Feb 25, 2013- 3:36 PM
I don’t know what type of math Mr. Guilbault is using, but teachers do not work only 846 hours in a year, which equals 24 weeks out of 52. They are at school for seven hours a day. Teachers don’t start right at 9 a.m. and end right at 3 p.m.
They have one week off at Christmas, one in March and nine weeks during the summer. Therefore they are off a total of 11 weeks and work the remaining 41. So 41 weeks times 35 hours a week is 1,435 hours (not 846).
Now if you take in prep time, anywhere from five to 10 hours a week, report card preparations and parents/teacher meetings, then you can add at least another 400 hours a year. You are now up to 1,835 hours a year.
So an elementary teacher with five years of university makes between $23 and $33 an hour. It would appear that the police, firemen, nurses and probably Vale workers make more.
Teachers have always been involved in extracurricular activities such as sports, music, art, dances, plays, helping students after school. They would be there for the students when most parents would or could not.
Sure, it might not be every teacher, all the time, but you and I both know that someone was doing these things. Until recently.
For a lot of teachers, stopping these activities was very difficult, and you will find some who could not follow the directive of their union to stop them altogether. They’ve come to know and care about their kids.
And yes, some teachers have teaching assistants in their classes because all children who have physical, educational and emotional impairments are now streamlined into the classroom, unlike in my days.
And for this work they do with our children every day, they get to have their legal contracts declared void and have new ones forced on them without a chance to negotiate.
They also get to be verbally abused and devalued by their employer — publicly, no less. Shame on you, Premier McGuinty, and shame on us for believing him.
Sue Leblanc
Greater Sudbury
