Teacher Summer Holidays

Happy summer holidays! Here I am. I slept in until 9:30 am after staying up late. I am sitting on my condo balcony overlooking the Humber Valley. It is very lush and green. The temperature is in the thirties. I am still in my pyjamas, and I really don't have anything I have to do today.

Allow me to explain my summer holidays as a teacher. I am off nine weeks until Labour Day. I do not have to work. I get paid, in the case of our school board with one lump check at the end of June. I don't have to do anything. Some teachers take upgrading courses, even teach summer school. I use to when I first started out. Now I don't. I've been teaching  26 years and I am well on top of things. My high school classes are going great, the students are happy, and I love being with them, except in the summer, when their parents can spend some quality time with them instead. Maybe they have summer jobs or go to summer school. 


I feel no guilt. I will relax at home and round about my hometown of Toronto doing Toronto things like I have most of my life. I was born here. I've moved around but always come back. I plan to stay here, in our condo, with my wife, and maybe even die here someday, hopefully not too soon, in the music room or wherever.


This summer I will travel with her to Mexico, where we will lie on a beach, and I will snorkel and dive with the fish. We plan to explore the Maya ruins. I plan to go to Cuba for a week, where I will do some volunteer educational development work, and perhaps teach or attend a class each day to see how our programs are working out. Also I will just hang out with my local Cuban friends and enjoy everyday life there for a bit.


For our honeymoon, which also falls in the summer, Janet and I will go away somewhere. Maybe back to the beach if we can find a last minute deal at some nice sun destination. Or we will go somewhere else; we've been to Las Vegas and New York the past two years.


I do not feel any guilt about not working at all. Here is why: My yearly salary is cut all year so it averages out to pay for the summer holidays.I have worked for this holiday teaching your children and being with them every school day from September until now. Then there's the hours and hours of paperwork and meetings.


I am a trained professional, like a doctor, lawyer or engineer. It took a lot of work and study to get where I am today and I do a lot for the students. Maybe they are your sons or daughters. Maybe you can remember having a good teacher who really helped you?


It's a very special trust. It has been said that when we teach, we touch the future, for indeed someday they will grow up and carry on with life long after we are gone. At the very least we will hopefully help our students grow up to be happy, well adjusted people. We can help them prepare to get a job and be good citizens. We can teach  them a set of religious values if they go to a religious school, of which there are many, or some other sort of values education if they don't, so they hopefully become compassionate, caring and upstanding adults someday. Nothing is ever perfect, but quite frankly, we all do a darn good job of making a big difference in peoples' lives, hopefully quite a few.


As a teacher, I am a public employee, in our case with the provincial government. Our job, salary and benefits can be a political football folks love to kick around especially come contract and election time, where the powers that be can and will say whatever they like about us if they think it will help get them elected. Or if need be we provide an easy scapegoat for societies economic ills. If you have half a brain about the current economic crisis you can do the math. It did not occur nor will it go away because teachers are paid too much, get too many holidays, or belong to a union. You need look no further than the stock markets, the politicos, banks and corporations for the cause of that if you are mad and need to vent. Don't blame me.


As a trained professional I am one of the least paid in all the fields. I am obviously not in this for big bucks, but in Canada anyway, I can enjoy my holidays. That is the trade off. I work my butt off all year helping your kids, who are my students. I will return to school in the fall ready to do it again, just like I always have most of my working life, after years of university, summer courses and night school education and training. Really, you get more than you pay for but I am happy enough with the time off. Personally time is worth more than money to me and I am really looking forward to the summer holidays, and know I have earned them.


Hello summer! If you like what you read, please continue to visit my blog while my summer tale unfolds. If not, well you can still visit to grit your teeth and go grrr! grrr!  I'm ambivalent. I've been real busy and am quite drained from teaching your sons and daughters, your nephews and nieces. If you don't care about that, well once there were teachers who also cared for you. Maybe you had a bad teacher or school, very unfortunate. It can happen. Or maybe you didn't want to listen, talk and learn. Ditto. These are the sad exceptions to the rule but they can happen like anything else in life. Any which way, please continue to visit and enjoy. Comments can always be posted, pro or con, as long as they are constructive, because that's the teacher in me. Enjoy!

