In Reply to: re: 'cosy and privileged' - the view of irish teachers across the water posted by Mairt on October 23, 2009 at 19:24:44:

Interesting point made this morning in defence of Irish teachers - their students do a lot better on OECD basic tests of literacy, science and mathematics than those of English teachers. The acid test is in the final output surely - Irish kids do better in international comparisons than English kids. We need to be careful what we wish for.

They complain about poor pay that teachers get in the USA too and their results are pretty poor too as a result.

The race to the bottoms is ubiquitous - the new Michael Moore film apparently has a sequence interviewing an airline pilot where she says that she works part time as a waitress or similar to make ends meet. Sharp intake of breath by audience - do you want your pilot to have to second job? Cheap fares mean lowly paid pilots. The pilot who landed the plane in the Hudson recently is also interviewed.