Discussions

Ah.....hmmm. If this isn't the most ridiculous article I've seen today I don't know what is. (Wait, I did see some Conservative memes on facebook about how the Liberals are going into deficit....ha funny).  
 
Too many white female teachers in Manitoba? Seems to me like we should focus on FINDING THE RIGHT TEACHER FOR THE JOB. Nothing else matters, find the best person for the job.

As long as they can teach, I don't care what they look like. To succeed in life, you need to be able to learn from anyone. Please don't let us get to the point where we can call discrimination because the teachers weren't diverse enough. Diversity is nice unless it comes at the expense of quality.

When is the idiocy of political correctness ever going to end?

a major problem with education in manitoba is the number of university egg heads and other consultants that all have a pet idea that the department listens too and implements. who cares what ethnic background a teacher has as long as they can teach and motivate students. it would be nice if our education could graduate students that can do simple math without a calculator and fluently read and write at least one national language.

If your qualified, your qualified and if your not, your not. The color of your skin doesn't make you a good teacher or bad one. They should always hire based on who has the qualifications and who is the best fit for the job, not based on gender, race, etc. Another thing is we live in a country were there's a lot of white people, so of course there's going to be more white teachers, than other races.

Whew finally they aren't picking on white males anymore

Garret said "Whew finally they aren't picking on white males anymore "

Garret-I am a raging feminist and I LOVED your remark-funny!  

people keeping coming into Canada trying to change everything. You don't like it move back home.

Our children deserve the best teachers, the ones who worked the hardest to earn their post. They don't deserve someone who's only there because of anti-white racism (Oops! I mean affirmative action.)

Totally agree Mr. Aftershock

MBKeith said "Our children deserve the best teachers, the ones who worked the hardest to earn their post. They don't deserve someone who's only there because of anti-white racism (Oops! I mean affirmative action.) "

White people - the only ones you can be racist against and get away with it.  
 
 
I do not see how we could possibly have "too many" of one "particular type" of teacher unless it is because they are ineffective as teachers for one reason or another.

I couldn't give a rats arse if the teacher looked like Kermit the Frog. As long as they are competent.  
 
What is the purpose of this post?

Credentials At the bottom of the article says, Joanne Seiff is the author of two books.  
 
http://www.joanneseiff.com  
 
 
 
Edited by loeog, 2016-02-25 20:39:06

"Most classroom teachers are white women."  
 
Which totally makes sense. Teaching was traditionally a woman's job - don't blame me, it was. At one time teachers could only be women AND they were expected to stay single. I am sure that still has an effect.  
 
Also, the majority of our population is white...  
 
Soooooooooo logically....

I would like to think any job would be based on qualifications and that the employer thinks you would be a great addition, not because of race. I want to be able to say I worked hard for this and did this on my own accord. I wouldn't want to be hired just to create diversity.

Kellye said "I couldn't give a rats arse if the teacher looked like Kermit the Frog. As long as they are competent.     What is the purpose of this post? "

purpose of the post is to highlight yet another example of political correctness/social justice running amok.  
 
Common sense has left the building.

Sorbet said "    Kellye said "I couldn't give a rats arse if the teacher looked like Kermit the Frog. As long as they are competent.     What is the purpose of this post? " purpose of the post is to highlight yet another example of political correctness/social justice running amok.     Common sense has left the building. "

It's a sad day when an editorial piece from a "knitting educator" is your source for political correctness and social justice in the education system.  
 
 

the proper term? Caucasian or white? I noticed the word Asian in Caucasian so im thinking white might be the more appropriate term as not to offend the Asian community. But im just a Cracker so what do I know.

loeog said "    Sorbet said "    Kellye said "I couldn't give a rats arse if the teacher looked like Kermit the Frog. As long as they are competent.     What is the purpose of this post? " purpose of the post is to highlight yet another example of political correctness/social justice running amok.     Common sense has left the building. " It's a sad day when an editorial piece from a "knitting educator" is your source for political correctness and social justice in the education system.       "

you read the piece and the reference to what the U of M is actually doing?

Sorbet said "    loeog said "    Sorbet said "    Kellye said "I couldn't give a rats arse if the teacher looked like Kermit the Frog. As long as they are competent.     What is the purpose of this post? " purpose of the post is to highlight yet another example of political correctness/social justice running amok.     Common sense has left the building. " It's a sad day when an editorial piece from a "knitting educator" is your source for political correctness and social justice in the education system.       " you read the piece and the reference to what the U of M is actually doing? "

Are you suggesting BSD has a racist hiring policy?  
Are you suggesting BSD only hires from U of M?  
 
Wasn't your last rant/post about BSD teachers having a higher education, and that a higher education for teachers is a waste of time and money.

Racism towards the white people. If this post had made reference to another race it would have been deleted and the person posting it likely would have been booted from this site as well. How's that for fair. Rude, rude, rude. White people will be the minority someday and we will still never be allowed to say anything about another race. It's time for white entertainment television and white pride day. I'm offended.  

This is discrimination against white teachers and white people in general. Flip this around any other way and people would be furious. Awful

I havent read the article...but is this another case of having to cater to people who come to canada: where the majority is white and aboriginal??? Uhg anything to report on to stir controversy!