Beaches, Condos, Crowds + So On

Tuesday morning, the first week of summer vacation and I'm all but at a loss for words. Nothing particularly earth shattering going on.  As TSU 3rd VP I'm basically off for the summer. A few phone calls, emails, some meetings down at the union office. I'm not going anywhere near school, not even thinking about it. I've got all my Autism courses back again for the fall. Every so often someone takes a run at my job, but then spends a bit of time with the students, or has them integrated in their class, and next thing you know, they are back with me and my workers again, nobody else around. Ha.

They are severely autistic, and I mean severely, so either you  get what's going on or you don't. I should figure out some day why it suits my temperament. Folk even tell me they feel sorry for me, or wonder how I can stand it, but for me it's just fine. I quite like it. There are a small but very tight group of support workers and then the six student teenage boys, all but totally out of it, but each with their own distinct personality. In it's own way its a very comfortable, happy little place. I wrote about it before in one of my June blogs if you want to go check it out in my directory; middle column bottom of the postings. So my teaching schedule seems to be pretty much taken care of for another year. Plus I was re-elected to the teacher's union executive again for my fifth term. Seems pretty much steady as it goes come next fall.

We had a great time at Willow Beach. Dave and I swam out into the lake with our snorkeling gear, but it was pretty cold still, a cool spring. A very invigorating but not otherwise particularly inviting swim, especially when I know I'm heading down to the Caribbean soon, which is as warm as a bathtub with coral and schools of coloured fish. Lake Simcoe has more of a rugged northern Canadian summer ambiance to it. The water is  royal blue, clean, not too choppy and I believe it's about 50 miles across from Barry to Orillia. The bottom is mostly rocks, some big fish but dull coloured, to match the surroundings.

It was quite nice out on the dock. Janet and Loretta were sitting on the beach chairs. I fell asleep sprawled out on my towel  for a bit. There was a very pleasant breeze, it was a hot and sunny day. The local neighbours fixed up the lake shore at the foot of the street. Built steps down to the waters edge, two layered with a lounging area and a generous sized dock. There are sun chairs for the locals to use. It is by invite only. Otherwise the town would be swamped by the two and a half million Torontonians just an hours drive south .

Let's face it. Every year the city says Lake Ontario is safe and clean by world standards, which I guess means it's like a big toilet. I wouldn't swim in it, nowhere near Toronto anyway. Willow Beach itself is a very small town, generally considered a part of Georgina, which isn't very big either. Dave says Lake Simcoe has deteriorated a lot since he grew up there as a boy. It still seems very nice but he says he actually used to drink from it, not anymore. Much of the waterfront is locally owned which means the owners have land rights up to the water's edge, rather controversial, but it has held up in the courts.

Slowly but surely the shore line has been bought up. The local towns charge huge parking fees, if they allow parking at all, to scare most everybody else off, or at least to create local funding for the shoreline upkeep. In the case of Willow Beach, the locals got together and run and keep the docks for themselves, everybody contributing. Quite pleasant. Not a very affluent place but with a dumfy kind of southern Ontario small town charm. It's definitely a relic in time around here these day, though there are other such communities along the Ottawa Valley and Lake Erie. Otherwise not.

I'm not especially one for the large beach resort areas like Sauble Beach on Lake Huron, or Wasaga Beach on Georgian Bay. Of course they've got long stretches of white sand, many, many kilometers long which are public beaches or provincial parks. But they get packed, and the towns, if you can call them that, basically remind me of amusement parks. I like to chill out more now.

I use to go a lot as a kid, which I remember as being quite typical. The whole family would pack up the car and off we'd go, maybe even rent a cottage. Go to Wasage and you'd recognize everyone from Toronto. Hi! Oh hi! etc. etc. etc. We'd hang out and party like crazy there as teens. I recall in particular the May 24th Victoria Day long weekend at Sauble Beach in 1975. Carloads of young people just kept pouring in and all hell broke loose.

There was a huge riot, for no particular reason except it was the long weekend. The main street shops were trashed and set on fire. The Ontario Provincial Police launched a pincer strike. Landing marine style on the beach with billy clubs and shields to a barrage of beer bottles, battling their way up the main street. Meanwhile reinforcements arrived along all the roads into town to try to contain the madness.

