THANK YOU

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Mental Exercise": 
I know what you are trying to do in getting down to the actual weeks worked (or weeks in front of students) but you lost me after the 37 weeks.
We do need to compare apples & apples. 
The idea of subtracting weekend time doesn’t work when comparing to other work period (as no one really counts a work week as 7 days). And that includes “The school day is 1/3 of an ordinary day” getting it to 20 weeks. In fact by your math the 30 weeks would then be 10 weeks. So you are now comparing apples & oranges in your timings. 
One way to look at it is that the average worker out there has 52 weeks of the year – less 2 weeks holidays, less 2 weeks statutory holidays, less perhaps 1 week sick days (I bet most people don’t know that paid sick days are not mandated by the Ontario Government). So to compare to your numbers, the average worker would be working 47 weeks. This is the maximum number of weeks that an employer can expect the worker to be available to work.
The real difference between your numbers (37) and the 47 above is the summer. (and no… I am not a teacher). What everyone may look at is “How much more do teachers work in their 37 weeks to warrant them getting the summer off?”
Right now the teachers are being made the scapegoats of the day from our bungling provincial government while everyone (perhaps to the Liberals delight) forgets about Ornge, E-health, cancelled gas-fired electrical plants, etc., etc.
Come election time (which will be sooner than later) who will lead out of this mess?
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We should. 
I measure the success of a post by the response it generates. 
I'm not trying to compare a teachers work year to other workers. 
I engaged  in the exercise to reflect how much  time  kids  spend in the classroom. Also our investment  in infrastructure that's  empty  two thirds of the time.  
I cannot  comparing salaries  and benefits when  I have no idea what  teachers receive in return for services.
Everyone stays mum on the subject. 
It's a conspiracy of silence.
I  believe society can make no wiser  investment  than in  education. 
At the same time we are making the investment, I'm not satisfied we are getting the return.
I think it's time we talked about that.  
A day lost cannot be retrieved. It's a day lost. 
There are not enough days in the classroom that we can afford to  forfeit more, so that teachers can express their dis-satisfaction  with government at the expense of  students and the institution they serve. 
Schools have become like many other public institution.  Servants become the ones  being served.
Teachers unions need to know their  tactics are not winning them  friends. Far from it.  I see anger growing. Public outrage is a lot harder to quell  than it is to check in the first place. 
Parents need to let politicians know, loss of a day's learning  matters more than the inconvenience of  having to find a baby-sitter.
I've mentioned  findings of a study in Waterloo  on the  high cost of policing.
By Grade 5, children who will be in trouble with the law can be identified.
If they can't read and write, they have no future. 
It costs $270,000 a year for custodial care  of one inmate.
Stephen Harper thinks the solution to crime is to put more people in jail. Build more jails to accommodate more criminals.  
Do we, as a community, imagine that's a better way to use our resources?
Last week a headline noted  that in Ohio , students are not to be promoted beyond Grade 3 without  having learned to read. 
All education beyond that point depends on that ability..
Why is that so GD hard to understand?
How did we get to the point that  thousands of  twelve-year olds  in  the  school system, have no  future other  than a predictable career in crime?
Why do we not talk plainly about these things? 
Why are parents so easily persuaded it's the fault of the child?
Well.... maybe we've reached the tipping point. 
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