Raise your banners high

[la_marquise]

This blog supports the University and College Union strike today.
Our sector did not cause the economic downturn. We didn't cause the one before that, either. We work hard, we contribute to society and we are good at our jobs. We deserve fair pay, conditions and pensions. We do *not* deserve to see those cut to pay for a deficit caused by others.

(Note to the unwise: I come from a family of union activists. My whole family work in the education sector. I know what I'm talking about. Anyone taking the 'teachers and lecturers have it cushy line' may not like the response they get from me.)

Comments

[were-gopher.livejournal.com]

Hear hear! My brother has a chair in the school of engineering at Sheffield University and I've heard him say that with travelling to lecture in Europe and America and chasing project funding wherever he can find it on top of his own students and research he could probably earn more per hour cleaning windows.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Oh, yes.

[dorispossum.livejournal.com]

Are you coming to London march saturday? (so far about 4 of us going down from here - on train. you'd be welcome to join us).

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Can't, alas -- I'm expecting mevennen. Wave a banner for me!

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

Hallelujiah and pass the whiskey. Total support here too.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Thank you.

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

I'm a teacher too, remember. You won't get any flak from me. Good Luck

[makyo.livejournal.com]

Quite right. We're the ones who help put things back together after the idiots in the City have wrecked it all again.

Also, I've had eleven personal tutees graduate in the last two years. Four got firsts, five got 2.1s, and two got 2.2s. Now they're the ones who put in the really hard work, and deserve the real credit, but I've always been there when they needed help, and I've done my best to encourage and support them. In addition, I teach the remedial course for the third-year students who have dropped off the honours degree onto the pass/ordinary degree, and with at most one exception a year, they all end up doing ok, so that's another twenty students whom I helped graduate with (third or 2.2 class) honours who were previously heading for a fail. Where's my five- or six-figure bonus? Come to think of it, where's my job security or vaguely decent rate of pay?

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Absolutely.

[leita-love-bug.livejournal.com]

Agreed on all of this. I work in public education at the Elementary level. Our pay was frozen two years ago, and we had a retroactive pay cut the year previous to that which cane out of our last paycheck for the year (you know, the one that has to cover three months of bills instead of just one, during that wonderful break everyone seems to think is our big vacation time). We're looking at a third year of pay freeze and position cuts. We're already down to the bone, so my question is what will we cut next, students? THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT! They are trying to pass a bill now to give parents tax breaks if they pull their children out of public education and put them in private school. How is this supposed to help our economy?! All we'll end up with is overcrowded private schools paid for with taxpayer money, and meanwhile the public education system will crumble.

I like the meme that's going around on Facebook lately, wherein teaching is compared to babysitting, except babysitters make more per kid per hour than teachers do, and if we paid teachers the same rates as babysitters they might be in danger of actually being able to support themselves without roommates or multiple jobs.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

It shows what kind of people are in power, doesn't it? Rich, privileged and heartless.