FAIR AND SQUARE: Teacher's strikes are starting to be ridiculous, someone should finally give them more money!
This week, we keep hearing the word teacher from pretty much all the media. It totally brought me back to my school days. Teachers everywhere you look. I open the fridge - and the classroom teacher I used to hate back in elementary school drops out on me. These educated people want more money from the government. I don't blame them, but even so, in my opinion, this was the most pointless strike ever. Trade union leaders should realize their mistake, climb under the teacher's desk at stay there until the end of the school year!
I am definitely in favor of pedagogues making much more money than they are now. Their work is extremely responsible. And if you wanted to find a good teacher, you'd probably need a magnifying glass. Yet the fate of our nation's future intelligence is in their hands! Do you remember your school years? I do. Every now and then, we had a favorite teacher, who genuinely enjoyed his job and was able to engage the pupils and even teach them a thing or two.
I can basically speak German only thanks to that spectacled lady we used to make fun of for commuting to school on a bike. She was great. As a child, I didn't realize how much these grown-ups, who bothered us with homework assignments, were making. Money wasn't important to us. But even back then, and we are talking some 30 years ago, it was widely known that they were complaining about small wages. We didn't care, what really mattered to us was skip days, no homework and no stress. After all, we were never going to use the things we were learning there in real life...
I'm smiling as I write these words. How naive we were, how carefree and not roughened up by life. Full of ideals. When we were little, a friend of mine even imagined that when people say that teachers are running away from schools, it means they are literally fleeing. That the grab their bags, kick the door open and run away with horror in their eyes. That's how stupid we were. Today we are all grown up and chasing money to have a good life. We all want a bigger paycheck, it's natural. So why do teachers earn so little for so many years as civil servants?
Alright, it's finally been improving over the last three years. At last, they might be able to afford a vacation at the sea, for example. However, that doesn't change the fact that this strike was ill-advised and stupid. The trade unionists have been throwing lame arguments, and way too late. I think they rather than for more and more money, they should be fighting for more teachers. For better conditions for their profession, which of course is related to money. It's the same problem as with doctors.
There are almost 10,000 schools in the Czech Republic. Most face an alarming shortage of teachers. That's an issue that should be addressed. Trade unions should definitely be asking for more money, but it needs to be put a bit differently. Such as making it clear that if this sector isn't regularly subsidized, there will eventually be no one left to teach the new, emerging generation. And there are a lot of idiots walking among us already, can you imagine the disaster if education wasn't available for lack of manpower? Who can afford to pay tuition to all their children today?
Here's the angle you should push, dear adults. Kids don't care, it will take some time until they make sense of it. But us educated people - you - are here, and saving our children's brains is completely in our hands.
