'Brave face' Coughlan owed an apology for ambush [Independent.ie]
- Published: 11 April 2010
The loutish behaviour of delegates at last week's TUI conference revealed them to be out-of-touch bullies, writes Anne Harris.
WELL, she was asking for it, wasn't she? Blonde with a foul mouth and hot red lipstick.
So she had just arrived and didn't really know her way around. But her reputation went before her and that's enough, isn't it? And there's the gang she hung around with. It's all their fault really.
"We are the teachers and we're very upset. We're not getting the love that every child should get."
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Letters: Paying teachers to make mischief [Independent.ie]
- Published: 11 April 2010
Sir -- I refer to the article entitled 'The great escape into teaching' that featured in last week's paper (Sunday Independent, April 4, 2010). After reading this article I was both amazed and disappointed.
The opening assertion that "teaching is seen as a lifestyle choice" shocked me. "A lifestyle choice?" I asked myself. But I thought all teachers were in their "vocation" because they felt a need to educate the young, because they always knew they wanted to be teachers, because they didn't mind correcting papers long into the night while us private-sector workers clocked off at five from a day of drinking coffee and chatting at the water cooler?
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Colum Kenny: Our children deserve better than this fare served up by teachers [Independent.ie]
- Published: 11 April 2010
Teachers did neither themselves nor their country any favours at their annual conferences, writes Colum Kenny.
IT WAS not a pretty sight. On one side, Minister Mary Coughlan blustering that she does not like what her own Government has done but telling teachers to live with it. On the other, rows of teachers heckling and hissing and generally behaving like naughty children. This is not what the young need now.
Teachers think that they get a bad press. They do. And if their Easter jamborees are the best that they can come up with, then it is not surprising. These resemble annual Christmas pantomimes in which various ministers for education play the villain.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Colm O'Rourke: Teachers, the party is over. Take the hit [Independent.ie]
- Published: 11 April 2010
MOST reasonable people must at this stage be wondering how long more we have to put up with the constant moaning and whingeing of all the different groups in our society.
Last weekend, The Late Late Show treated viewers to one long moan from the four panellists. There was not one positive idea to improve things between the whole lot of them. The usual suspects were trotted out -- the Government, the builders and the banks -- just in case nobody knew what was going on for the last year. The best part, though, was when Kevin Myers complained about the bank more or less forcing him to take out a loan.
Are we having a laugh? Everyone has got caught up in the fast-buck mentality. Blaming the banks was just a step too far, and it made the man look entirely foolish.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
School must be 'held to account' in Phoebe case [Independent.ie]
- Published: 11 April 2010
THE governor of Massachusetts has called for school officials to be "held accountable" over the case of Clare-born Phoebe Prince, as court documents revealed how the 15-year-old pleaded unsuccessfully with her teachers to be allowed go home to escape the bullying campaign against her in the weeks leading up to her suicide.
Addressing the tragic case in an interview on local radio station WTKK FM last Friday, Deval Patrick said that officials at South Hadley High School "should certainly be held accountable, describing it as "outrageous" that more had not been done to protect Ms Prince from her classroom tormentors.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
