So at this point in my logic chain, I have:

1. People should support education –> People should support education, which is mostly about teaching (a narrowing);
2. Teachers disagree with the government’s approach –> The Government made a bad policy decision

The next sub-element is that teachers believe the government made a bad policy decision.

Bad policy

1. Education funding levels;
2. Larger class-sizes;
3. Firing teachers;
4. Non-renewal of lapsing “local priorities” funding;
5. Violence in the classroom; and,
6. Salary increase of 1%.

I confess in advance that I’m going to fall off the logic chain pretty fast in this list. Let’s start with the overall heading — education funding.

Education funding

While the Government is claiming an increase in education funding of $1.2B, it’s a misleading figure, mainly as it includes a lot of money in there for child-care.  » Read the rest

I find it odd, and a little offensive, the constant rhetoric that gets launched at times at people who might disagree with teachers striking “for the kids”. The argument is not very complex, but bears laying out:

1. People should support education
2. Teachers deliver education
3. Teachers are striking to change the government’s bad approach to education

Ergo, people should support a teachers’ strike. And, of course, the reverse MUST be true — if you don’t support a strike, you obviously hate teachers, kids and education.

Which leaves me with a puzzling conundrum. I cannot support strike action, yet I don’t hate teachers, kids or education. So where did I fall off the train above? I initially wrote a REALLY long post and realized it is way too convoluted to share as a single post. As such, I’m breaking it into five parts. This first part deals with the first two arguments above and the scope of “education”.  » Read the rest