Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

In a time of the spring, old paths are obscured and new growth begins.

March 10, 2006

I walk the line

by @ 4:19 pm. Filed under general

It had to happen of course. Last September the college decided I’d been around long enough to deserve a raise and regular hours. This meant, according to the wonderful woman who has guided me through the maddening administrative details of my job, that I would now be under the union. “Great,” I said. “Just watch, in six months time they’ll have me on strike.”

That was six months ago and in about ten minutes I have to leave so I can go to the campus, pick up my sign, and start my third day on the picket line.

I always choose the same sign: “Faculty care about quality education.” I like it because as an English teacher I enjoy the irony. First is the irony of caring so much about education that we are willing to strip it away from the students at the very end of their academic year, and second is the irony of the grammatical mistake in a sign proclaiming concern over quality education. Each evening I correct my own sign to read: “Faculty cares about quality education.”

When dealing with mass idiocy it is important to amuse yourself in little ways.

Gotta go. I’m due on the line.

1 Stars2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars

317 Votes | Average: 3.11 out of 5317 Votes | Average: 3.11 out of 5317 Votes | Average: 3.11 out of 5317 Votes | Average: 3.11 out of 5317 Votes | Average: 3.11 out of 5 (317 votes, average: 3.11 out of 5)

11 Responses to “I walk the line”

  1. jim Says:

    Christopher,

    Out of curiosity, what position do you have at this college? Is the pay for your position higher than the pay for the same or similar positions at colleges in states where the staff is not unionized?

  2. Layla Says:

    I was hoping someone would provide me with a good laugh today, but when you corrected the grammar on the picket sign, I fell off my chair. Fortunately I was forewarned, forearmed and firmly replanted on the chair when I spotted the pun in the title.

    Just out of curiosity, I taught a TOEFFL prep course at an institute in the Middle East (they have to take the test for college entrance if English is not their first language). The use of singular for most nouns representing groups was one of the most difficult lessons for my Arab students, who learn British English. Apparently in the British system the plural is correct most often, but in American English the singular is usually correct.

    Jim, in the last week I have been quoted $17/hr for ESL in a branch of a black community college in a Hispanic neighborhood and $1200/semester for a liberal arts class in a state university in a black neighborhood–the cheapest one in the state, I’m sure. Assuming 3 hr/wk for 18 weeks would be $22/hr. I’m pretty sure both schools are union, probably AFSCME.

  3. Christopher Says:

    Jim: I’m not sure that question could be answered — there are too many variables. However, I have been assured by my fellow strikers that this strike is not about pay: it’s about quality of education. We don’t want more money, we want smaller classes and more time for preparation. When I suggest that by taking the 12.4% wage increase over 4 years off the table we could possibly free up enough money to improve the quality of education, they stop walking with me.

    In truth, it isn’t the issues that bother me — it’s the extreme of resorting to a strike. Whether the union is right or wrong, surely there is some way of resolving the issue without destroying thousands of lives. For many, many students this is their one opportunity to get a job that doesn’t require them uttering the phrase “do you want fries with that?” They’re not trying to become high-status professionals: they’re trying to become dental technicians and medical administrator assistants. If they can’t graduate this year, they’ll never have the chance again.

    There are also all the people connected to the colleges. In all likelihood, the photocopying place which serves the professors will have to lay people off. Cafeteria staff, maintenance staff — hell, even the hot dog vendor who has a little hutch outside the front doors is worrying how he’s going to make ends meet.

    And then there are the professors themselves. We just moved in December which ate away every penny we had. We’d just started to get back on our feet when my wife’s mother died and our share of the expences knocked us back again. Immediately following the funeral came the strike. There is a strong probablility we will now lose our new apartment in the next couple of months, and yet not have the money to move to a new one.

    The big lesson from all this? When someone says they have your best interest at heart — run!

  4. Christopher Says:

    Layla said: The use of singular for most nouns representing groups was one of the most difficult lessons for my Arab students, who learn British English. Apparently in the British system the plural is correct most often, but in American English the singular is usually correct.

    I’m not quite understanding. Do you mean that the British use collective nouns as plural?

    The problem I run across is trying to explain the proper use (and non-use) of articles to East Asian students who don’t have a parallel grammatical unit in their language. Prepositions in relation to time can also be fun: You meet someone at three o’clock on the hour … etc.

