The problem of education

I've been thinking about the problem of the teaching profession in Ireland because of all the teachers union conferences recently.
I'm not going to pretend to understand the full career requirements or motivations of people to choose teaching over another profession; but I think that it is an important area of ambiguity that needs to be addressed.

From my point of view the benefits and positives of being a teacher are:

•     Stable employment once your are taken on full time
•     Opportunity to work with young people
•     Opportunity to shape and direct young adults
•     Able  to focus on a subject that you have some interest in
•     Long holidays
•     Tenure (where you are full time)

The negatives (for me) would be:

•     Putting up with disruptive kids
•     Repetitive nature of the material
•     Lack of direction in terms of career development.

I want to focus on the last one for the moment as its probably the one I know least about.
How does a teacher progress? I assume that you start off on an entry grade and over time maybe you teach higher level classes, or more subjects or become year heads. Maybe the ultimate objective is to become principle or vice principal? (Feel free to enlighten me, I really know nothing about this topic!)

In my line of business I advance by going for roles with more responsibility or I move into roles that I feel can benefit from my experience plus give me knew understanding. In theory I can indefinetly move diagonally upwards. to my mind there is effectively a cap on how much authority you can achieve as a teacher.

How do you get salary rises? If your salary is linked to the number of students you teach, or the number of classes you take then you might be able to cheat the system by offering your services and targetting those classes and subjects that are in demand at that time. However this reflects nothing of your achievements. Good exam grades might be a start but only exam year teachers could be assessed. Non-standardised end of year exams can be easily gamed to produce lots of good results; Cross-marking and exam setting have the same vulnerability. Obviously a class full of A's isn't likely so the bell curve can be used to detect cheating in that way, but in effect it pre-determines performance and therefore remuneration?
If anyone wants to explain to me how the Irish system works!

Fuel Economy and Driving to work

In a moment of idleness last week I started working out how much my car was costing me per month. I’m thinking of trading up next year; hopefully get something more fuel efficient.

For the most part I drive about 750 miles a month, which is made up for trips from my home in Drumcondra to Cherrywood. Some months I drive about 600 miles (when I travel abroad) and when I have to work in Limerick the number can go up to 900 miles. My car gets about 6.5 miles to the litre, or 390 miles to a full tank, which hardly makes it a green-mobile. At €1.50 a litre I’m spending about €173 a month on petrol. The drive to and from Cherrywood is about 25 miles round trip.

Fuel is not the only cost I incur though. My insurance is about €600 euro a year. My car tax is €324 a year and I also have the AA at €210 a year. I expect to spend around €300 on maintenance and repair over the year as well.

There is one more cost that is less straight forward. Strictly speaking the cash isn’t going out every month. In fact the cash has already been paid out. Its an opportunity cost; what I could have done with the money if I hadn’t tied it up in the car. I know this sounds like a fuzzy concept; I’ve already paid the money right? But here’s the thing, If I sell the car right now I might get €4000, but If I hold on to the car till next year like I plan to it might be worth €3000. In a way I am renting the car or slowly surrendering value day by day. I figure that the car is worth about €1000 a year. If I had a more expensive car then it would be worth more.

So having worked out all these costs I can look at the three scenarios and work out how much money I’m spending a month. I can also calculate a proxy for “convenience” i.e. The value I am paying to have the car for average use. I can then compare this to my utility value – How much I am willing to pay for this privilege. If my utility is greater than that of convenience then I should keep using the car but if its less then I should use substitutes I.e. The DART, where they exist.
The easiest way to summarise the options is with a table.

As you can see the more miles I do the lower the total cost, but it also shows that the cost of having the car under each scenario is way over the cost for the same trip to Cherrywood on the train.
In reality I'm paying an average of a 61% premium or €7.67 to use the car on my round trip to and from Cherrywood.
I know I said I'd calculate my utility value but I actually haven't a clue how to (If anyone wants to suggest how to do this I'm happy to try it) I just know that a 61% premium feels too high for me though. I suspect that if it was raining when I got up I'd prefer to take the car but with the summer coming up hopefully I'll think of my pocket and take the train!

No Posts for a while!

Afraid I've been lazy the last 2 weeks.
Actually I've been sick with the man flu for the last 4 days, and was at a stag party the week before. (I see no connection!)
I have been active though so expect some bursts of updates next week around beers, Prague and Politics

As for the Election:
The outcome was easily predicted. All of the posturing now is disappointing and I am a little concerned by the looks of smugness from FG are worrying. Like I said before. The 25% vaccum of votes left by FF had to be filled somehow. As for the Wipeout, FF will be above 20% next election and in danger of becoming a real coalition option next time round.
I feel sorry for the independents. They fought hard and have won...nothing. No real power, no legislative authority. I think many of the new ones will do a George Lee and quit because they are frustrated by the glacier like pace of change.

FG Labour
Lets see what happens. I have a feeling the departmental briefings are going to scare some of them and there will be a lot of "look at what FF did the country". This will fly for a while but eventually they will have to start solving the problems in front of them. Because if they can't make a dent themselves then they aren't any better  than the outgoing administration.

Thats all for now, The virus is still at work and my mind is not using english properly

Should I stay or should I go? - The ballad of Brian

So FF have opted to hold on to the devil they know!?

Its interesting in a way because it sets up Micheal Martin nicely for a come back. Its almost like creating a save point in a game. If they drop him now then he can come back after FF lose the election and lead the party, untainted by whatever is left to come out in the remaining 37 days.

I started to write this two days ago and yesterday 4 more ministers resigned, including Mary Harney. The remaining ministers will cover the vacant posts until the election. As we speak tweeters are claiming a lot of huddles in Leinster house and  the possibility of a further heave against the Taoiseach tonight (20th Jan).

The reality is that a heave like this is academic in terms of getting the country back on track. FF will lose the election. The question for them is what changes they can make today to minimize the damage.
If they think that changes will be effective then we will probably see some change in the near future (i.e. removing Cowen). If they think its a lost cause regardless of what they do, then Cowen will be the main candidate for this general election. When they fail Cowen and more of the frontbenchers will step down, FF will do a house cleaning exercise and give some of the younger members a go, then 4 years from now they will have some chance of winning or becoming a minority partner in a coalition government.

The next 36 hours will definitely be interesting....