Monday, April 02, 2007

The ATL Comedy Conference

Silly me; wrong again. I had naively thought it would be a few days before the Association of Teachers and Lecturers' Conference gave me something funny to write about.

They have hit the ground running; proposing on Day 1 that that children should be taught to walk in different ways. This is great stuff. I'd always thought that people who went to these meetings were either having affairs or needed to get a hobby, but now I understand the attraction. Martin Johnson is clearly a comic genius and if he can keep this standard up all week then he will have Peter Kay quaking in his boots.

Anyway if you want to join them, (and they all look very happy on the website) then here's the link:

http://www.askatl.org.uk/atl_en/join/default.asp

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you sure this is not an 'April Fool' article you're referring to?

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr Chalk

I seem to remember reading that you were not a union member.
I wonder what the pay and conditions of service would be if we all took the same stance?

Anonymous said...

They would probably be the same as they are now Dexey.

I think I've wasted the last 24 years of Union subscriptions only to see the profession go steadily downhill.

Anonymous said...

Seems unlikely hill, and how can you think of it as a profession with no professional body to represent us. We are trade unionists, or hangers on, if not TU members.
The one thing that you can be sure of is that without group negotiations we would be worse off than we are.
I suppose whether your subs are wasted depends on the union you belong to. My branch sec. has been marvellous over the last 15 years for me, but then I've been involved. Never been one for sitting on my arse and taking.

Anonymous said...

That was no April Fool comment from the ATL. It was first reported in the Guardian on March 30th.

Anonymous said...

dexey,

The teachers in my private school weren't unionised - they seemed to get on ok...

Anonymous said...

alabastercodify said...
dexey,
The teachers in my private school weren't unionised - they seemed to get on ok...
16:05

Seemed to?
Confided their confidence in management and their terms of service to you did they?