[ReneCM]

Chip, I'm not so sure I agree with your police work. The amount of "chances" the BCTF has had to negotiate with the government becomes increasingly irrelevant when the government continues to ram legislated contracts down their throats.

And I guess you must be talking to one of the 35 out of 42 000 teachers who crossed the picket line? There is OVERWHELMING solidarity among teachers on this strike. Also incredible public support, despite the premier's hypocritical bullshit about the "illegal" strike. He said that he's willing to discuss their grievences, but that the legislated contract will stand. Basically: "Teachers, go ahead and bitch all you want, it doesn't make a lick of difference to me. Go fuck yourselves."

Your points about high pay start to break down when you look at what coaches and teachers like, say, my Dad ACTUALLY put into their programs. I think my Dad's music hours have been cut back to 35 min per week per student. He runs an extracurricular ukulele group and choir with 70 students, with rehearsals Tuesday and Thursday mornings... he's taking them to Hawaii this year. I can't even begin to guess what kind of extra hours he puts in. I don't even think HE knows anymore. And he's by no means a special case. Do you know what it takes to get a provincial basketball or volleyball winning team to the nationals? What about mounting a production of a Shakespeare play? Ski team? Golf club? Art shows? Band concerts? All done on volunteer hours from teachers. Are these things not important to you, Chip? I think I know you well enough to say that you wouldn't be down with these things being eliminated from school programs. But guess what... that's what is going to happen. My Dad has told me he can't in good conscience continue to do what he does if the government is not going to respect him enough to give him a contract that has been negotiated. I know a lot of the other teachers who coach and put these types of insane hours in on extracurricular activities feel the same way. And why not?

Now, I stood out on the picket lines with my Dad last and his colleagues last week in my little hometown and watched the cars go by, honking and waving. I know that people in this province KNOW that what these people do is important, and they deserve better than an autocratic settlement handed down from on high, don't they?

I think these current difficulties are rather demonstrative of our society's move away from valuing education in general, and specifically in the arts and sciences that is particularly troubling to me. We're either heading for a rennaissance of epic proportions, or we're going to see society going further and further down the tubes. I think treating teacher's like trained animals in a circus is a step in the wrong direction.

Admittedly my bias, and my pedantic and opinionated tone is the result of being raised by a rowdy clan of secular socialist intellectuals. Just my 2c.