Teachers' unions give home schooling a good name
I was thinking about home schooling for the kids this morning. Trust me, it has never crossed my mind before. But then Teachers' Union of Ireland representative Peter McMenamin came on Morning Ireland.
No matter how much the economists tell us it is neccessary (and unfortunately it probably is), I abhor the wage cutting frenzy that many of us in Ireland over the last twelve months have been forced to endure. So I am with McMenamin on that one and it is right to acknowledge that teachers have shared in this pain to the tune of 15%.
But the idea that teachers should reject this agreement over an extra hours work a week is a slap in the face to the many others in this country who have watched colleagues made redundant, had their wages cut and are still doing the same amount of work that they were doing before all this kicked off. Not to mention the slap in the face it is to the many who have been made unemployed.
But that is not really why the dreadful notion of home schooling came forcefully into my mind this morning. It was more to do with McMenamin's seemingly simple grasp of financial and economic realities. Do all teachers really believe that because the Government has been forced to put billions into the banks that this is a good reason not to accept an entirely separate (and admittedly imperfect) agreement designed to ensure that this country can continue to pay its bills?
Do the economics teachers believe this? The Biz Org teachers? Surely not any maths teachers who have looked at the stark but simple numbers that make up the State finances. Well, if so, maybe it is time for me to brush up on my Adam Smith and my Karl Marx and my John Maynard Keynes and get the kids around the kitchen table for a class in economic realities rather than have them listening to the fairy tales that seem to be way too prevalent at the moment.
McMenamin's suggestion that the State's bank bailout is a good reason to vote against an agreement to modernise work practices in the public service brought me right back to second year in science class.
"O'Connor, why the hell do you not have your homework done?" Fr Declan would roar, sounding a little like a pious be-robed version of the IMF.
"But Father, McCoy doesn't have his done either so I didn't think we had to do it," I would answer sheepishly hoping that the sins of others would save me.
The lesson? It didn't save me. Just because one person is dossing down the back of the class and getting away with it, doesn't mean you should start dossing too. Just because this country's banking sector was infected with a disgusting corporate culture that has left us in hock for billions, doesn't mean we can all use it as an excuse to duck out of our responsibilities to fix the problems that we and future generations have been left with. Any good teacher will tell you that this only leads to chaos in the classroom.
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