Kerre Woodham: Teacher strikes seem unpatriotic

Teachers need to talk, not strike, and the Government needs to make concessions over their employment conditions. Photo / Janna Dixon

When it comes to the teachers' strike, I find myself in an ambivalent state of mind.

Most of us remember the name of our favourite teacher; the one who challenged us and pushed us and whom we admired and respected. I doubt many other professions inspire that same devotion.

Good teachers change lives. The number of successful people who say they would never have made it in life if it hadn't been for a teacher who saw their potential and believed in them is legion.

So I have much respect for teachers. It's also a tough job and getting tougher.

Teachers and schools are expected to shore up the gaps left by woeful and ignorant parents; to take children from dysfunctional families and turn them into model students between 9am and 3pm using just their willpower, charm and intellect.

Many of them also work without reimbursement doing extra hours to give their pupils every opportunity.

Teaching is a vocation, not a job. And yet, for teachers to be taking to the streets demanding more pay and better working conditions at this time - in the wake of Christchurch's earthquake and when the country is strapped for cash (bailouts to finance companies notwithstanding) - seems unpatriotic somehow.

Taking the strike during school hours is also disruptive to the very people they're meant to care about. If, as they say, they have to work all the hours God sends at home, after the school day ends, and if their enviable school holidays are chokka with development training and catching up on the term's work, as they continually point out, why don't they strike then - outside school hours?

Or if they want to point out how many unpaid hours they work with coaching, after-hours supervision and helping at school balls, why not withdraw those services? If teachers work to rule, surely that's getting their point across without disrupting hundreds of thousands of New Zealand families?

Teachers claim they are poorly paid in comparison to other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). David Farrar of Kiwiblog makes the point that we're all poorly paid in comparison to other countries. It's because we don't earn as much as everyone else. It's all about gross domestic product (GDP).

When you do the sums, as Farrar did, New Zealand teachers get paid more than almost every other country in the OECD compared to GDP per capita. They certainly get paid far more than the median wage - as well they should.

Maybe it's because I grew up in the 70s when unions would strike almost every other week, but it seems a blunt tool to try to get what you want.

And it also looks a bit petulant given the dysfunctional relationship teachers have with the Government and the Education Minister in particular.

Maybe it's just that teachers are tired of negotiation. After all, they have to do it every day with the toerags in their classes. They're sick of being reasonable. They want to lash out, rant at the unfairness of it all and hold their breath until the authority figure gives in. And we all know what a good teacher would tell a child who did that.

The PPTA needs to call off the strikes and get back to the table and the Education Minister needs to make concessions over employment conditions. In any conflict, wouldn't the teachers tell their pupils to negotiate, present a well-argued case and be willing to make concessions?

Apology to Jim Anderton

Like many people, I heard about the interview of Jim Anderton claiming it would take an earthquake for him to lose the election race against incumbent Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker.

Like many, after what happened down south, I was struck by the dreadful irony, though it seemed a perfectly valid comment - after all, Anderton was leading Parker in most polls and Christchurch is not usually prone to earthquakes.

But along with everyone else, I was sucked in by malicious editing of carefully selected and unrelated comments.

What Anderton actually said was that it would have taken a pretty big earthquake, a seismic shift, to get him to leave the Labour Party after such a long association with it. And he said that seismic shift was Rogernomics.

I apologise to Jim Anderton for unwittingly helping to spread misinformation and it's another valuable lesson that you shouldn't believe everything you read or hear - and that includes me.