Any job, whether one chooses to call it a "profession" or not, requires skill and knowledge growth for the employee to advance. I don't care if you are a tool and die maker, teacher, doctor, or nurse. And with the rapid change of knowledge and technology, sometimes the "growth" is necessary just to break even. No one forced anyone to go into teaching. These intelligent individuals surely were aware what the profession would require. If there are no practical metrics to success in teaching (as Ed attempts to say) the only answer to the strike/salary issues would be a socialistic, incremental pay rate where the only driver is years of service, and every teacher in the world with the same years of experience made the same amount of money. But what teacher would be happy with that?