  5. The Gall Says:

    Fish swim.
    Buffalo run.
    Faculty care?

  6. Layla Says:

    Christopher,
    Of course it’s about money. See 2nd Commandment Part B. I wouldn’t walk with you either. When the CC here had a strike some of the non-union instructors were extremely distressed about crossing a picket line, and after teaching their own classes, joined the picket with the union teachers. The elementary and high school strikes are all settled before the classes start (usually); it’s all political moves, and everyone knows how to play their part and how the dance will end. Nobody’s lives are destroyed; it all comes out in the wash. Administration is personally sympathetic; they live in the community too and even have children. They know you can’t keep good teachers if you don’t pay them decently.

    Some quick examples from the internet of the differences between American and British collective nouns: “The government is..” (Am.) and “The government are…” (Br.) Also: “ the company is/the company are…” Or, “Sony are going to come out with a new computer chip.”(Br.) And for sports teams: “The Miami Heat is a hardworking team,” “Liverpool are a hardworking team, but Manchester are smarter.”

    For a discussion of the plural use of the noun “staff” see http://www.pearsoned-esl.com/ae/azar/grammar_ex/message_board/archive/articles/00360.html Just in case you meet the person who authored your union sign and it turns out to be the same one who decides on your tenure.

    For tutoring grammar I like the Murphy series. The silver is the first level. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521426065/qid=1142124381/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/104-7814114-6398346?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

    Gall,
    Buffalo graze. Faculty…
    If an instructor gets $400 a month for one class, what kind of housing does this pay for? (Clue: don’t give up your day job.) It also means you’re doing class prep on the night you don’t teach, which means you don’t get a personal life. I think they might do it because they care. Uh, let’s start over. The committee plans, the government goes into debt, the army marches on its stomach, the faculty…oh shit. Here’s a discussion of British usage based on context which often indicates whether the group or the individuals within it are being referred to: http://alt-usage-english.org/intro_d.shtml#Groupn0004

  7. Christopher Says:

    $400 a month for a class? These guys need to go on strike!

    No, seriously. My wife teaches a class at the same college I do, but she’s not in the union. Her pay is at the bottom of the non-union scale and she makes $600 a month. That’s still not enough to live on, but I don’t know anyone who would expect a full living wage from teaching one three-hour class for one day a week. I’m at the bottom end of the union scale and teach four classes. For this I make $960 a week or $3840 a month. Not bad.

    Yes, part of a quality education involves paying teachers enough, but the college teachers in Ontario are among the highest paid in Canada. Nor do I object to increasing the wage and lowering the work load – in fact, I was one of the ones who voted to reject the government’s original offer, having been assured that the union response would be flexible: in other words, that they would look at options such as work-to-rule, work slowdowns, and even “sick” days, saving an actual strike only for dire emergencies.

    This issue is not a dire emergency. The colleges are not crumbling, the teachers are not starving. The ones I have talked to are concerned that an extended strike may interfere with their vacation plans this summer – not with their housing conditions. The only reason I’m in real financial distress is because when I started teaching more or less full time (I’m called “partial load”) we moved out of our one bedroom basement apartment into a two bedroom apartment with ceilings tall enough to allow me to go from room to room without banging my head. The move drained our account and just as it was beginning to build up again my wife’s mother died leaving us with unexpected expenses for the funeral.

    It is the hypocrisy that gets me. If we’re going to strike for more pay, let’s strike for more pay – let’s not cloak it in self-righteousness: it’s not like we’re fooling anyone. I’ve been in these classes – a lot. For several years I worked as a computerized notetaker for the deaf: I would go into a class with my laptop and type what the teacher said while my deaf student read from the screen. Glancing quickly at my “notetaking” directories I see I’ve been in over 50 classes, some more than once. The greatest majority of these classes were poorly taught with rapid-paced PowerPoint presentations replacing any actual teaching, and questions answered by referring the students to their texts. If we want to improve the quality of education the classes we already have would be a very good start.

