I don't know if this fits here but I just needed a place to vent. Imagine my frustration when my grade 9 son a member of the Junior Football team at MMR high school in Burlington came home furious tonight because his principal announced this afternoon that there would be no buses going to the Roger Centre on Tuesday morning for the Golden Horseshoe Championship between MMR Senior Rams and Rock Diepetro's Lakeshore Catholic team. The teachers have decided to use this as part of their job action against the government.
Give me a break the game is at 11:00 am the teachers would get most of the day off for pete's sake and a lifelong memory.
This is just terrible, talk about bullying. What a complete disregard for all the work these young men and their Coaches have put in. The MMR Senior Rams have never made this level of championship in the 50 year history of the school. Just brutal in my opinion. The Catholic school board settled long ago so there will be a full representation from Lakeshore. The MMR deserves the same representation. I find this deployable.
I would have taken him in a heartbeat but sadly I will be conducting a memorial service for a former member of my congregation on Tuesday morning.
I can understand your frustration. I agree with you in your general sentiment with respect to the current job action by Ontario Teachers.
But to be clear, just make sure this is a teacher issue and not a bussing issue. Or even more precise, is this an issue about teacher supervision of students outside the school as part of an unscheduled "field trip".
I only ask because I know from first hand experience, being a Nelson Grad & Alumni, where championships & trips to SkyDome/Rogers Centre are commonplace, not every trip is a school sponsored event. We've run into similar issues in the past for our Varsity Teams where there was no "job action" issues at hand. Some years we bussed the entire school to Ivor Wynne/MAC/SkyDome. Other years we didn't.
Just want things to be clear. Either way, congrats to MMR Rams JR Football. Any rise to excellence within the public school system within Halton is great to see. Nelson has been the only non catholic school to compete on an non level playing field for far too long. We welcome any partners.
No sympathy here for teachers from me. Most I had were useless and probably should not have been teachers. I can't recall how many times through high school teachers put me down saying that I was going nowhere in life. I can probably count maybe 3 or 4 teachers that I had that were actually good teachers and there for the kids. This work to rule crap just proves how very few care for the kids and their after school events. Now something like this that a young kid can be excited for and have a memory from his school years to tell his kids. There was no need to cancel it. This here has given me even less respect for an industry that I had no respect for to begin with.
Teachers provide an essential service simple as that. Stop your posturing and holding the public and our children hostage just because you believe you are worth more to teach. Well, sunshine that's your chosen profession, so suck it up and let's hope the government will deem you clowns an essential service without the possibility of going strike or creating any so called job action. A bit harsh but, I like what Mike Harris tried to accomplish with the so called Teachers.................I would like to say more but, I am sure you can read between the lines.
I find it difficult to sympathize with teachers under any circumstances. While its true, they can't touch a kid
or have the liberty to work with children as they did years ago and SOME of them have to spend time marking
papers and preparing lessons, they generally have very good "daytime" hours, work in ideal environmental
conditions, make very good salaries and have excellent retirement benefits compared to most people.
Some of them have never seen the inside of a steel mill or the like or worked a 12 hour shift on a consistent basis.
Most of them have never worked in a filthy atmosphere, (unless they are smokers)been called in to work under
emergency conditions or under the stress of a nurse or pilot for example.
Using our kids as pawns has they have been doing lately, is the last straw for me.
Sorry for asking a simple question: What is stopping your son (and friends as well) from taking a cab to a GO train station and then a Go train to the game? There must be something, but I am stumped. A 13 or 14 year old should be mature enough to do that.
Just an update the MMR Senior not Junior football team indeed played in their championship today at the Roger's Centre against Rocky Diepietro's Lakeshore team from Port Colbourne.
Three of my son's friends met us at the school at 8:15 am and I drove them to the GO Station. As I mentioned earlier I had to conduct a memorial service and obviously could not go. I am not sure of the exact number of MMR students who went in total but my son estimated at least 300 hundred. Apparently it was a great game although the MMR Rams lost 29-28.
What should also be noted was that there was not one single incident from the students who were quote "unsupervised." Good on every single one of them they should be congratulated.
Sometimes and I say this to all the adults involved at the board and union, "people can have an overinflated opinion of their own self-importance." The kids had a great time and the adults did nothing but miss a great opportunity to mix with them, create a lifelong memory. Not to mention they would not have had to teach today in the classroom but could have had an amazing "teachable moment."
Thanks again for reading friends, a quick side note, my sons english teacher asked him to do a write up on the game lol
What about all the other years where the teachers volunteered their time to coach football until 6:30 every evening for 2 and half months. Or all the other sports and activities over the years. Have you ever given kudos on here about that?
I realize this affects you personally and your son. I do feel for you as the memories of high school football should not be messed with for political reasons. I also realize you had something more important to do that day too. But, you focus on something that the majority of teachers don't want to have to do but have grudginly agreed upon in order to keep some type of solidarity against the unprecedented attack that the Liberals have taken upon the rights and collective agreements already in place. The Liberals were scrambling to help pay for the debt that the Liberals have made worse and teachers were viewed as the easiest public supported target to help deflect the government's mismanagement with adding to Ontario's $250 billion debt.
You made reference to Rocky Dipietro's team. Rocky's a teacher. Think twice before you jump on the Liberal propoganda wagon. Ford's turfing over $3,000 directed toward something he cares deeply about....football is another case in point. When the corruption was exposed throughout the Liberal party a few years ago and now with Dalton's scandals we were and are talking hundreds of millions of dollars if not a billion. Nobody lost their job over that one.
Just another side of the coin or something to think about before labelling an honourable profession that stays informed and doesn't take...well you know what from the likes of Dalton.
Well said Synthcat. As a former teacher and administrator (over 30 years) I spent thousands of hours doing those EXTRA things for students and their families. There were very few thank yous in return
When you volunteer you expect (at least this is what) I little if no return on your investment
except the personal satisfaction of doing something that I enjoy. If you enjoy something
the time is something you are willing to give. The teachers are in my opinion on a slippery
slope considering this bargaining matter will be settled soon or later. I stand by my original
position, if your are a teacher you are deemed an essential service just like the police,
fire department, nurses and doctors. So by holding the public hostage because your union
thinks you are worth more than the service you provide is absolutely nonsense. Suck it up
butter cup and welcome to reality. Giving something back without any cost is very rewarding.
There is a HUGE difference between volunteer and voluntold. I agree with you that when you volunteer, you are not doing it for anything other than personal satisfaction. That is why I coach. However, a lot of the after school activities are EXPECTED of the teachers nowadays. I know plenty of teachers who willingly give up their own time and expect nothing in return. I also know other teachers who are in the profession for the exact wrong reasons.
You missed my point, or maybe you chose to avoid/ignore it. I didn't put all those hours in for the accolades or recognition. I did it for the kids, sometimes at the expense of my own family. My point was that, for the most part, the students and parents just expected these things to happen, then get all bent out of shape when they are taken away.
I don't think the parents or students expect the teachers to give any of their home time away. The teacher must decide how to properly balance their home life and professional life. This entire problem was not a problem until the provincial goverment decided to take the "Teachers" to task. What message are you teaching the students? We all do activites for free and most of use don't withdrawl volenteer activies if we don't get are own way. Cry me a river.