Andrew Barr hopes for peace with the teachers

2604 said :

Jethro said :

There is a reason teaching has one of the highest turn over rates of any profession – almost half leave within the first 3 years.

I can think of at least three reasons:
– Most principals couldn’t care less about discipline and won’t back their staff who try to stand up to kids, meaning that the staff get no respect at all from kids or parents.
– Political correctness is in, common sense is out.
– A dynamic, dedicated, intelligent teacher with five years’ teaching experience gets paid no more than a dull, half-arsed teacher with five years’ teaching experience.

Maybe we should try to fix some of these issues first before we start writing blank cheques? I’m sure that most teachers would willingly live with the current pay offer of 3.5% if they were actually permitted to suspend a naughty kid every once in a while.

The two most common complaints of teachers leaving the profession are workload and behaviour management. My original post was obviously in response to someone’s earlier post that teachers have a light workload.

Nowhere have I mentioned pay. I don’t think teachers’ pay is the big issue, although it is tied up somewhat to workload.

And I agree with you on the fact that all teachers get paid the same even if they don’t perform the same. I’m all for performance based pay, although it would need to be carefully thought through and not simply based on NAPLAN results or something similar.

I’m wth Grunge Hippy… the Teacher’s Union doesn’t represent my opinion.

grunge_hippy said :

this might go some of the way to explaining it.

http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac5/ROW%20Europe/G-AFGN.html

Bwahahahahahahah….hehehe….chortle….sputter…

I just shot half a glass of a very nice Rutherglen muscat out my nostrils and all over the screen…..

First division folks. Premium stuff.

God I love this website. 🙂

this might go some of the way to explaining it.

http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac5/ROW%20Europe/G-AFGN.html

creative_canberran said :

Wasn’t standing next to a Lockheed G-AFGN at Canberra Airport when he said this I hope.

OK. I admit it, I’m an uneducated dimwit. Someone please put me out of my misery and give me the John Dory on the Lockheed…

Jethro said :

There is a reason teaching has one of the highest turn over rates of any profession – almost half leave within the first 3 years.

I can think of at least three reasons:
– Most principals couldn’t care less about discipline and won’t back their staff who try to stand up to kids, meaning that the staff get no respect at all from kids or parents.
– Political correctness is in, common sense is out.
– A dynamic, dedicated, intelligent teacher with five years’ teaching experience gets paid no more than a dull, half-arsed teacher with five years’ teaching experience.

Maybe we should try to fix some of these issues first before we start writing blank cheques? I’m sure that most teachers would willingly live with the current pay offer of 3.5% if they were actually permitted to suspend a naughty kid every once in a while.

LOL @ Jim Jones and Gerry for saying “if you think teachers have it too good, why don’t you go and do it as well?” I presume that the next time someone complains about how the GDE is costing too much you’ll ask them why they aren’t a paving contractor.

A more pertinent question would be: if NSW salaries are so great, why don’t aggrieved ACT teachers simply join the NSW education department and start teaching in NSW? There’s nothing stopping them.

Keijidosha said :

“Hope is the last thing a person does before they are defeated.” – Henry Rollins.

Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment, and all that.

Personally, I suspect Andrew is one of those few village idiots who believe that those who can’t teach.
Good teachers are worth their weight in diamonds.
(but not LSD. Few things are, really…)

JessP said :

Aren’t there 4 terms of 10 weeks each?

Are you suggesting that teachers aren’t busy with paperwork when there are no students at school?

The mid-semester and mid-year breaks are time off for students and their parents, not for teachers.

this argument is like watching a hamster in a wheel… doesnt get anywhere.

People often ask me “what would you do if you didn’t teach?” and I honestly don’t know. I don’t ‘get’ other people do for a job. Sitting around at a desk all day doesn’t appeal to me at all. It’s quite clear I don’t do this for the money. I also don’t think our salary is that bad. What shits me to tears, and why I chose not to walk out today is that the union, the press and the general public always make this about the money, not about the kids. What we do as teachers effects every single other job in society, and if we want a generation of illiterate, socially retarded drop kicks, then keep treating teaching and the profession as this political football that gets kicked around every few years. Andrew Barr doesnt get it, the union doesnt get it, and half the teachers dont get it.

wake up.

JessP said :

Err….The two weeks for public holidays ? So teachers are different to the rest of us for public holidays?

At least ten days of public holidays fall within school holidays. Most workers enjoy the luxury of those days; it is unfair to include them, saying we teachers enjoy 8 weeks extra, when clearly that is not the case…