Job action continues here in British Columbia. I am managing to continue to read a lot and will eventually get around to blogging about my favourite summer reads, but these days, I am mostly writing letters and sending them off to government. Here is my most recent attempt at persuading our leaders to do the right thing.
Dear
Mr Fassbender and Ms Clark,
I’ve
been privileged to be a teacher for about 26 years now. Over the years
I’ve seen many different kinds of changes. A huge one, Mr Fassbender, is that
childhood is not the same as it was when you and I were young. More
importantly, in the last few years I’ve grown more and more distressed by the
impacts underfunding public education have on this system.
When
I was still a very green and new teacher I was lucky enough to get a full time
contract after only six months as a TOC. The Vancouver School Board had money
for professional development to help me learn things I needed to know and
didn’t learn at university. The school board offered numerous daylong workshops
for how to teach ESL learners, sessions for how to develop literacy programs,
workshops on ways to support special needs learners, workshops on the best ways
to teach mathematics and numerous other programs. A TOC was provided for me as
I was supported in becoming a better teacher. Sure I went to additional
workshops and took courses in the summer, but what is important here, is that
there was district support and funding available to help me become the best
teacher I could. Over the years I’ve seen the opportunity to facilitate good
teaching diminish until it dwindled away into nearly nothing. Now new, exhausted
teachers are expected to go to after school workshops, if these sessions are
offered at all.
When
I was still a new and very green teacher I had special needs kids in my
classroom. One was so obvious we didn’t even need to have him assessed. Another
had been in a car accident and had lost part of her frontal lobe. One had
turrets syndrome. (Imagine if you can, trying to teach a class of kids while a
little 7 year old stutters out the F word on a regular basis) I also had a
grade three boy who we all suspected was a sociopath. It was dangerous to leave
him unattended on the playground.
Itinerant specialist teachers were there to
support these kids and provide advice to me and my amazing special ed assistant
who was there more than half time to support these learners. She was paid to
spend extra time after school to work with teachers to plan programming for
these kids. Still, when she wasn’t there, it wasn’t easy. In addition to
these special needs kids, it was a complicated mix of children. Some came from
very wealthy families and others from single parent families where poverty was
present. Of my 25 grade 2 & 3 students, 20 were only children. There
were even a few ESL students.
In
those early years, our union ended up going on strike and giving up salary
increases in order to get guaranteed ratios for ESL teachers and other
non-enrolling staff to support our most vulnerable learners.
My
students and I reaped the benefits of this. We had a full time teacher
librarian amid the 10 non-enrolling teachers who supported the mixed population
of learners. In the new school I moved to, my class consisted of mostly ESL
learners and a mixture of kids with other special needs. My class size went
down for every special needs learner and was capped at three. Teaching is
meaningful challenging work, and with the support of the non-enrolling
specialists, I felt like we were doing a pretty good job.
Then,
Christy Clark, education minister at the time, stripped the clauses from our
contract that guaranteed non-enrolling ratios. In the next few years support
for special needs kids dropped considerably across the province. You have the
statistics so I don’t have to give them all to you. Over time we lost more than
25% of teacher librarians. When school starts again, it will be over 30%. At my
school, with slightly less students, we have more special needs kids with more
complex issues, and half the support we once had. Teachers teach classes at
maximum size with up to 7 or 8 designated special needs kids. Not only is there
inadequate SEA support, there are no specialist teachers to supervise and
provide guidance. Because of cut backs to school psychologists, there is always
a wait list for kids to get tested to figure out what is going on for them. And
then, even after they have a diagnosis, the support is so inadequate, they might
not get what they need anyway.
Today
I feel sorry for the new teachers and their students. Teachers end up living in
poverty for years working as a TOC. Then when they land a contract
and want to become better at their craft, they don’t have the resources
that were available to me. I feel especially sorry for all the children
whose education has been limited by the elimination of school libraries and
other specialist teachers to support them all.
I
write you this letter to implore you to acknowledge that a huge mistake was
made when class size and composition, and language guaranteeing ratios for
nonenrolling teachers was stripped from the contract. It was a shortsighted
decision to say the least. Please do the right thing, drop the E80 clause and
accept the court's rulings so that students and teachers can get back to what
we all want to do - teach and learn.
I
will be retiring in the next few years. I tell you this because unless this
government changes its attitude towards public education, I will then go to
work in the nearest liberal riding to work hard to defeat you. I won’t be
alone. The losses for the Premier in her Vancouver Point Grey riding and for
Margaret MacDiarmid in Vancouver Fairview have shown teachers like me, that if
we put the work in, we can accomplish real change.
Yours
Sincerely,
Cheriee
Weichel
Teacher
Librarian @ Charles Dickens School
Vancouver
BC
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