    As for lives being destroyed – I assure you, they are. I’ve met them from previous strikes. I have students in my own classes who have worked at menial jobs for years saving everything they can in order to get this one chance to become a dental technician or medical administrative assistant. They can’t afford to have their academic year extended (should that be an option to make up for the time lost to the strike) because they need the summers to get work. For many it will be the final blow. My own future is shaky since if this strike goes on I will lose my apartment, yet not be able to gather up the money necessary for a new apartment and to pay moving expenses.

    I agree the government negotiated in bad faith, as though it were daring the union to call a strike. I’m no friend to the other side of this issue and, overall, believe in the causes for which we’re fighting; but being right about who was at fault in a traffic accident doesn’t give you the right to shoot innocent bystanders in the feet.

  8. Christopher Says:

    Okay, thanks for the clarification, Layla. I am aware of this odd distinction between the British and American treatment of collective nouns, but the standard here is to treat them as singular.

    There are obvious exceptions even here. I would say, “The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is playing tonight,” even through there are dozens of people in it. Likewise, I would say, “INXS is coming to town”; but I’d use the plural form of the verbs for groups like The Rolling Stones because saying “The Rolling Stones is on tour” just sounds wrong. An example in one of your links mentions the sentence: “The football team are taking showers… .” Interestingly enough, if we remove the word “football,” the plural form of the verb doesn’t seem to fit as easily: “The team are taking showers…. ” At least it sounds wrong to my ear. In general, I still prefer the singular form, and if we want to deal with the members of the collective noun individually, we rearrange the sentence to conform to it. For instance, I wouldn’t say either “the team is taking showers” or “the team are taking showers.” I would say, “the players are taking showers.”

    If you’ll notice, the collective nouns given in the above comments (“fish swim” etc.) are all equally employable as plural nouns (split infinitives don’t bother me). We don’t say “I caught two fishes today,” or “There are thirteen buffaloes in my bedroom” because the words “fish” and “buffalo” can also be used as plurals. We do, however, say things like, “The faculties from all three colleges held a pancake breakfast for Shrove Tuesday” – providing, of course, that the faculties really did hold a pancake breakfast for Shrove Tuesday. To me, “faculty” is like “committee” and I ain’t going to use either as a plural. (And did you note how cleverly I used “ain’t” in it’s proper grammatical form?)

    I’ll grant that there is enough dispute about this issue to warrant some degree of flexibility (I stopped correcting the signs anyway since there’s only so much amusement that sort of thing can bring before it tips over to vaguely disturbing obsession). I’m not too much of a hard-liner on grammar in the first place. I want it to be correct, but also know that for every grammatical question there are three to five good authorities who will give two to seven different answers.

  9. Layla Says:

    When I first read the content of your sign, my eye stopped and thought there was something wrong with the grammar. I looked at is again and decided it was correct. Then, when you corrected the sign, I didn’t know what was your criteria. So I would go with “faculty care,” but it still sounds odd enough to make me stop and think about whether it’s right. To me it is most similar to the word “staff” in the examples. Staff eat in the break room. Students park in the west parking lot but staff park on the north side of the building. Substitute faculty and it still sounds correct to me.

    I didn’t realize you were Canadian, that makes it different. In my ESL certification course, there were two guys in the back row who disagreed with everyone else about the exact dipthong in a certain series of words. It turned out they were from Wisconsin and everyone else was from Minnesota or Illinois. I have always thought Canadian English was the same as American English, but if Wisconsin can be so different, I think as a native speaker you are in a position to make some judgments.

    Split infinitives are not a big deal anymore here since Star Trek, “to boldly go where no ONE has gone before”. The gender neutrality is a biggie though, and you will hear people correcting verbally in church. Where the ritual text says “he that comes in the name of the lord” the congregation will be saying “the one that comes in the name of the lord.”

    So this guy is lost on campus and puts his head into someone’s office and asks “Do you know where the English Department is at?” The guy in the office looks up from his desk and says,”It is incorrect to end a sentence with a preposition.” So the guy replies, “All right, do you know where the English department is at, asshole?”

  10. Christopher Says:

    My only objection to the Star Trek intro is that the new version, while more sensitive to gender issues, is now incorrect. The old line, “To boldly go where no man has gone before,” indicated that no human had visited these regions of space. Since they were out there to “to seek out new life and new civilizations” it was assumed that they would find other beings. The new line, “To boldly go where no one has gone before,” is disproved each time they meet a new race.

