Out of Touch

Well, didn't we do well.
It has been reported that our Prime Minister, Mr. John Key has said that teachers are out of touch from the real world.

Complete bollocks, we're immersed in the real world from dusk 'til dawn.
We swim through all levels of society in one day, consoling a son of a busted P-user one minute, discussing mental health with an interested group of seniors the next. 
We don't have fixed hours, they vary greatly, dependant on the amount of preparation or marking required.  We don't have a fixed maximum class size, unlike most schools in the UK and Europe, and our pay and expenses (what expenses? Unlike MPs we're expected to buy our own lunches, and pay for our own travel) have not increased to the same extent as have our MPs.

I also heard a radio broadcaster saying that we didn't need a pay rise, or free laptops, or a maximum class size.  He pointed out that the entry level pay for a new teacher was $45,000, which he said was better than many other entry level professions.
It's actually $33,000 if the new teacher has a degree and a post graduate teaching certificate/diploma, and it takes 4 years of development to reach $45,000.  It's not a lot.

I hope that Mr Key is just being supportive of that brain-dead parasite he calls an education minister, because if we really start to strike in random ways, just watch the country's productivity go down the tubes, and how much will that hurt the government.  Just a year out from the election.