We're generally supportive of the job that teachers do. It's certainly not a role which we would ever contemplate taking on. We can recall our youth, and what obnoxious snots we were; young people certainly haven't improved in the many intervening years.
We're far less charitable towards the two major teacher unions though. We regard ourselves as fortunate that few, if any of the staff we employ see any benefit in membership of the NZEI. We try our best to be a good employer, and it would seem that most of our teaching staff feel likewise.
We're getting off the point though; we were NOT impressed by two union stories on the TV news last night. First up, 3News carried the story of accusations of brainwashing of students against the PPTA. Letters have been arriving at Education Minister Anne Tolley's office from students supposedly supporting secondary teachers' pay claims. That the letters are all similar in content suggests collusion. That the letters are printed on PPTA-branded stationery is telling. Anne Tolley is absolutely right, in our always-humble opinion, to call the PPTA on this unprofessional conduct. We hope that the Boards of Trustees of the schools involved investigate this, and make it clear to any teachers involved that using students as pawns in their political games is totally off limits.
The second story concerns the NZEI, which is holding its conference in Rotorua this week. One News reported that Anne Tolley was invited to address the conference, but delegates put on a concerted display of rudeness of the highest order. If they didn't want Tolley there, why did they extend an invitation to her? Teachers may not like the government's policy of National Standards for whatever reason, but the evidence to date is that parents are right behind the government.
Possibly the worst aspect of this childish protest was that it appeared on the video to be orchestrated and led by those sitting at the top table; the NZEI hierarchy (see the photograph above). Leaving aside the obvious politics involved, this was an appalling display of discourtesy by the NZEI to an invited guest. The cynic in us wonders how the teachers attending yesterday's session model couresy and respect to students whom they are teaching.
Yesterday was not a red-letter day for the teacher unions. It's in their DNA to oppose pretty much anything that a National government proposes, but both the NZEI and PPTA hit new lows yesterday.
26 comments:
Have you ever seen Anne Tolley talk? I have twice, and she is extremely rude and ungracious. She comes with a written speech prepared in advance, that is usually inaccurate and offtopic. She speaks and leaves, and will not answer questions.
Quite honestly - the worst key note speaker I have ever seen! On this occasion, the NZEI were unprofessional, but it was wonderful to see a crack in the practiced veneer that is Anne Tolley's mask. Understand she is an idiot and a puppet to the masters. Unprepared to do any candid speaking to those that know more about the subject than her....
The current ECE reforms are an abomination and will cost regular mums and dad's more for ECE for their children. For the teachers to stand up and stick up for all the parents out there - good on them!
Paul Henry was very critical of the NZEI conduct this morning.
The footage I saw showed incrediblely bad manners to say the least.
If the Union want to deal in a civilised manner with the Minister then a modicum of courtesy goes a heck of a long way.
Big ups to the minister for toughing out in the face of adversity.
What vitriol!
Oh, and I am a parent of 1 school age and one almost school age children. I fully support national standards, and one day performance based pay for teachers.
As a client of mine said light blue touch paper and stand well back.
Anon has seen Tolley address a conference of teachers and describes her manner as 'rude and ungracious'.
Alex counters with 'Paul Henry was very critical .."
Good grief!
And I've seen Tolley address an ECE sector conference, and actually impress those present (few of whom would be National supporters) with her willingness to engage. I guess it all depends on where your agenda lies ...
I was being polite.
To think that teachers like to describe themselves as "prefessionals"! That was the behaviour of a bunch of mardy sulking kids, not supposed professionals.
@alex - my kids would be a couple of years younger than yours (eldest will be starting in about six months) and it's a frightening thought that they'll be left alone with idiots like this for a good proportion of most days...
An extremely graphic illustration of the reasons so many of us concerned with the lack of real growth in the levels of achievement among the total graduating students each year and are wanting the introduction of national standards and ultimately teacher evaluations that can be employed in a performance based pay scale. Don't these idiots see that their protest would have had a greater impact if their rudeness had not deemed the childish orchestrated signage involvement. Right up there with the "four, six, goal and try signs that are given away to children at major sports events.
BTW did those blatantly political signs meet authorisation rules? just wondering.
I saw it on the news last night as well. I couldn't help thinking, "and these people are supposed to be teachers"? How childish. I thought it was a pathetic display.
ECE reforms - let's not forget Labour bribed parents big time with extra funding and National are only unwinding it to reasonable levels (ECE centres do NOT need 100% qualified staff)
National Standards - my children's school are just getting on with it (I did say I wouldn't pay my 'voluntary' donations if they didn't). Why can't other schools just bite their tongue and do it - if it helps they could close their eyes and pretend it's Labour doing it.
Striking teachers - short term pain for long term gain. If they strike again, lock them out. There's no money for pay increases this year, the socialists blew it on train sets.
Agree 100% on ECE ratios RightNow. One does not have to be a degree or diploma qualified ECE teacher to change nappies, supervise sleeping children or feed them. Centres are 100% safe with 80% qualified ECE teachers.
On the ECE front, I would only observe that the best teachers my kids have had, have been those young keen types still working towards their qualifications...
