Teachers' Strike Should Be Permanent
Callum McPetrie, SOLO Youth Coordinator
As many of you are already aware, the PPTA (Post-Primary Teachers'Association) are going out on strike on September
12th, for the usual reason (wages). Apart from a day off for me and most other Secondary School students throughout New
Zealand, a strike is a good example of merely one of the problems of the disastrous public school system.
The teaching profession isn't the most rewarding career around, and it sends shivers down my spine thinking of mature
adults "coming back to school" and having to deal with all the "cuzzie bros"and "homie gees" that plague the system, and
everyday life in general.
Schools certainly aren't the nicest working environments. Many schools resemble landfills more than places where people
send their children to be educated. Although many respectable parents do indeed want the best learning environments for
their children, parents, unless they're well-to-do and live in some fancy area of town, get little choice, in the form
of school zones. Poor parents are confined to poor schools, and continuously declining standards. Many good parents are
left out.
Under a private school system, more students attending the school are a great thing for the owners, but that's another
story. Under the public school system, more students are a waste, and not wanted. That's the whole idea behind school
zones.
Teachers also get little say in the day-to-day running of the school. It's big government socialists who formulate the
PC crap that is learnt at schools. Teachers have to abide.
Most teachers themselves are big government socialists, and don't like the notion of schools being privately owned and
operated, despite great successes with private schooling elsewhere, during history. A private school system is exactly
not that. Schools operate independently, depending on what forms of education are in demand.
Another reason why the public education system is such a failure is the market (or lack thereof within it) for skills.
There's no incentive to work harder or to teach smarter than anyone else, thanks to union regulations on teacher payment
and benefits. If any school attempted to pay its teachers on a basis of their teaching ability and methods, a big uproar
would be heard from the union and the school would be punished. The classic case of the lazy workers bringing down the
good ones.
Last but not least, the effect of Political Correctness on schools and a student's ability to learn, think critically
and rationalize is a no-brainer.
The big-government socialists should be pointing to their policies and their preferred economic system as the source of
all this failure. The lack of personal responsibilty that keeps society together under the present socialist system is
the cause of the teachers' frustation, of the poor quality of schools, the lack of choice as to what is learnt by all
parties involved (minus the big-government bigots), and the hopeless mentality of students, teachers and parents in
regards to present-day schooling.
Something to think about on September 12, PPTA.
ENDS