BigUglyWorld #7 - Teachers (August 3, 2004)

Band:
Some awesome news, people... WE HAVE US A NEW BASS PLAYER! Say hello to Ethyl Alcohol, who will be playing bass and will also take to screaming alongside me for a few tracks once she's got the songs down. It's such a relief to have a full band again! We'll be playing a show on the 4th of September (2004, just in case you're reading this in 20 years) at the Underground with Inner Surge and Stinkhammer, so if you want to pop on by...

Me:
I'm doing good. I don't really know why. I am back to my usual summer sleep schedule, which means long nights, short sleeps, and hell mornings, but it also means getting a lot more accomplished than usual, which kicks ass.

The World Outside:
The war on terror continues, and yet there doesn't seem to be any less terror in the world. Let's hope it isn't another one of those useless wars we've been hearing about a lot of late, like the War on Drugs...

Meat:
My parents were teachers. They were card carrying members of the union, and both volunteered to varying degrees on committees and bargaining teams for the union. As a result, my childhood was colored a little in favor of the whole union concept, a concept which we've seen slowly eroding in both the USA and Canada of late.

I still maintain a strong affinty for the teachers. The way I see it, our lack of commitment to teachers is a delightful metaphor for the overall way in which our society has stepped away from caring for one another to embrace this delicious right wing fervor of every man for himself and a dog on every leg but mine.

I mean, let's face it. The whole job of the teacher is to develop the next generation of people. To me, this is of the utmost importance, but unfortunately it's just me that sees it that way. Caring about the next generation ended a long time ago with a little something called Generation X. Because the Gen-Xers were quickly labelled as selfish buffoons, the older generations lost interest in trying to reach us (except of course as demographics). They stopped asking our opinion, they stopped funding our schools, and they stopped asking why our grades weren't high enough. Generationally, they lost interest.

That continues today. Look at the programs that are getting funding and you'll see that they are largely aimed at comforting our aging population and cutting the life out of anyone 30 and under

In the education sector, we've seen cut after cut after cut. We've watched class sizes increase by 1.5 times. We've seen school staffing levels hit record lows. We've seen resource teachers become a thing of the past, and special needs students finally allowed to flounder in the mainstream, rather than flourishing in those comfortable special needs classes we've axed.

And whenever we look at the problem, what do we see? Greedy teachers begging for more more more.That isn't the case. It's all in the spin, and a lot of people aren't seeing it like it is.

In the latest go-round with the union and the board, the teachers were asked to sign a 10 year contract. 10 years. I don't know a union on earth that would sign a 10 year contract. From a negotiation standpoint it's a terrible idea, and the contract was one that would very much hurt the teachers for a decade. Unsurprisingly, the teachers denied the contract. That's when the media stepped in.

They made it sound like a 10 year contract was the most sensible thing ever. They made it sound like the intense greed of the teachers is what has rung the death toll for your child's education. In other words, they lied to us.

I know I'm stupid to have to say this, but let's be reasonable here. We pay hockey players and movie stars millions of dollars to do fun jobs. We pay heads of corporations millions of dollars to embezzle our money, defraud the stockholders, and ruin our environment. But the people most responsible for helping the next generation make a difference in this world? Fuck 'em. Someone needs to get the short end of the stick.

If you don't see the error in that, then you need to take a few minutes and die. For the rest of us, I dare you to email your representatives and tell them what you think of how they're treating public education in this city. CC biguglyjim@johnnyincognito.com on the emails. I'd love to read them.

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