Why would I vote for you?

[hinakiba777]

So the provincial elections in my province are taking place in a few weeks. This means that for the past few months there had been a lot of canvasing. Now one of the reasons I picked my building is because it's very quiet and secure. However, canvasing means that there are politicians roaming the building BANGING on the doors. Every door has a little knocker that doesn't make that much noise, but makes enough that the tenant can hear the knock. But these people don't use those, they just bang their fists very hard against the door. It upsets Felix. I mean the guy is banging on the door at the other end of the hall and I can hear it, and my cat is freaking out. So for I have encountered 2 out of three party candidates for my region. Oddly enough the person I am planning to vote for has not tried breaking down my door, which makes me want to support them more.

Now of the two candidates I saw, one was a little bland and dismissive. He asked me my opinions on what could be done to improve the city, instead of the province. While I have opinions on the provincial level, things on the municipal level don't reall concern me one way or the other. (Just to reiterate these are provincial and not municipal candidates, so his focus on the city was weird to me.) The other candidate was much friendlier and talked about a variety of issues with me. He seemed to have a lot of good policies, but then we hit upon education and jobs and things got a little...interesting.

HIM: So are you currently in university or are you working?
ME: Actually I'm in the middle of my degree, I'm just taking some time off so I can raise some money for tuition. I don't currently qualify for a student loan.
HIM: What are you planning to do for a degree?
ME: I'm studying English, with the hopes of getting my Bachelor's of Education and teaching Elementary School. Though I will probably move out of province, since there aren't many openings for teachers in this province right now.
HIM: Yeah that's a problem right now. Plus, also English is a hard subject to get a teaching degree with. (True) I myself used to be a teacher, I taught French. You really need to be doing French or Sciences or Math to get a teaching job. (Actually since elementary schools aren't specialized like secondary school, this is not a huge obstacle for elementary school teachers. I have checked with a few sources on that. Correct me if this isn't correct for Canada.) But I gave that up to study, business. I ran a business for years before starting in politics. I did {I honestly forgot what kind of business he said he ran.}
ME Oh yeah?
HIM Honestly, I don't think that students should even be allowed to go into Education. There are no jobs in the field, so studying education should be banned. There are too many certified teachers with no jobs. It's just wrong to allow people to do this.
ME: I see. (Internally: What?!)

He goes on for a while longer about how people shouldn't be allowed to study education, and then about some plans he had for the province. By that point he had lost my attention, I was just trying to puzzle over what he had said. I mean, not only was he saying that the education field should not be available, but he said this to a someone who is planning to pursue education as a career. I mean if there was a Nursing Boom would he be going around to nursing students saying that people shouldn't be allowed to study nursing? Oh we have too many Welders, better shut down those departments at the community college.

Finally he ends it by giving me his twitter, if I have further question, and asking if he can count on my vote. I murmured something about needing to check out the other candidates, but in my head I was just screaming no. I mean, he just told me my future career path should be made inaccessible, then expects me to trust the running of this region of my province to him for the next few years. It was a one-on-one conversation, you think he would have been able to play to his audience a little better.

[fireheart]

As someone who is going to be doing elementary school teaching (age) myself, I can tell you that in Aussieland, it's pretty much the same rule. If you are planning on teaching a second language, any of the arts (apart from digital media), PE or similar, they prefer you to have done that as a major or similar if you're doing a double degree (most undergrad education degrees make this a requirement now). For the core subjects, it's not an issue.
Special ed teachers down here can go in one of three ways: do an undergrad in special education combined with a degree in disability studies, do a normal teaching degree and then do a masters in special ed, or do a masters degree in pre-service special ed teaching (which is what I'm doing). I'm planning on going one of three routes: teacher of the deaf/blind, 1:1 support teacher/special ed consultant or doing a further specialisation in ESL as well (a lot of traits commons with special ed overlap with ESL teaching)

[MoonCat]

Interesting. His brain didn't catch up with his mouth. This is something he feels strongly about it so he forgot to filter his opinions and tailor his comments to his audience. Looks like you actually got an honest opinion out of him, unfortunately it's a deal-breaker for you. Would have been really interesting to see how his comments would have gone over at, say, a debate.

[Moirae]

Wow. That was dumb on his part. If you're intelligent, you don't insult your voters.

Reminds me of something that happened to me when I was a kid but I won't hijack your thread. I will make a new one instead.

