Checksum: 16694
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From: gbs@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Gideon Sheps)
Date: Tue, 14-Nov-89 23:11:44 EST
Message-ID: <1989Nov14.231144.4755@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Organization: University of Toronto Computing Services
Newsgroups: ont.general
Distribution: can

Newsgroups: ont.general
Subject: Re: Community College Teachers on strike
References: <606@alias.UUCP> <12258@watcgl.waterloo.edu> <7470@cognos.UUCP>
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Reply-To: gbs@gpu.utcs.UUCP (Gideon Sheps)
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Distribution: can
Organization: Hobbits For Peace
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In article <7470@cognos.UUCP> rayt@cognos.UUCP (R.) writes:
>In article <12258@watcgl.waterloo.edu> Mark Earnshaw writes:
>
>
>I couldn't let this pass: the man is making _at least_ $50K a year and is
>on strike for more money! As I understand it, this is in the middle range
>for university professors: who are primarily charged with _research_. It

	Nonsense - it's closer to the bottom for tenured faculty

>is certainly outrageous for secondary and elementary teachers, and, as I
>understand it, community college teachers are not in the research business
>either; thus this salary is purely for their instructional talents.

	Instruction is no mean feat - and in many respects, worth much
	more than research. Yes, I risk saying this on an academic
	machine - as much as I value the research done by university 
	staff, the instruction of what we already know is by far the
	more important task in my mind. For without teaching - good 
	teaching - you can, at very least, kiss the next generation 
	of researchers goodbye. 

>Also, based on the quality of the students I have met coming into university
>from secondary school, a good chunk of these $50K secondary school teachers
>are incompetent (i.e. only worth $20K). Perhaps, though, these community
>college teachers are the hidden stars of our educational system. Dubito.

	Perhaps the really good ones are actually worth more ?
	Tell me, what sort of value would you put on your future
	if you were just now entering the educational system ?

>Ray Tigg                          |  Cognos Incorporated

	I am the son of a high school English teacher, and a University
	professor (also of English.. don't ask how I got into computers)
	The professor earns the higher salery of the two - enven though the
	school teacher is in the top pay bracket. The teacher has by far 
	the more difficult job, and by far the larger responsibility - in so
	far as, by the time the professor gets the student, they are 
	more or less completely developed as people (esp. with grad students)
	whereas teaching high school you are doing more than simply leacture
	on tonights topic - you are a major part of a child development,
	what you do - and how you teach has more to do with how these
	children will turn out than any univeristy job can ever hope to 
	have. How many people go to university ? I believe the figures for
	Canada are something like 15% of the pop hold an undergraduate
	degree. All 100% of us will meet the people who teach the 1st through
	8th grade (at least, we're all supposed too). These people have, by far,
	the more responsible job. Why we pay them as little as we do is
	completely beyond me.


-- 
Gideon Sheps
I am not a number ...                             ...I am a free variable !
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