Teacher's Union Propaganda

Apparently the Teacher’s Union thinks that a steady deluge of propaganda is the solution to make parents shut up about their children having to stay home.
The Union continues to insert their booklet “Why No School Today?” in my children’s memos from the school. I find the pidgin-English title insulting, not to mention the content.
No wonder some parents are confused; there is no logic to the Union point of view.
Consider the following:
Teachers are highly paid for working perhaps 9 months a year; have lots of free time and plenty of money to enjoy it with, yet they still feel the need to extort extra contractual days off (always on a weekend) from taxpayers during the Union “bargaining process”.
Teachers enjoy thinking of themselves as educated professionals, like lawyers, accountants, and engineers, yet still feel the need to take days off to learn how to teach better, and go on strike if their demands are unmet. Other professionals, however, do not go on strike, and keep their knowledge current through trade magazines and seminars, paid for by themselves. In fact, I expect a highly-paid professional to be at the top of his game; if I am not receiving the best advice possible, then I should be dealing with the person that he finds necessary to confer with.
The corollary would be, that anyone who finds it necessary to continuously learn how to teach, has never learned how to teach, should never have graduated from the teaching school, and remains incompetent.
Should we be paying grossly inflated salaries for incompetent teachers? Of course not.
The Union booklet claims that new ways of teaching require teacher proficiency in the new methods.
I would say, much more important is the desire to teach. When that is gone, get another job, or retire. Don’t hang about for your pension, just go. Try styling hair, or making pottery. Explore your creative side, if you have one. Become a full-time pedant in a volunteer group that is forced to listen to you, if you find teaching boring.
Further, how up to date do you have to be to teach elementary school children by rote?
The alphabet, arithmetic, and rules of grammar will not change, and children must learn the basics, in English, before they will be able to read and understand other concepts. Teachers should take the time to teach children the basics well, before involving them in foreign languages, bake sales, and peddling goods.
Teachers claim to be motivated by what is best for the children. Of course, every time that they go on strike they reveal themselves to be no better than tradesmen or government employees, with the same motivation: more pay for less work. This is perhaps understandable in tradesmen, but much less so in people claiming to be professionals.
On the last page of the booklet, the goals of the Union are stated as: to promote the cause of education, to raise the status of the teaching profession, and to promote the welfare of teachers”.
Because teachers are NOT confining themselves to teaching the things necessary for a child to advance academically (which is what school is for) like reading, writing, and arithmetic, and because teachers themselves were never taught proper spelling and grammar at school (to judge by letters home from teachers and principal alike), children will be behind when it comes to mastering difficult concepts later, never having being exposed to the vocabulary necessary to advance.
Promoting the cause of education would seem to mean more dues-paying Union-brand teachers; we must never forget that private, quality, Union-free education is available and must put pressure on the BC Government to give tax breaks to those not enrolling children in Unionized public schools.
Raising the status of teachers is a possibility, given their current low, strike-bound status, and their oft-perceived image as unreliable, overpaid daycare workers.
The final goal of promoting the welfare of teachers is one that the Union has achieved, through the methods of deserting classrooms and forcing parents to leave work to care for their children, and enforcing seniority over competence.
So, “Why No School Today?”? The answers are not to be found in Union propaganda!