Lessons In Life [tribune.ie]
- Published: 06 June 2010
Short working hours, long holidays: many people think of teachers as having it easy. But an educator's lot is not an easy one. As the academic year draws to an close, Patrick Freyne talks to four teachers about the joys and trials of shaping a generation. Photographs by Lar Boland
The beloved teachers depicted in Dead Poets Society and Goodbye, Mr Chips have, it seems, been replaced in the public imagination by holiday-hungry, public-sector grumps. But teachers' pay has dropped (by 14% if you count the pension levy), class sizes are growing, and anecdotally it appears that older teachers, fearful of possible pension cuts, are retiring early. In this context the Croke park public-sector pay deal has been rejected by two of the teachers' unions (the TUI and the ASTI), the sector is raging, and those outside it seem surprisingly unsympathetic.
Full Story: www.tribune.ie
