Open Letter to Education Minister Fassbender and Premier Clark

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

Revolution by Deborah Wiles

If I could only find the words, I'd gush all over about this book. Spectacular. Heartbreaking. Fascinating. Mind-blowing. Let's call that a good start.
Revolution is the second documentary novel in Deborah Wiles' The Sixties Trilogy. It tackles The Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964. Like Countdown, the first in the series, Revolution integrates fiction and nonfiction. Photographs, posters, newspaper headlines and quotes, music lyrics, and biographies merge with fine fiction writing to provide the reader with an exceptional history lesson. On the one hand we are exposed to the facts. On the other we vicariously experience what it means to have lived while they were taking place.

In 1964, Mississippi was flooded with a thousand or so black and white volunteers. These college students came from northern states to register black voters. It wasn't easy. Three young men, two white and one black, went missing on the first day. Media spotlighted Mississippi in the eyes of the country and the world. Yet in spite of the resistance, fear, and violence, over 80,000 black voters registered in those few summer months.

Against this backdrop Deborah Wiles crafts characters so rich and complex that it's hard to believe they aren't real. Raymond and Sunny are the same age. They live in the same town but inhabit separate social and cultural worlds: worlds that are about to collide in a fulcrum of peaceful protests and violent retaliation. Raymond is impatient. He wants to to grab onto liberty with everything in him, even if it means getting arrested over and over again. Sunny is struggling with complicated family issues compounded by discovering that good people can do bad things. She wonders, "Is there something wrong with me, or is there something wrong with the world?" They both have to learn that, "Being good is not a straight line. Being good is not being ever-obedient and never making mistakes. Being good is more complicated than that."

Here we have two characters aware of each other, connected, but not at all sure of what is going to happen and how they can learn to live together in a new way. This macro reality is played out in the micro reality of Sunny and her stepbrother, Gillette, struggling to merge their old families and create a new one.

This historical struggle reminds me, here and now, that it is our collective responsibility to ensure that we don't throw away what so many have sacrificed to obtain. Democracy is messy business. I'm left contemplating what this word really means. Neither noun nor verb, it's more of an ever evolving system of ideas. If we aren't vigilant, if we don't nurture and challenge it, we'll become complacent and then it can be deeply eroded or transformed in ways we won't want to live with.

These inherent political lessons are significant. Yet at its heart, this book is about the complicated love and dynamics that make family and community. Additionally, it's about the power we wield together.

As Sunny ultimately realizes,"I'm connected to everything. That's what the Westminster chimes are telling me in their ringing. Each of us is small, all by ourselves, but we are BIG, when we stick together."

The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer

"Death is a hard nut to crack." 

Magical thinking permeates it's wake. 

This is how it is for Grace whose mother died in a drowning accident. She makes bargains with the unknown in an attempt to stave off the reality of life after her death. She interprets the world around her as if her mother is still sending her messages. On top of this, Grace has to learn to live with her grandmother, a woman who brought her mother great sorrow by abandoning her before Grace was born.

Grief has the capacity to rob us of our sanity, to lead us into behaviours we learn to regret. 
This is how it was for Grace's grandmother, who shunned her daughter after the death of her husband. By the time she came to realize her mistake, it seemed it was too late to make amends. This time, she is determined build a better relationship with her granddaughter. 

If Grace can unravel the mystery that was her mother, there might just be hope for the two of them. This is complicated work. 

I love these beautifully developed quirky characters. I have a special place in my heart for Max, their 8 year old neighbour who yearns for an entombment party. 

Ultimately this book is about learning to love and trust. It's about family and friendship. It's about having courage to forge a new beginning out of the broken, leftover bits of the past. 

"I thought maybe heaven wasn't only in the great big sky with comfy furniture and fireplaces. I figured it lived in small places too, like a bowl of good soup or the folds of an origami crane."

Tracy Holczer has written a heartbreakingly beautiful book. I started it and couldn't put it down. I laughed and I cried. I'm thoroughly satisfied.   

I'm going to have to go and reread some Robert Frost now. 

Deadly Thyme by R L Nolen

I enjoy reading mysteries, but I don't do scary at all. And let me warn you, this book is chilling. It's not my kind of book at all at all.

It is a testament to the quality of Nolen's writing that not only did I finish it, once started, I couldn't not finish it, no matter how horrific it became. (I do admit to taking breaks from it to calm down)

One quiet Sunday morning in a village in Cornwall, a ten year old girl, Annie Butler, is abducted. Her kidnapper, Charles, is a serial killer who believes that drinking young girls' blood will make him young again. That premise alone makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Yet it gets worse. 

Nolan's omniscient narrator takes us inside the heads of the main characters. It's this that makes it disturbing. The narrative weaves its way into the impossible logic of the psychotic Charles, then wends it's way through imprisoned Annie's terror, stays a while with her mother Ruth's frantic panic, and on to DI Jon Graham's desperate sleuthing to find Annie before it is too late. Round and about, each glimpse inside the individual characters' realities ratchets the tension and suspense up. 

I won't spoil this for you, but I admit that this is one of those books where midway through, I had to read enough of the end so that I could go back and finish the book without suffering from apoplexy. 