    As for prepositions — because their function is so overwhelmingly that of an introduction (the “pre” in preposition), they do tend to leave you hanging when placed at the end of a sentence. However (and in grammar there are always “howevers”), to stick blindly to this rule is often to create unnecessarily stiff and awkward sentences. U2’s song would have to be changed to: “I still haven’t found that for which I am looking.” Just not the same.

    My favourite story on this subject is the one most commonly associated with Churchill. Upon being scolded for ending a sentence with a preposition he is said to have replied, “This is the sort of pedantry up with which I will not put.”

    Oh, and you know of course I’m stealing your campus joke for my next semester.

  11. qzrgoysrvq Says:

    nvxzecrw…

    cmzcvqtvs ocaasiqa fnohftbea mkozcfqc …

Leave a Reply

Register or Log In

  • Register

  • Login

    newsletter:

    Enter your e-mail address here to receive our monthly e-mail newsletter:

    yellow star diary storiesTop Two Articles Last Week


    Democratic Underground Bans Cindy Sheehan Video: 3.22

    The Mysterious Petrification Of Plants On the Azores: 3.13

    Writers Last Week


    Disaster Dan
    Frank Liberal

    Highest Rated Articles


  • Where Are You, O Compliant and Fecund Conservative Christian Women? (4.33 Stars)

  • Mycology ID Help Me (3.47 Stars)

  • A Personal Question (3.39 Stars)

  • New Green Growth (3.34 Stars)

  • Christian Hindu friendship for universal spirituality (3.31 Stars)

  • Is Violence Inherently Dishonest? (3.29 Stars)

  • Kathleen Sebelius Saves America From Filth (3.28 Stars)

  • IRAQ BODY COUNT – ONGOING – 8/26/07 (3.27 Stars)

  • The Community of The Golden Compass (3.27 Stars)

  • Face the Facts about Prayer (3.26 Stars)

  • Why Should We Ever Trust You Again? (3.26 Stars)

  • IRAQ BODY COUNT – ONGOING – 7/17/07 (3.26 Stars)


  • partners:

    stamping clockIrregular Times
    Irregular Books
    Irregular News
    Progressive Patriots
    That's My Congress
    Irregular Links
    Irregular Goods

    bumper stickers:

    New Sticker Designs
    Bulk Discount Stickers
    Anti-Bush
    Anti-War
    Peace
    Liberal
    Supreme Court
    State Politics
    Local Politics
    Environmental
    Pro-Science
    President 2008

    buttons and magnets:

    jungaloo grit goblin New Button Designs
    Anti-Bush
    State Politics
    Local Politics
    Environment
    Heretical
    Gay and Lesbian
    Anti-War
    Liberal
    President 2008
    Anti-McCain
    Pro-Choice

    ethical organic t-shirts:

    Anti-War
    Godless
    Liberal
    Miscellaneous
    Sexuality

    sweatshop-free shirts:

    Progressive Moral Values
    Presidential Campaign
    Anti-War Shirts
    Local Liberal Shirts
    State Politics Shirts
    Environmentalist Shirts
    Artistic Activists
    Babies for Obama
    Liberal Kids Clothes

    other goods:

    Tote Bags made in the USA
    Posters
    Postcards
    Greeting Cards
    Text Catalog

    archives:

    March 2006
    S M T W T F S
        Apr »
     1234
    567891011
    12131415161718
    19202122232425
    262728293031  

    other:

    RSS 2.0
    Comments RSS 2.0
  • Register

  • Login
  • About
  • Ask for Help
  • FAQ
  • Posting a Diary
  • Report Abusive Behavior
  • Rules of the Road
  • Irregular Times Main Page


    The Irregular Times Diaries are brought to you by Irregular Times, the place for news unfit to print.

    search the diaries:

    Latest Diary Comments


    Bill Richardson Chastises Mukasey on Waterboarding  (1 entries)
    Zverugas

    Will They Call Him Joseph Robinette Biden?  (1 entries)
    con

    The daughter of a Soldier  (50 entries)
    huge, atezfo, kavurebeno, RED DAVE [...]

