NSW teachers are planning a strike and march to parliment house on thursday to protest our governments refusal to honor pay rises.
A 5.5% increase had already been given last december, but a further rise has been postponed after the government claimed that it could not "afford" this further rise.
Parents are know claiming that the teachers are holding their children to ransom, that they cannot afford the costs and inconvenience of placing their children in day care centers.
Now parents and the government might finally understand the often understated value of schools and the teachers that staff them. Not only are schools the institutions where children learn, receive the benefits of knowledge, get taught the morality and norms of a culture and give themselves the blessing of opportunity in a society where knowledge is the new religion - schools are what allow parents to remain productive members of society.
Not only do schools teach our children, they take care of them and protect them at that time of day when parents must, by necessity, be away from their child.
A single wage for a dual job. Teacher and child care worker.
No wonder teachers are up in arms about salaries that insult the position of responsibility and civic value they occupy.
If parents say that teachers should not hold their children to ransom, then i say we should stop holding our teachers to ransom so we can pretend that we are childless for eight hours out of twenty four. Bring into concordance the ovious value of the teachers role in society and the value of their pay check.
Please. We are talking about our children.
How little are they worth?