I remember sitting on a hilltop with my buddy Chris, watching all this. The rowdies would chop a tree down along one of the roads in. The cops would get out of their cruisers, scratching their heads trying to figure out what to do. Suddenly they'd be hit with a barrage of beer bottles from the hundred of teens partying in the woods. Sheer madness.

Chris and I were still into the love, peace and understanding hippie thing. This was towards the end of that whole era, and in retrospect I guess this is where the rebellion all started to deteriorate into chaos. We found it all quite incomprehensible, though no doubt fascinating. We were up for the weekend, no car, we hitch-hiked, which was still cool. I hitch-hiked across Canada to British Columbia the following year. Anyway, on this long weekend, we ended up crashing out in our sleeping bags under the pines near a motorcycle gang camp. The only safe place, quite ironically. The police weren't going to mess with them. So we managed to avoid getting our heads cracked. On the way out a few days later there was debris and beer bottles lying everywhere as far as I could see. I kid you not. The locals where loading up pick up trucks with the bottles to take them to the beer store for a refund.

After awhile it was nick named the May Two-four Weekend because everybody but everybody would at least buy one twenty four bottle case of beer. I don't think it's called that anymore. I don't know. I've long, long since moved on from any such scene to middle-aged respectability. Still, whenever I hear anyone lament "the kids today" at school, I wonder if we are not often wearing rose coloured glasses. What ghosts must rattle their chains in the closets of summer long past in the lives of grown-ups today? And has this every really changed, or was it perhaps just an isolated moment in time?  Didn't happen before and never happened again? Anywhere else? Hmmmmm. Don't judge the young folk too harshly.

Anyway, the next day after Willow Beach I went downtown to Yonge and Dundas, to buy some music and books for our trip to Mexico. Books and music for lying on the beach type fare. I forgot it was the Gay Pride Parade Weekend, haven't been watching the news, and the Globe and Mail, Canada's "National" newspaper which I read every morning, didn't report on it much. Anyway, by later accounts over a million people lined the parade route this year! What a spectacle! They just kept pouring in and pouring in and pouring in.

Yonge Street was closed off to traffic and was soon jam packed with spectators. I retreated into HMV after a madman pushing a baby carriage kept ramming it into everybody, the baby just lying there oblivious,. He didn't seem to want to let anyone get past. It was beyond me. I really can't stand crowds. There were lots of very healthy scantily clad young women, possibly gay, though I saw one interesting t-shirt, "Straight but not narrow". Bah, I'm in my fifties now, very happily married. Eye candy. I suppose they were rather titillating but I wasn't going to stick around for any kind of parade. I can still belly up front stage at a packed rock concert but much anything else and I still head for the hills. Caught the subway back up to Wilson Station where I parked my car, and drove home for a long luxurious afternoon snooze on the couch.

Yesterday, the weekend over, I began cleaning up the condo, beginning with my man cave. I have my music, books, electronic equipment there, an easy chair, small couch. Moved things around and cleaned every nook and cranny. I clean in this household. I'll let it slip sometimes but otherwise am very thorough. Janet will cook and do the laundry, I clean. We usually get together and take care of the chores around home every Sunday afternoon during the work week. Now I can do it at my leisure, maybe one room a day until it's done.

I collect music and books. The books are organized by subject, the music alphabetically by artist A through Z, and I clean so everything is neat and orderly. I've read that psychologically speaking this represents an obsession with establishing and maintaining order in ones life and world around us. Could be. I like to come home and have refuge from the often chaotic nonsense going on all about. Or maybe I just picked this up by habit from my dad, he was like that too.

When it comes to cooking, forget it, I can burn water. The laundry machines are like huge open mouth beasts that one just keeps stuffing clothes into I as far as I am concerned. I admit, I grew up as a nice "Leave It To Beaver" suburban boy and didn't pay much mind to any of this. I shrink wools and darn it don't you just hate when the colours get mixed! Cleaning is a pretty big job, so I'm not going to get too apologetic. Though I grant you, the only clean up I totally don't get is this environmental thing of sorting everything into bins and taking them to different dumpsters.

