To the editor:
Re: "Teachers's union plan may include illegal strike," March 23.
Notwithstanding my regard for good teachers in our province, I take exception to the BCTF's permanent state of anger as observed over four decades. The economics of the current dispute are obvious: If you want to lighten your workload, take a pay cut. This would enable young teachers to enter the profession.
The way I remember education far away and long ago, 'twas like a five-tier system: Democratically elected government provides a school board, which appoints principals who, in turn, oversee teachers, who under direction of the aforementioned authorities, teach students who are the children of the people who elect and pay all of the above.
If I may call our public education system a five-tier operation, then I don't understand why "Tier 4" (the current BCTF leadership) thinks it's entitled to sabotage this essential service. If Susan Lambert got re-elected as BCTF president by some 61 per cent of delegate votes, I put her actual membership support to be around the 50 per cent mark. It's easy to pose as a sort of class(room) warrior when you can retire anytime you wish on a fat pension. B.C. teachers are very well paid and enjoy fantastic benefits. I am no great fan of the B.C. Liberal government, but as a suffering taxpayer I support its position versus the BCTF.
Coming from a family of teachers and pedagogues, I'd like to offer some commonsense advice: Teachers go back to teaching and ancillary duties according to your purported goal of educating and guiding our children.
If they do this diligently, any flaws in the system will be clearly attributed to the government and not the teachers. Diligence should not have to be exhorted to teachers. It used to be the other way around.
Fritz Bergold, Vancouver
