just shut up about teachers and their holidays. You truly have no idea.[/QUOTE]

How will threatening to go on strike should the minister visit help 'meet the challenges facing their profession?'

If Asquithian has no idea about the challenges facing teachers, I'd wager that I could find workers from a certain sector who are paid similar to teachers, who work a similar amount, who are not getting pay rises that you would be similiarly uninformed about.

Salary can only be considered in the context of what other professions earn, taking into account factors such as job security, rate of work, training requirements and so on. In fact, in Australia pay increases are usually as a result of an increase in productivity, or a tradeoff in non wage benefits. The teachers sure aren't giving up any nonwage benefits, and I have my doubts that teachers will identify areas to improve their productivity in return for more money.

 

[ogmzergrush]

It seems like an infantile act to me, but perhaps it's a sign of their growing frustration in attempting to attain the conditions and pay which they feel they deserve. Previous action obviously hasn't had the desired impact, so I guess they're trying something different.

 

[Rorix]

Why don't they burn images of Bob Carr while they're at it ?

 

[Generator]

We have been over this before (hence my comment to Asquithian), but it seems as though I view the teaching profession under a different light to many others.

 

[ogmzergrush]

We have been over this before (hence my comment to Asquithian), but it seems as though I view the teaching profession under a different light to many others.

I think it depends on whether you actually know teachers personally (Outside school), or have them as family, etc. If you don't then it seems a very attractive option to just jump on the bandwagon and dislike them for getting more holidays than other jobs, and to equate this to a somehow cushy job that doesn't deserve a pay rise.

However if they actually have experience with teachers, (ie. a clue), people tend to look past what I'll refer to as the OMGHOLIDAYZ factor and see that teachers are more deserving of the pay rise than may be evident at first.

 

[Generator]

True.

I should not have been so blunt, and I cannot take back what I have already posted (well, I could, but I have been quoted so that kind of makes any edit pointless). I have already argued my position in the other thread (as Asquithian has), so there is no real point in repeating ourselves beyond what has already been posted.

note: It was the TEXT IN CAPS and the 'that's right, the median wage' that anoyed me, Asquithian.

note 2: This forum style is bloody annoying.

 

[eviltama]

rofl @ note 2... i tend to agree tho it is annoying.

And on the teachers, they've gotten little action from everything else they've tried. It seems childish and infantile.. but this is the government you are dealing with here... I don't see a problem with what they are doing its ridiculous if you look at the hours teachers put in, and the effort they put it not to mention all the extras they put themselves out for and they are just expected to do so and not get compensated for it at all. Its no wonder alot just end up saying 'stuff it, these are my hours. this is my job description... go stuff your after school productions and sports'. You can see how young teachers transform into cranky older teachers indeed.

 

[eviltama]

its obviously going to take more than throwing more money their way to fix up their problems. But i don't think its right that all the good teachers and dedicated teachers get stuffed up because of the bad ones. There is so much in house fighting and collusion between teachers you'd wonder if you were working in a foreign government organisation... (or even in la femme nikita to use a tv example). But as i said above its no wonder how good young dedicated teachers go into the system and come out as old grumpy teachers who don't give a shit. Who is going to value education if the teachers don't?

 

[Rorix]

centralised wages...

 

[neo o]

centralised wages...

performance based wage increases, much like the contracts that principals are on would be nice.

 

[Sarah168]

We are in a decentralised system right now and the suggestion that we should go back to a centralised system (I'm not saying it doesnt have benefits, but we are in the decentralised system for a reason) is not unlike a suggestion that we should go back to the fixed or pegged exchange rate from the 80's.

So, Rorix, wanna go and give me a bad rep again cos I don't agree with you?

 

[Rorix]

I only gave you bad rep because you gave me bad rep saying I was being ignorant on purpose, when you yourself admitted what you said was confusing. (oh and you were wrong as well, unless you've got some insightful reply which you've forgotten to post so far) (This rep system is ridiclous though)

We are in a decentralised system right now and the suggestion that we should go back to a centralised system (I'm not saying it doesnt have benefits, but we are in the decentralised system for a reason) is not unlike a suggestion that we should go back to the fixed or pegged exchange rate from the 80's.

I wasn't advocating a centralised wage system (although perhaps out of context my comment could be ambigious). To clarify, in light of the comments in the thread about some teachers being hard working and some teachers being babysitters, I commented about the rather centralised wage system for teachers.

 

[Sarah168]

Excuse me. Make sure you get your facts straight before assuming I sent you that rep. For your information, Im not immature enough to send you a bad rep simply because I don't agree with you. I know who sent you that rep so make sure you know what you're on about before accusing me of such things.

 

[Rorix]

Ah well then, I apologise.

I recieved a bad rep on this post:
http://www.boredofstudies.org/community/showthread.php?p=749732#post749732

stating "It seems to me you're being ignorant on purpose."

I gave you a positive reputation to counter it out, in case that matters to you
(EDIT: I can't yet, but will later)

 

[Sarah168]

This reputation thing is ridiculous anyway, so no, it doesnt matter to me. Apology accepted.

 

[Suvat]

Formula for a high school teacher's annual salary in dollars:
(Average aligned mark in HSC of students in all of his or her classes/Average aligned mark in HSC of students in that school doing the subjects in question over the past 3 years, including the current year) * 50000

Brilliant eh