Condos have been exempt from a of of recycling in Toronto until now. There are all these coloured bins in the kitchen that don't fit anywhere, which drives me mad. It's ingrained in me that garbage always goes in a garbage can. You take the bag out when its full, tie it up, and dump it down the garbage shoot. Presto! No more garbage! That's why we call a garbage bag a garbage bag; because garbage goes in it and then it's thrown away so the place isn't messy. It doesn't matter if it's paper, plastic or cans, or even food for that matter. It's all garbage. I can't obsess over touching it all again, sorting it into groups and then walking all over the place with it. It goes in a can, a bag, a garbage shoot. Job done. Totally politically incorrect and unjustifiable I know, but old habits die hard. When we redo the kitchen I will get it built so there are special enclosed areas for all this and an orderly system in place so hopefully I will get it figured out straight.

Well, it's Tuesday morning. I'm sitting in the shade on my balcony. The morning traffic has pretty well died down into a workday lull for now. Janet headed off to work about an hour ago. I got up to kiss her good-by, then came out here for my coffee and newspaper etc. I think I will get back to my cleaning. Bye for now!

Summer Holidays Are here!!!

Summer holidays are here!!! In the immortal words of Chuck Berry,"Riiiiiiing! Riiiiiing goes the bell". Starting today, school's out! My blogspot will continue on reduced hours with this new special "Summer Edition" until September. I'll overhaul the site for the holidays too. It's no time to be serious. I plan to travel and dive along the Mayan Riviera in Mexico between Playa de Carmen and the ruins at Tulumn. Later it's off to the Cuban schools in Santiago de Cuba to teach a bit and hang out with my Cuban teacher friends in town. I'm hoping to go to New York City too. Fun. Fun. Fun.

I plan to post photos and blogs here on my trips. Also odds and sods but mostly fun and offbeat stuff all summer long. Not so much the TSU TCDSB teacher and union news and views bit, unless there are some hi jinks or anything big goes down while we are away.

TSU also put out a special website notice yesterday. Please go visit and see the official website. That link is further down my page in the right column. Our TSU website has even won a "Most Improved" award for the big changes being implemented! You can catch any big breaking news from TSU and Provincial there, especially I understand, on the fall provincial election that's coming up, and check out all the documents and resources being posted!

My pension gratuity posting is on hold. Sorry. Mark Stelmo will be doing a series in Highlights next year and I think that will be pretty definitive. I'll see if I can get him to drop by here too. Just in case you were wondering what happened with that, well, there you are.

If you have any great summer photos or even a story you'd like to post, please do send, I will gladly put them up.

Come September I will be off and running with my TSU 3rd VP teacher-union news and views again. I'm planning to post live coverage from the provincial election campaign trail. Could be a real nail bitter!

I noticed the site counter passed 4400 reads. I really appreciate all your kind words and support. I hope I can continue to be of service and of interest to you here at my blogsite, but for now?!?

Many of us take courses, go to summer school and follow other professional pursuits. I'll revisit the Cuban Schools Project during the summer. I'm the founder and director of this educational developmental aid effort, and I enjoy heading down for a mixed business holiday trip, but that's about it, workwise. The time away from school up here is what's most important to me! I can recharge my batteries and return come September with a hop to my step. No burn out for this boy!

If anybody gives you the old guilt trip about taking the summer off, please set them straight for all of us, okay? We paid for this!!! Our salary is spread out over the whole year. Your union negotiated this, along with a lot bigger cheque way back when. In the old days teachers were laid off for the summer and had to save for themselves from their meagre pay, or find another summer job instead! You'd get somewhat more money all year long if the board still did this, but you get a large summer payout instead. So enjoy our summer holidays, without guilt, and if anybody tries giving you attitude on this, let them know the truth.

And also, aren't you giving the parents and families some time to bond more with their little dearies, and handle them themselves, instead of just letting us do so with a room full of them during the rest of the year? Tch. Tch. Okay, we love it to death but still...... :-)

Please enjoy the Summer Edition of my blogspot. Relax. Have fun. Have a great holiday! We've earned it!

Many Cheers!

David Chiarelli