    Saving the Dove  (1 entries)
    Tom

    Bush to Lift Executive Ban on Offshore Drilling  (2 entries)
    jclifford, Charles

    Mocking God  (63 entries)
    Scott, Damen, Ralph, Damen [...]

    Tell Me About Salvia Divinorum, the Legal Hallucinogen  (78 entries)
    stan, Dawn, Andy, Andy [...]

    Words of Wisdom from a Flippant Website  (2 entries)
    Damen, Benjamin Franklin

    categories:

    Politics


    The Real G.O.P.
    The Ribald Reign of King George II U.S. House Ratings
    U.S. Senate Ratings
    Irregular States

    Recent Articles:

    Interview with Kat Swift - Green Party candidate for President in 2008

    Is America Ready to Elect a President With a Brain?

    Burt's Bees Are Now Swimming In Clorox

    John Edwards Gives Good Information On Big Pharma Bad Behavior

    The National Pork Board Gets Weird About Muskrats

    Benjamin Franklin on Liberty and Small Safety

    Fathers Marry Daughters in Weird Right Wing Rituals

    The Virgin Mary Challenge

    Clinton Obama Campaign Gear

    Right Wing Values, Sexual Insecurity and Quick Impalement - strange insights from NewsMax advertisements

    Republican Senators kill an independent commission to investigate secret torture prisons set up by George W. Bush

    The latest Code Orange Alert from the Department of Homeland Insecurity: America may be targeted by kitchen table terrorists

    Are you an American liberal?

    The invisible activist

    A New President: Bumper Stickers for candidates in 2008

    Peace, Security and Fear


    Magniloquence Against War

    Recent Articles:

    Russell Feingold Speaks: The President Broke the Law

    War is not moderate

    Corpse pornography reflects the values of America's gruesome crusade

    Are Democrats too lazy to investigate the war in Iraq?

    A failure of Defense: The Bush Duds

    Faith and Skepticism


    False Witness
    Further Than Atheism
    Credulity Studies

    Recent Articles:

    Archive of Holocaust Comics from the Iranian Newspaper Hamshahri

    Archive of Mohammed Comics from the Danish Newspaper Jyllands Posten

    Jesus is Coming, but is he in the yellow pages?

    The Giant Scorpions of Science versus the Reruns of Religion

    Save Our Marriages! Mass chaos as Connecticuters flee westward

    Irregular Times resources on evolution, Creationism, and Intelligent Design

    Vote With Christ: an empirical guide

    Counter right wing fundamentalists' strident attacks with light hearted satire

    Pro-science Bumper Stickers, to defend science from faith-based zealotry.

    Covet Your Neighbor's Slave: The Ten Commandments and Slavery in politics today

    Online Resources: Secular Americans Against Bush

    The Environment


    Irregular Growth

    Recent Articles:

    Irregular Oceans - our articles following the crisis in Earth's marine ecosystems

    Celebrate World Ocean Day

    Considering Blown beds and gardens bereft of weeds

    Of Deer Fences and Deference

    In the glare of garden lights

    In Montana, Pesticide Burns

    Media


    Splintered Speech

    Recent Articles:

    Bush sets up secret torture prisons, so I try to say wake up and smell the coffee in a movie

    Ice Cream Promotes Male Virility, and other wisdom from medical advertising

    Explore the iconic insanity of Republican imagery

    Economy


    Funny Money

    Recent Articles:

    Irregular marketing - are you willing to buy it?

    Looking down on a Chicago bridge

    The brutal Republican concept of Social Security reform is revealed on a crusading t-shirt

    Finding the Fussy Elites - leaving a trail of gold foil, heirloom cigar boxes, and custom-etched pocket watches behind them

    An Overnight Blight: Why Progressives Pack Parcel Post

    Irregular Bin


    Our Remainders
    Wandering Aimlessly

    Recent Articles:

    Loonies for Mike Huckabee

    Senator Russ Feingold Stands for Freedom against Fear of the Patriot Act

    Handbook, My Ass: a review of James Carville's latest book

    Huygens probe finds evidence of intelligent life on Titan!

    An Irregular Reading (audio): The Hat in the Cat. What is Dr. Seuss backwards?

    A Dream of Dragons - Red fire battles blue water to own a bleak land

    68 queries. 2.535 seconds