Teachers may not like the government's policy of National Standards for whatever reason, but the evidence to date is that parents are right behind the government.
That's an unsubstantiated comment if ever I saw one. Have you been listening to Anne Tolley?
"If they strike again, lock them out."
Please RightNow, get on the phone to Tolley.
Brilliant idea!!!
Great tactic!!!
It's not an idea I'd favour Robert; conversely, the PPTA ought not be playing politics with students' learning in the run-up to exams in the fourth term.
Alex have you read the National Standards?? How can you support the NS, they are the biggest load of educational babbling rubbish I have ever read. I have been teaching for 8 years and it will not improve education. It is bad enough reading them, you try implementing them. Most teachers are against NS because of there lack of clarity and the fact that the the next step is National Testing.
Gravedodger. Firstly, the statistics show that more people are leaving schools with qualification. That is probably more to do with our current system but I would like to know where your stats come from when you make a statement like "the lack of real growth in the levels of achievement among the total graduating students each year."
Secondly, how do you propose to bring in a performance based pay scale in our education system? I would be all for this to be bought in but as yet I have never seen or heard a system explained where this would work. Rather than just shooting for the lip Gravedigger, back up your argument and tell us how to do it!!! The reality is if you go to a performance based system the entire system will fall over - especially for lower economic areas.
RightNow - the reality is that this dispute has little to do with pay. If you think it is about the 4% then you have been hoodwinked by the media and government. Issues like class sizes, management loads, safety in the classroom etc are more pressing matters. If the Government came back with the pay increase of 1.5% now and 1% next year (which is what they have on the table)and addressed a few of the conditions mentioned above I think you would find a different response by the unions.
The way I see it this could be a long and interesting fight. Both parties have completely different agendas. The government want to destroy the union while the union want to protect the ground they have made over the last few years.
The difficulty for the union is that they have few options available to themselves. I cant see striking going for too long as members wont want to lose pay so other options will be bought in around time and marking.
On the other hand the government wont want this issue to go to far into election year.
Appreciate your contribution Ozy. If only the teacher unions were able to express things as clearly and concisely. That they have muddied the waters so badly suggests that their communication strategy is badly flawed.
@Ozy - I read the (maths) Standard and thought it was pretty straightforward and easy to understand. It certainly ticked the boxes I want as a parent.
Given clear end-of-year benchmarks for students, it's pretty simple to reward a teacher for improvements from one to the next. I've heard the "whole system will fall over" argument, but have yet to hear an actual explanation of how that will occur - it comes across as random scaremongering to me.
I'd expect the degree of difficulty in raising kids performance would be pretty much the same across the deciles - at the high end, you've probably got pretty high-achieving kids already and it's harder to raise them even further, at the low end you've got huge opportunity to improve but less support from parents and more factors working against you.
All that's needed is a scheme that loads the incentives for raising the performance of well below average kids...
how can you say in your first paragraph that you support teachers...
but then say you don't support their union - despite 95% of teachers being unionised? NZEI represents these teachers... what are you on about?
Oh it's just UNIONS fullstop - I see. Employees are best when isloated and vunerable.... right...
and people willingly work for you? Wow.
Ozy challenged a lot of ignorance - well done!
Just to add though:
Rightnow:
20hr free ECE is not a LABOUR BRIDE you paranoid fuck. It is an investment in enabling parents to work/train and thus boost the economy. ECE has exploded since this hugely popular policy came in and National wouldn't touch it in million years.
And Inventory:
100% qualified teachers equates as quality outcomes. Trained teachers know the theory and how to implement it. The first five years are critical for learning and best not left to some minimum wage Nanna. Recent theory on attachement and learning place the caregiving moments (feeding, sleeping and toileting) as critical bonding periods between child and teacher that is a prerequisite to learning and is best not left to the minimum wage Nanna.
ECE centres are for learning not babysitting. Your comments indicate that your agenda is profit rather than the child.
National Standards...
Thank you Ozy. The biggest problem is the complete ignorance of how they failed to achieve anything when used overseas! They are the product of very narrow homogenious minds... thus National just loves the idea...
Tis a big subject and knowing the mentality of the majority of your readers... that's enough pissing into the wind!
Satan.
@ Satan - I can give you a categorical assurance that our motive is NOT profits ahead of children; our accountant wishes it was!
I2, you have really hit the big time with Satan posting here!
The Prince of Darkness read you the riot act Invent and he's got it in several.
You can't keep your feet in that wind!
A very passionate defence of the teachers indefensible behavior, but not much debate on alternative solutions to the appalling statistics on the levels of achievement by the unfortunates who come out of the current system with language and numeracy skills that will deny them any chance of success in the real world.
National campaigned on making an attempt to address the obvious problems with the introduction of National Standards but as the teachers know best then they will continue to bully anyone who wont follow the union line and of course the stupid parents who want a more realistic assessment of their child's progress just do not have enough education to understand the issues with their children's relative progress and addressing any problems at an early stage..
Assessing teachers ability will have challenges but giving the one size fits all reward to competent and incompetent teachers is a major impediment to raising the achievement levels of all students. Employing the childish tactics to treat a guest at the conference in that manner was an indictment on the true attitudes of all those teachers. That they complied was North Korea politics 101 and embarrassing to me as a citizen who actually cares about the outcomes we are achieving in education.
