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“I’m anticipating a very calm school year” — Ontario Education Minister Liz Sandals, last September.
Good call, Liz.
Now let’s crack open a book, such as my Oxford dictionary.
“Essential,” it tells me, means “absolutely necessary; extremely important.”
Thus, cops are officially essential. They can’t strike. If they did, we’d all get mugged, or run over by speeders, though on the plus side we could park wherever we want.
Firefighters are essential. If they man picket lines instead of hose lines, we are toast when our illegally parked car catches fire. Plus, how will admiring women know what month it is.
The TTC was recently made an “essential service.” Its workers can no longer strike or be locked out. Otherwise, our tempers rise, the economy falls. Subway service will be disrupted. (I mean, more than it already is.)
There is a mounting cry to declare newspaper columnists an essential service, but I’m not holding my breath.
And teachers? Is education an essential service?
No, according to teachers and the powers that be. The future of our kids is not “essential?”
Well, that’s just nuts. Right, Nelson Mandela?
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Sounds essential to me. Weigh in, Diogenes, you wise old Greek?
[Read It All]
See Also:
(1) Should Teaching Be Declared An Essential Service?
(2) Institute teaching as an essential service
“To make teaching an essential service would ensure that children’s education is not treated as a game piece in a bargaining process over which students, parents and many teachers have no control.”
