IPPN

All this talk about teachers who 'underperform' makes me laugh.

Every time there's fear and loathing in the economy all the media and the politicians have to do is dig up a politician who was in school when Adam Faith was still in the charts, who remembers that he had a teacher who drove to school in a Hillman Imp and who couldn't control a class.

Or the one who constantly stepped out of the classroom to take a nip of the strong stuff, and then suddenly people think they have an issue on the table to bash the teaching unions over the head with.

Fact is, these days nothing could be further from the truth.

Anyone who believes 'bad teachers' are an issue in 2008 is still living in the Ireland of policemen dealing out justice with a bashing to errant youths down laneways, the marriage ban in the civil service and dances in Billy Brennan's barn that had no fire exits.

In my teaching career, which spans the past two decades, I have come into contact with just a single member of this mythical hoard of incompetents, these parasites that are supposedly blighting our children's future and sucking up the nation's valuable tax revenues.

Now long since retired, I'll call this teacher Mr West; he used to work off his frustration at being unable and unwilling to teach, by taking it out on the kids.

This would boil over when labelling his pupils 'stupid' and 'slow-witted' no longer gave him relief and he would squeeze an arm here or slap a hand there.

Bad stuff, but still nothing compared to what went on in Irish schools right up until Shakin' Stevens was still in the charts and is still going on in some of our primary schools where certain older teachers are ticking off the years to retirement.

Every year, pupils would gather a petition from every class in our school demanding that Mr West be sacked.

Quite openly they would tell my colleagues and me about how he had insulted and bullied them and how they had learned absolutely nothing in any of his classes.

I'd shrug -- I'm not responsible for another teacher's behaviour, I'm not the principal. I'd walk past a room where he was teaching and I'd hear a kid shouting at West, 'f*** off, Sir!'

At least they were polite. Eventually Mr West served out his time and retired without as much as a farewell pint with the rest of the staff. The school management were glad to see the back of him and the rest of the staff breathed a sigh of relief.

From that point on, I can confidently state that our school was staffed by teachers who not only want to bring out the best in their pupils, but who want to be better teachers every day.

They were appreciated when American multinationals quoted our 'well educated population' as a reason for setting up business here.

Our politicians should know better than to believe their own propaganda and hurt the Celtic cubs with cruel cuts.

- E. Grade