In an earlier life as Chair of a 4 teacher rural primary school I faced the very real problem of a teacher who struggled with one on one infant teaching and the only viable solution seemed to be to give him an introduction and orienteering role with new infants for the briefest possible time and load the other three teachers with larger classes. On inquiry to his previous large city school we were astounded to learn they had removed him from any classroom involvement and he saw out his time as a library assistant. He was totally incompetent but union protection ensured he was delivered to another unsuspecting school by a hamstrung Education Dept and we were just the unfortunates who had to suffer him.
My local Area school is implementing the National Standards program with little adjustment to what they were doing before the introduction of N S without any problem as I understand it, and with the full cooperation of the staff and the support of the BOT.
That teachers have such little regard for students in less fortunate schools as they approach the watershed of their days at school is not a significance of the gravity they hold in their opposition to N S but merely a cynical disregard for their students outcomes as they selfishly pursue their politically motivated desire to maintain the clearly flawed system Mrs Tolley and the current government are addressing.
Short answer shape up or ship out.
@ Robert and Alex - no problems with Satan posting here; I'm a son of the Living God, so there's nothing to fear!
Ironically Satan, the sector of ECE in which we operate requires 100% registered teachers, even though we are one of ECE's lowest-funded sectors. We have no problems attracting good staff, and they are welcome to join a union if they wish; most however choose not to. We try our very hardest to operate in an environment of mutual trust and we are totally transparent to our staff; that's our philosophy. We're yet to make a profit and we have invested more than I care to think about in the business, both financially and emotionally. We also have a constructive and collaborative relationship with the Ministry - that makes a huge difference.
Well this could take a while, but it is needed to make my point.
James Stevenson - Lets look at one of the Maths standards. Lets take the year 7 and 8 standards as I work in that area. Under the Number and Algebra section we have the following statements...
YEAR 7 - apply additive and multiplicative strategies flexibly to whole numbers, ratios, and equivalent fractions (including percentages
and then
YEAR 8 - apply multiplicative strategies flexibly to whole numbers, ratios, and equivalent fractions (including decimals and percentages)
You will notice there are only two word changes between the years. This makes working our where a child is almost impossible. One teacher might rank a child above the standard while another below. Furthermore what happens if a kids can do half of the standards at one level but struggles with the other. Where do you place the child then? This is maths which is a relativeley concrete subject. The standards are just as vague in english where it is even more down to the teacher.
While the NS are good in theory they have been rushed through without any thought or training. HOW CAN YOU HAVE A NATIONAL STANDARD WITHOUT A SPECIFIC BENCHMARK??? The Governement wants us to report to standards but then they give us vague statments to measure against with no training. The Ministry in their wisdom have advised us to use OTJ (overall Teacher Judgements)by looking at a wide variety of assessments to match kids up with the standards. Surely if it was standard you wouldn't need OTJ's.
You then said we coudld reward teachers on improvements after each year. Reading the above standards dont you think that is a little difficult when there are no clear cut objectives for students to learn.
But for argument sake lets go along with that. If I have a child who is working 'at the standard' when they arrive in my class and I am on perfomrance based pay why would I mark them 'below the standard'. The only option to rid this is a national test. this will be the next move and we dont want to have that in our primary schools
The whole system has been implemented and developed poorly. the sooner people realise the better.
Please dont think I am against national standards. I have worked din Britain were my 13 year old students had their common entrance exams to determine which schools they got into and I thought that system was great.
What I am annoyed about is people hearing the government media spin that this will raise achievement and tell parents where there kids are.
The reality is that schools are already doing that. the reality is that now I have to write down and let a 11 year old student that he/she is failing the system.
GRAVEDIGGER - Here is my solution ( incidently you didn't proved any solution to my question as to how to pay teachers according to their ability) - Only have NS it fixed points throughout our education system. A national test at Years 4 and 8. This would mean that students could work towards these assessment at various paces and anable schools to help those in need without telling them they are failures every year.
Secondly - I challenge you to go down to your local school and ask hard pointed questions about NS. You will soon realise they basically just put students in those area because they felt that was were they belonged.
Finally it is for those students in the less fortunate schools we are fighting for. I am a union member but dont believe in striking. SO I will take a cut in pay and still go to school which I did on our last day. I am a union memebr becuase I believe teahcer need a unified voice, especially those that work in tougher environments than me.
It might be worth some of the posters to critique their idea of 'success' and then imagine this state of personal achievement measured against anothers.
What we are seeing is neoliberalism defining 'success' for our children. This success is strongly linked to national economic gains. Thus we see funding cut from those deemed to fall outside the bellcurve: pre-schoolers, disabled, minorities etc.
National Standards puts this 'success' ideology into practice and fails all children ultimately as no one learns the same way, at the same time or has 'strengths' that are acceptable to the Government.
Remenber, we learn when we are intertested... this invokes motivation and so it goes.
Compulsion leads to bored kids - and our school are bursting with bored kids.
Santa Claus.
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