If you are a reader of thrillers, then this book is for you. The plot is riveting. The characters are fully developed. This book puts the reader on the Cornish coast, enmeshed in village life and inside the heads of its inhabitants. 

It isn't for my elementary school readers, so I'll send my hard copy of the book to our feeder high school. I hope The Dry, the other of Nolan's books I have, is less traumatic. 

Counting by 7's by Holly Goldberg Sloan

If I am ever asked for one word to describe this book, mine will be redemption.

Redemption sneaks in through the back door for so many of these characters.

The catalyst is Willow Chance, an oddball genius with nearly nonexistent social skills. She is an observer of the world and its inhabitants. Yet while she is aware of the smallest detail in others, she is incapable of figuring out how to fit in with her peers. Friendless and bored witless in her middle school classes, she is thought to be a less than average student. When she aces the standardized test in 17 minutes, she is accused of cheating, and as a newly named troublemaker, ends up under the auspices of Dell Duke.

Dell Duke is a loser, a school counsellor with no empathy or compassion for the kids sent to him for help. One day, when Dell is late, Willow meets Mai and Quang-ha Nguyen. Mai becomes her first friend since grade 5.

When Willow's parents are killed it's Mai who ensures Willow is taken care of. Mai and Quang-ho's mother, Pattie, takes her under her wing. Pattie is like a whirlwind as she takes charge to make sure that their temporary charge of Willow goes without a hitch. 

Willow triggers something in everyone she meets. Through interactions with her, the lives of this motley cast of characters are transformed. Jairo Hernandez, the cab driver, ends up in college. Quang-ho becomes a successful student. Mai lets go of her need for control and is less anxious. Pattie's business booms and she realizes that she has to make permanent changes for her own family. Dell's metamorphosis is most pronounced. To his surprise, he finds himself caring about Willow. Then he connects to, and begins to care about the Nguyens, and eventually even himself. 

In turn, her interactions with this group help Willow transform from awkward genius into confident young woman. 

"I will go forward into the world and do my best to be the daughter that my parents would have wanted me to be. 

I'm not brave; it's just that all other choices have been thrown out the window." 

Sloan has written a profound novel about the power of love, family, and friendship. You'll wonder how these remarkable characters are getting by long after the last page is turned. 

I Have a Bad Feeling About This by Jeff Strand

I have no idea where I read about, or why I put a hold on this book from our public library. All I know is that it showed up as ready to be picked up and so I did. Honestly, I was dismayed at first. I really didn't think this would be my kind of book at all. 

I am so glad I read it. Sure it isn't my usual fare, but it is a well written engaging tale, full of ridiculous humor and madcap adventure. 

Simply put, our hero, Henry Lambert, and his best friend, Randy, are 16 year old skinny nerds who would rather play video games than romp in the great outdoors. Yet they end up in the wilds at Strongwoods Survival Camp along with three other mostly nerdy boys, Erik, Jackie, and Stu. Max, the slightly demented instructor, is determined to turn them into outdoorsy young men. 

One night Henry is forced to sleep outside as punishment. He meets up with Monica, a fearless girl from the nearby music camp, who is out walking in the dead of night through the forest. Of course he is instantly infatuated. Monica we soon discover is one feisty young woman. 

Then three gangsters show up at the camp with the intention of murdering them all. There's a lot of tomfoolery but also some seriously intense moments as the boys, with the help of Monica, save the day. 

I loved the humor in this book. I laughed out loud more times than I can remember. I snickered at the WILDERNESS SURVIVAL TIPS. Some of them are even sensible, like this one I myself depend on when I am huckleberry picking in the high bear infested Rocky Mountains. 

I really enjoyed this book except for these weird interruptions in the form of some goofy reporter trying to ask questions at a film screening of the adventure. Sure it was interesting that the movie wasn't like the real story, but it wasn't really needed. 

I'm thinking I will most certainly get this for our collection. 

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

This book was on the list of recommended reads over the summer holidays. It is always popular in the library. I decided to try it out by listening to it while doing my summer housework. It's easier to do work when your head is mostly inside a book, but this one was exceptional.  

I made potent connections to it. It is loaded with important lessons:

• It shows how our thinking can be limited by our environment and circumstances.
• It reveals how easy it is to be corrupted, and what the consequences of letting ourselves be corrupted can be.
• It points out how important it is to do what you know is the right thing irrespective of how challenging this might be. 

Mostly however, The City of Ember is a really good read.

Lina and the rest of the inhabitants of the of Ember believe that their world of darkness is the only world that exists. We're not sure how long the people have been living underground, but things are starting to get desperate. The lights go out with increasing frequency. There are escalating food and other shortages. 

Then Lina discovers a message her sister chewed on, and tries to puzzle out what it says. Together with her friend, Doon, and the help of a few others in the community, they discover that it is instructions for how to leave their city. 

I read this book after finishing Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. It isn't easy to go from a book like that to any other book, but this one stood the test. It is a great first dystopian novel. I loved that it had a satisfying ending. If I read the sequels, (which are on the summer to read list) it will be because I want to visit with these characters again, not because the novel left me hanging.