[Pixilated]

Interesting. His brain didn't catch up with his mouth. This is something he feels strongly about it so he forgot to filter his opinions and tailor his comments to his audience. Looks like you actually got an honest opinion out of him, unfortunately it's a deal-breaker for you. Would have been really interesting to see how his comments would have gone over at, say, a debate.

That'd be it, I'd say. He forgot he was talking to a potential voter and started chatting with you as if you were his best friend. Alas for him, it backfired badly ...

[Greenday]

I get what he's saying. So much wasted potential as there's so many thousands of kids graduating in my region with teaching degrees and there's practically no openings for teaching jobs. Creates a lot of unemployment while there's a need for other types of workers.

Still stupid to say such a thing to someone you want to vote for you and especially if you can't even try to be tactful about it.

[protege]

Wow. That was dumb on his part. If you're intelligent, you don't insult your voters.

Yep, the candidate should have kept his mouth shut. Pissing off your voters is an excellent way to ensure that you don't get the job.

Several years back, the county I live in (Allegheny) decided to get rid of their commissioners and go to Home Rule instead. Leading the county, would be the newly-created position of County Executive. Anyway, one of the candidates was quoted as saying "the local voters aren't as intelligent as me...and are intimidated by me" shortly after a conference, not realizing his mike was still on. Needless to say, he lost the election

Some of these guys are so arrogant, that they think they can get away with things, and it won't come back to haunt them.

[hinakiba777]

The election is in 11 days and part of me doesn't even want to vote. The guy who made the comment on people not being allowed to pursue education as a career is part of the party I don't like, so that's an easy choice. However, of the two remaining parties i'm not sure.

The party I would vote for by default is actually the bland dismissive guy. While he wasn't as bad as the other guy, I don't really want to vote fore someone that treats his constituents like that.

On the other hand, I know nothing about the third guy, so he never spoke with me. Maybe I should e-mail him and get his opinion.

The only thing I know for sure is I'm not voting for the "people shouldn't be allowed to become teachers" guy.

[taxguykarl]

hinakiba, You elaborated on my electoral dilemma: Who to vote against. It's been some time since I voted for a candidate.

[Raveni]

Honestly, my thought is that people should think long and hard about the degree that they will be pursuing, especially if the field has very limited JOBS available. Obviously, you did that, otherwise you wouldn't be working so hard to line up the money to pay for it yourself.

There are some who use student loans to get degrees that will not help them earn a job and cost so much that it is very hard for them to pay back when they end up getting a job in another field.

[mathnerd]

I had been planning on going for an education degree once I finished my bachelors...now I'm taking a break from school for various reasons. I've got my bachelors though. My original plan had been to teach primary but the math requirement for my university was beyond me - six credit hours of math or three credit hours of calculus. I have dyscalculia which makes most math very difficult for me, although I did manage to get most of the way through a pre-calculus course! So I switched my focus towards teaching middle/high school instead with a double major in English and History. Still not easy to get jobs with here unless I want to teach in the middle of nowhere...and at my age I figured I'd stop once I got my BA and reconsider where I was going to go with that first degree.

But to be told that there is no future in teaching? What a load of crap - I wouldn't be voting for that dickbag either.

Slightly off topic, but does your school's math department offer logic courses under the math department? Set theory might also be an option that doesn't have to involve a lot of numbers. Also, some universities offer a very watered down version of abstract algebra that might be an option. You might have to get creative, but there are quite a few math options that work with ideas instead of numbers, and could count towards that requirement.

[Jester]

hinakiba, You elaborated on my electoral dilemma: Who to vote against. It's been some time since I voted for a candidate.

The last candidate I voted for because I firmly believed in what they stood for, their ethical makeup, and my belief in them as a good person was someone I knew very, very well.

Me.

When I ran for Mayor of my home town as a college student.

And to be fair, I had absolutely no illusions that my chosen candidate (me) had any chance of winning the election.

[taxguykarl]

Sounds like my campaign for my 'burbs council.

[KiaKat]

You were far nicer than I would have been. The moment he started blathering on, I would have said "thank you, you've just guaranteed that I won't vote for you. Have a great day!" and shut the door in his face.

But then, we all know I'm a horrible person.

[Jay 2K Winger]

You were far nicer than I would have been. The moment he started blathering on, I would have said "thank you, you've just guaranteed that I won't vote for you. Have a great day!" and shut the door in his face.

But then, we all know I'm a horrible person.

I wouldn't call you horrible.

Brutally honest, perhaps, and mean-spirited.

But these are not the same thing as "horrible."