Nigel Barriffe

thought you might enjoy this article by Barrie a high school teacher.

Anti-Teacherism 101

I couldn’t avoid it: there it was, posted like obscene graffiti on the wall right above the photocopier in the staff room: “Teachers Need a Dose of Reality.” (thebarrieexaminer.com 15/12/2008) As I scanned the editorial, which appeared in the Barrie Examiner along with numerous other Sun Media owned papers across Ontario, I wondered if it was just my imagination or did the thing actually sound a bit like a racist rant against teachers. Well, as a teacher who covers To Kill a Mockingbird and In the Heat of the Night, both of which feature Afro-Americans being “framed” as a metaphor for racism, it’s hard for me not to see some strong parallels to the primitive racist thinking process.

They’re all the same: The editorial is ostensibly concerned about elementary teachers’ rejection of a 12% pay hike over four years, but they are only mentioned briefly in the introduction—the rest of the article is about teachers in general. The fact that one teacher’s union seemed to reject a deal (although they never did get a chance to vote on it) is used to imply that all teachers (even the other three unions who accepted the deal) are guilty of the same crime.

They are outsiders: Immigrants, people of colour and even aboriginals are often characterized as being alien or “other” no matter how long they have been “here”. They can never been seen as one of “us”. Teachers are presented here as coming from their own planet: “Seriously, did you ever wonder what colour the sky is, on the planet where teachers live?”

They are ingrates: Probably the worst sin in the racist book is for the minority group to not take what they are granted and be grateful for it: teachers who ask for a better deal call on the wrath of the rest of us for being uppity. In an enlarged caption, the article asks, “Is there any segment of Canadian society being offered a similar deal in these strained financial times?” Certainly no one writing editorials for the pleasure of Pierre Peladeau, President of Sun Media, wants you to believe there is a segment doing better than the rest of us, but a January 2009 publication by the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, entitled “Banner Year for Canada’s CEOs: Record High Pay Increase,” suggests that the captains of industry , such as Peladeau (who ranks 75th), aren’t exactly about to go down with the ship.

They have enjoyed a decade of record pay hikes and will enjoy a softer cushion if they stumble from their lofty heights in the New Year. Average pay for the top 100 CEOs was up 22% from its $8.5 million average in 2006. In contrast, average Canadian earnings rose by only 3.2%--the best increase in the past five years, but a small fraction of the CEOs’ pay hike and barely keeping up with inflation.

They are to blame; never mind the facts. Racists like to scapegoat minorities for everything from high interest to crime, no matter how selective they have to be with the facts. A classic example would be the allusion to the “fact” that students are performing poorly, as implied by the following reference to EQAO results: “And, dare we mention the less than stellar results from the EQAO (Education Quality and Accountability Office)?” The sarcastic tone implies that the dismal facts are just too obvious to mention. Also not mentioned is the Chair of EQAO’s summary:
The results from this and other recently released international assessments paint a clear picture: Ontario’s students stack up quite well on the international stage, but there is still work to be done to ensure they are consistently among the world’s top performers. (EQAO.com)

Gee! How less than stellar can you get?!!!

They’re all like that: Stereotypes about factors which the targeted group is unable to control are the hallmark of bigotry. A certain skin colour or religion makes one prone to drunkenness, greed or terrorism. The fact that pretty much all teachers everywhere have their summers and major holidays away from the students makes them lazy: “They work nine months a year. They never work weekends, very few evenings (parent-teacher meetings and school concerts excepted), and no statutory holidays.” Of course, the fact that teachers couldn’t change these arrangements if they wanted, or that most do put in great amounts of extra time makes no difference to the anti-teacherite.

I know a good one. To prove he is open minded, the bigot invariably broadcasts that he “knows a good one” or accepts some of them as “individuals”—just as long as they don’t associate or identify with others of their kind. The editorial concedes: “Individually, teachers may well be very fine, compassionate, dedicated people” but it is “as a group” that their attitude is intolerable.

They are parasites: In racist belief, “we” are invariably characterized as the victims of a parasitic minority that is catching an easy blood-meal from the host society. The article concludes that teachers are “either blissfully unaware of economic reality or trying to get blood from a stone. The rest of us? We're the stone.”

Indeed, when continually “framed” in this manner, it seems almost as if the teachers are somehow almost benefiting from our insecurity.
When teachers look up at the sky on that enviable planet where they live, they should be thankful they do not see the lowering clouds of insecurity, increased hours, negotiated concessions or even the lightning bolts of joblessness.

What’s the solution? For one thing, it makes us want to take them teachers down a notch. And, judging by the virtual lynching that teachers have received in the online responses to the article, it worked. It got people to agree that, as the title suggests, “teachers need a dose of reality,” and such job insecurity as mentioned above is precisely the dose prescribed. More telling, however, is the fact that that the author doesn’t really see the “clouds of insecurity, increased hours, negotiated concessions or even the lightning bolts of joblessness” as a bad thing at all. Moreover the author views “increased hours” (which would obviously increase unemployment) as a solution. That’s because such things can be very beneficial to the profit of corporations by driving down wages: it’s the very reason why they so frequently shop jobs to places like Mexico and China, where insecurity makes people only too happy to accept the realities of increased hours and reduced pay. Furthermore, with fewer human rights and social services, these workers aren’t in a position to ask for more.

Which brings us back to the question of why there’s an almost racist feeling to the editorial’s depiction of teachers. One reason could be that many corporations feel that—even though the public sector has no role in causing such recessions as we are currently experiencing—any economic downturn is an ideal time to ramp up the anti-public sector, pro-privatization rhetoric. But, another, perhaps more important reason, might simply be that teachers can be used as the ideal warning to those still with jobs of what not to be: they see jobs as a hard-earned right, not as a lucky win in the global employment casino or as a corporate donation. They demand a fair wage, a secure pension, and a union to protect their working conditions. Finally, and perhaps worst of all (if you want a cheap and docile workforce) they educate people.