says our Prime Minister, John Howard. According to the Age article, PM criticises teachers stop work meeting in Victoria:
“They shouldn’t be gathering in Melbourne on Thursday, they should be at school on Thursday,” Mr Howard told federal parliament.
“it’s this kind of behaviour by teachers that gives government schools a bad name,” he said.
“If they want to demonstrate against our laws, do it in their own time.”
Like the PM, I’m also a product of the public education system, as well as a parent of two pre-school kids and a teacher in the public education system. My problem is, I don’t understand these comments by my PM.
In fact, I don’t understand the whole situation very well. Here’s my perspective (please help me learn and correct me where I’ve misunderstood):
- Schools will be open so that parents work commitments are not disrupted.
- IMHO Government schools don’t have a bad name because of teachers striking - but because of the gradual degradation of the public school system over the past 10 years as the private school system has flourished (not unrelated to government policy - I’m still trying to understand the public-private education debate)
- People striking on Thursday are doing so in their own time in terms of pay. They will either be docked and not paid for the time absent, or in some cases they will apply for leave to attend the strike.
So all I am left thinking that our Prime Minister wants teachers to receive bad publicity for the strike by blaming the apparent “bad name of government schools” on those naughty teachers who are jigging school for a fun day in the park with a free Jimmy Barnes concert (same Age article as above):
Instead of attending a “Jimmy Barnes concert” at the Melbourne Cricket Ground teachers should be in their classrooms, Mr Howard said.
It makes me sad that our current system relies on this type of rhetoric (and it comes from both sides) rather than a transparent and honest debate.
I’ll be at the stop-work meeting at 8:30am tomorrow morning (at Katoomba RSL)… even though I don’t agree with everything the union does (more on that later), even though I do believe that strikes have been abused in the past, but I want to be counted: I think the current IR laws are one-step-forward-two-steps-backward for our country.
That said, I’ll be crawling back to the classroom by 10am where I belong straight after the broadcast without my free Jimmy Barnes concert. I do think the demonstrations after the broadcast are important, but I’ve got students who have their last day of a 1-year Web Design course - and that’s important too.
What’s your perspective? Do you think teachers should stay at school tomorrow or join the protest?