Friday, October 19, 2012

This Day In Snookland....'Our' Children.

AllTheGuccisOnRobson
DoNotOneCaroleMakeVille


Well, well, well....

It would seem that our (not) Premier has suddenly decided that the time is ripe to forge a 10 year peace with public school teachers.

But here's the thing....

As Justine Hunter notes in the Globe (in a very good piece of non-stenography that puts things in context), it was Ms. Clark that commanded the first viscious offensive in Gordon's Endless War On Education (remember the 'wedge issue on a silver platter' issue, circa 2005?) that began 10 years ago, almost to the day:

...The bad blood between the BCTF and the B.C. Liberals goes back to 2002, when Ms. Clark, as minister of education, stripped teachers of the right to negotiate their working conditions...

But why would something like that bother the Snook.

After all, apparently history, not to mention words, deeds and actions, mean nothing to the academic toursist that lurks within:

...On Wednesday, the Premier said she wants to begin a new relationship.

“Those of you who think the weight of history cannot be overcome, I hope you find a way to think about this differently,” Ms. Clark said at a news conference...



But here's the real kicker from Ms. Clark, meant, it would appear, to tug at 'our' collective heart strings and fill 'our' E-Z bake ovens with apple pies, not to mention raise her dismal approval ratings among women:

...“Think about the impact long-term labour peace would have on our children.” (Ms. Clark also said at the news conference)...

Now.

Why do I call codswallop on this?

Well, because, according to Alex Tsakumis, who sees the Premier occasionally in the parking lot and at various functions, Ms. Clark's child goes to perhaps the toniest of the toniest private school's in all of Creme Ville, a claim that was confirmed (and vehemently defended) by Ms. Clark herself on Bill Good's radio show awhile back.

So, perhaps that 'our' in the passage above is missing a letter, of the 'sometimes a vowel' variety (see what I did there Mrs. Griffiths?*), that would make it....

...(y)our children...
(i.e. not 'hers')

OK?

_______
*Mrs. Griffiths was my 2nd grade teacher who first taught me grammar...She also taught me how to sing....She did a better job at the former (although I know she would get after me for all the in-sentence digressions), but she did manage to instill a life-long love in me for the latter...'Our' children, indeed...
Ian Reid follows up and lays the nuts-and-bolts/real-politick bare on this issue, here.... But, even better (by maybe a thousand, million, billion times - I won't name my favourite math teacher on this one), is Ian's description of his trip to The Wiltern to see Patti Smith last week, here...

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