Thoughts on education situation
Article content
So here has dawned another new year. Will it be filled with the sort of mindless behaviour as 2012 witnessed? Having recently re-read Josph Heller's hilarious romp through five thousand years of history in Picture This, I feel on solid ground to say, yes probably.
The revolutions in the Middle East are proving the truth of George Jonas' comparing revolution to a snake shedding its skin, a lot of action and colour that ends with the same snake in a new skin.
Not being a hockey fan I can't say much about that struggle.
Being a retired teacher I can venture some thoughts in that field.
At the time when teachers of Ontario sought the right to strike, the late Lee Locker and I paid a call on the popular MPP for Elgin, the late Ron McNeil. We were both naive enough to believe teachers would not exercise the right because it would in effect be striking against students, or using them as pawns. I said to the Member, "If we are wrong you can always rescind the legislation."
This past year has marked the time when the government decided to do just that.
Perhaps one of the reasons that the earlier decision was reached was to do away with binding arbitration in contract disputes. Arbitrators in their wisdom awarded teachers a better deal than could have been otherwise reached.
The bill so vehemently opposed today, if it becomes law, will remove that concern.
The proposed law will take democracy in Ontario back to the abominable form that Athenian democracy assumed at the time of the execution of Socrates. The decision of the voters was made not on the grounds of logical fairness. It was made on the grounds that more black pebbles were dropped into the jar than white ones.
Therefore it was the wish of the majority that the accused drink the hemlock. Guilt or innocence had nothing to do with it.
Teachers have tried to alert other workers to this change that will put them at the mercy of government without recourse to appeal or to courts. Unfortunately their actions have created such a fog of resentment this message gets little attention.
The wily premier of Ontario threw gasoline on the fire by announcing that there is nothing the teachers can do to get more money. This is a straw man. The teachers have accepted a pay freeze seen as necessary to get the debt under control.
Listening to students who know they are pawns tells me they are not falling for the propaganda offered by union reps, such as being told the government started the fight. It takes two and sometimes more sides to conduct a fight.
The teachers are right to oppose the government's ignoring the laws that lay out the course of contract negotiations. They are making a big mistake in setting the example they do for their students. It is certain to re-echo through generations of conflicts.
The government can use the work to rule behaviour to tar the educators in the eyes of the public. The wiser course would be to do the job fairly and pursue the case in the courts.
Incidentally, those who argue that judges ought to be elected rather than appointed should consider how this would alter the behaviour of judges. We needn't consult Joseph Heller to see how it worked in the past. We have only to look across the border to The USA to see the system in action.