Posted by Krystyna Hunt in
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This divide between young and old is becoming more and more layered. I think one of my great shock points is how obvious it would be in an environment like this that I am old, and the reflection of the value it has in society. We simply do not live in a time where those who have experience with the past are much valued anymore. We are heading into the future and the past is somewhat irrelevant.
The teachers are having a rough time, not only because they are part of a changing, possibly irrelevant past, but because of the general turmoil in the newspaper print industry. A couple have been laid off from their newspaper jobs and took up teaching as one of their few options..
I guess I hoped too much that the teachers here would have some vision of the future towards which they were guiding us. But things have been so bad in the business, so many layoffs, people sent on their way being too old to find similar work and too young to retire. This is a frightening and confusing time. The teachers also don't feel rewarded by the interest of the young, the young do not have much interest in them.
I sense an unhappiness. The teachers feel unneeded by their "disciples", and undervalued by the department. That's one of the underlying reasons behind the strike that really, nobody wants. It seems the department does not value their input or understand their needs. Their needs mostly are to have a student body that values what they are teaching. The only way that can happen is to select students the way students are selected for the arts courses - on a competitive level. Those students who would have to work to get in are more than likely to really want to learn and to value the knowledge of those who teach them..
Instead teachers have to face apathy every day and on top of the upheaval in their chosen field they are dealing with much the same crisis as I am.
The teachers are having a rough time, not only because they are part of a changing, possibly irrelevant past, but because of the general turmoil in the newspaper print industry. A couple have been laid off from their newspaper jobs and took up teaching as one of their few options..
I guess I hoped too much that the teachers here would have some vision of the future towards which they were guiding us. But things have been so bad in the business, so many layoffs, people sent on their way being too old to find similar work and too young to retire. This is a frightening and confusing time. The teachers also don't feel rewarded by the interest of the young, the young do not have much interest in them.
I sense an unhappiness. The teachers feel unneeded by their "disciples", and undervalued by the department. That's one of the underlying reasons behind the strike that really, nobody wants. It seems the department does not value their input or understand their needs. Their needs mostly are to have a student body that values what they are teaching. The only way that can happen is to select students the way students are selected for the arts courses - on a competitive level. Those students who would have to work to get in are more than likely to really want to learn and to value the knowledge of those who teach them..
Instead teachers have to face apathy every day and on top of the upheaval in their chosen field they are dealing with much the same crisis as I am.
