The three way conversation about the teachers’ strike was brief.
“I went to a one-room school with 30 kids and one teacher,” commented one party. “It was fine.”
“And we had eight grades,” said another.
Out of politeness Yours Truly changed the subject.
The one-room-one-teacher school did provide Yours Truly and others a basic education in the three Rs, a bit of science, history, and maybe some art.
Education in the old one-room school was much less complicated.
Today’s teachers not only teach but are counsellors and social workers as well as doing extra-curricular activities.
Students who were punished in one-room schools for misbehaviour got a second punishment at home if the parents found out.
Now if students are punished many parents phone the school asking why teachers are picking on their kid.
Students in the one-room school were unlikely to be disruptive. Today’s classes can be disrupted by one angry, misbehaving student and the teacher has little recourse to control the situation.
Special needs students — slow learners, those with vision, intellectual or severe physical disabilities — needing extra attention rarely attended one-room schools.
Without adequate support for special needs students and large classes teachers can’t be effective.
That is the message the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation is trying to get across in current contract bargaining.
The Regina Leader-Post calculated the average at $88,000. Employment site Indeed.com places the average at $59,400.
The question is: would you do the job for that money.
Teaching a class today, trying to keep order, trying to keep students interested when they’d rather play with their phones is [I presume] stressful.
Salaries for alternate jobs with less stress and less training are often quite high. Potash workers average $93,000.
Saskatchewan truck drivers earn between $16,000 and $130,000 a year requiring just weeks of training without the responsibility of educating youngsters.
The last year of the current teacher contract starts the grid at $49,588 for the first year unless the teacher has extra certificates and degrees when the amount ranges from $59,459 to $66,940.
Teachers with 10 years’ experience and just a teachers’ certificate are paid $67,784. If they have additional certificates and another degree top rate is $97,834.
Considering the possibility of alternate occupations teachers seem to be okay financially.
The teachers’ spokespeople say the sticky issue isn’t pay but working conditions as the basis for the vote to strike.
Not resolving the working conditions can impact the future supply of teachers just as it has with nursing.
Recruiting young people into teaching becomes difficult if they see working conditions are unacceptable.
[I think] the issues could be solved easily by arbitration.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