When I first read this article, I highly disagreed. As a recent grad from the U of M, I know what I would be thinking if I was still there: "this is unfair... It's about qualifications... I've worked so hard..." But I most certainly see the point of this policy. Think back to your own education. How many of your teachers were the same ethnicity as you? If you're white, the answer is probably "all of them", but if you're Aboriginal, Hispanic, Asian,... the answer is "maybe 1". It's important for students to identify with their teachers, and to have role models in the school. Students need to be able to see themselves in the adults who are guiding them through life. While I would tend to agree that these concepts can transcend race, it's equally important to not always see yourself as the "other" in the equation.  
 
It would also be nice if we could have some dialogue that actually focused on the content of the article, rather than sticking to the emotions that don't go beyond "it's racism against whites". Like really? Open your eyes.

I think the initial question of this thread was stated in such a way as to create discord. I think most could agree that it's useful for kids to see people like themselves reflected in all the professions, it helps them to create visions for their own futures and it would help to decrease systemic racism, I know as a white woman I will not perceive the same things or be treated the same way as someone else, so it's important to have diversity especially where children are involved. For instance when you have racists like the Kelvin High School teacher a year or two ago posting anti-first nations garbage on facebook,a person like that should NOT be teaching young people!!!  
 
Also, when first nations are recruiting teachers, the retention can be difficult due to culture shock living in a remote area in a different culture, and in opposition to an earlier comment where a poster suggested that people go back to where they came from, this IS where first nations ARE from, and the MOST SEVERE SYSTEMIC RACISM in this country is aimed at first nations people, so your actual comment just shows your OWN ignorance.

loeog said "    Sorbet said "    loeog said "    Sorbet said "    Kellye said "I couldn't give a rats arse if the teacher looked like Kermit the Frog. As long as they are competent.     What is the purpose of this post? " purpose of the post is to highlight yet another example of political correctness/social justice running amok.     Common sense has left the building. " It's a sad day when an editorial piece from a "knitting educator" is your source for political correctness and social justice in the education system.       " you read the piece and the reference to what the U of M is actually doing? " Are you suggesting BSD has a racist hiring policy?   Are you suggesting BSD only hires from U of M?     Wasn't your last rant/post about BSD teachers having a higher education, and that a higher education for teachers is a waste of time and money. "

in this thread did I mention BSD?  
 
This is a recent article. Is it right to have employee quotas? I don't know. That's what the thread is about. I'm not sure why you felt the need to derail.

First yes if this wasn't directed towards white there would be outrage. Second, whatever happened to teaching and learning to adapt, accommodate etc as opposed to "oh no, so and so has or might have an issue with that. .....let's take it away" . Same BS with bullying. Everyone is a victim for some ridiculous reason and everyone else must "change". I had teachers of all kinds that I liked didn't like, different gender, race etx. Mean ones nice ones erc etc......it's called life. Allow people to learn and adapt rather than catering and coddling.

I don't understand how the discriminate hiring of teachers based on race serves anyone.  
 
I understand that having a better racial representation of the population in the teaching profession is a good thing. I just don't think that quotas are the right way to go about it.  
 
Do we really want to start hiring people to educate our kids where the first criteria looked at is skin color? Really? And to accomplish what? So that students in a visible minority won't feel like they're in a visible minority?  
 
"Newsflash": nothing's going to change that. The objective here is to get the student the best education possible, not become bff's with the teacher.  
 
It's such a social justice warrior move to immediately try to fix inequality with inequality.  
 
Let's not try to understand why minorities aren't getting into the teaching profession or maybe focus on encouraging them to do so at an early stage in their education, no, lets just selectively hire the ones that did over everyone else. This is exactly backwards in my opinion.  
 
I also find it curious that the author of the article glossed over the other issue that was brought up in the article itself. Women.  
 
I mean, if the goal is to be fair, and if teachers are predominantly female, shouldnt we be cutting back on hiring women teachers? I mean, we want to represent EVERYONE equally, right?  
 
Ridiculous.  
 
 
 
 
Edited by Torque, 2016-02-26 08:50:00

i honestly think until we dont even think of "issues" like race and gender we will never be equal, I do wish there was more men in the younger grades tho but that area of teaching isnt attracting them for a bunch of reasons so of course all the teacher who apply are women and we shouldnt denied them the job if they are qualified  
 
we should hire on qualifications but one thing i have had trouble with recently is talking to diverse government employees ALL of the workers were smart and did speak english BUT they did not understand conversation and did not have the knowledge to interpret the forms if something did not exactly fit, what i was left with was basically listening to a recording on the explanation on the forms, when i asked questions for clarification the recordings were repeated, which was sooo unhelpful! possibly it would be helpful to someone from the same background who spook the same original language but our official language is english and i really think these two i dealt with did not have a real grasp of english and thus were not qualified for their jobs, they would be well qualified for an interpreter tho. what i fear and the point of my story is that if we hire teachers biased on diversity are they going to be really qualified to teach our children? will they have a good enough grasp on our language? or are they just going to be great for other divers students but fail the ones already here? so my conclusion is hire teachers biased on SKILLS, and ALL skills and honestly in areas that have diversity the some diverse teachers will meet the qualifications and be hired and i have no issue with that