Yaaaaaaaaawn. It’s 8am Tuesday morning and my kids are still in bed. When they should really
be sat behind their desks learning, amongst other things, the intricacies of the
Danish comma! What’s up? Well, we’re now into the second
week of the LockOut of Danish teachers. Local government want to change
teachers’ working hours (well, actually, the ratio of class prep vs. time
spent teaching students). The teachers unions are basically in disagreement,
and talks broke down. Local government want to push through the changes and
have therefore ’locked out’ the teachers – i.e. they are not allowed to come in
to teach. And they aren’t being paid. And why doesn’t the Danish government
intervene? Well, this is the so-called “Danish model”. Employers and employees
negotiating their own collective agreements without state interference.
So just what are our teachers
up to, now that they don’t have any classes to prepare or students to teach?
For lækker til Lockout! – Too cool/sexy to be locked
out!
My kids teachers have been demonstrating in front of the school and at the
major traffic hubs during rush hours. Motorists were encouraged to peep their
horns if they were in agreement with the teachers. And cyclists and pedestrians
weren’t forgotten either…the teachers had taken coloured chalks and written
messages on the pavements and the cycle paths!
Jeg savner mine elever – I miss my students
The Danish teachers have a website http://lockouten.dk/ where you can see all their
“Lockout” events and happenings. At 12 noon today they performed Denmark’s
largest ever flash mob at Town Hall Square in the centre of Copenhagen.
Unfortunately that particular video isn’t up yet on youtube (keep looking –
meanwhile you can see it on http://politiken.dk/poltv/nyheder/indland/ECE1941612/danmarks-stoerste-flashmob-se-laererne-smide-tusinder-af-boeger-paa-jorden/)
so instead here are some teachers doing the LockOut Harlem Shake. As they say
themselves, they would really much rather be…teaching! 
Have a wonderful Wednesday. School or no school!
Diane 