Public Education in BC: what we can believe, who is telling the real story, and why our personal experiences get in the way.

The BC teachers’ job action, government lockout, teachers’ strike, and bargaining (or lack thereof) is a mess.  It is difficult to wade through the opinions, statistics, interviews, tv segments, tweets, shares, posts, memes, and letters to decide for yourself what is actually going on.  Each group (teachers union and government) have motives and no matter what they will spin events to place their best feet forward.  Here’s what I’m thinking:

I can hardly believe the government – since their motives are all too clear: decent educations should be bought for students by rich parents and everyone else will fall behind.  The poorly educated (rest of the province) will make and sell things for the rich people.  The economy wins.  Oh, and abolish unions.

I can hardly believe my union – since our motives are also clear (I think):  increase wages of teachers to make up for past zeros (taken to preserve class size and composition in years past), and to amend wages to just under what we should have according to inflation rates/cost of living increases… AND amend the language in the contract about class size and composition AND get more funding per student so that we can actually see the language working.  Oh, and don’t forget the NDP vote.

So, why do I get the feeling that no one is telling the whole story about what is happening when these two groups meet?  Well, the reason is simple (I think): refer to the above motives and the “best feet-forward” hypothesis.  But I also believe that people have a skewed view of the education system when they compare today’s to their own personal experiences as students.  So I’m going to share mine, past as a student and present as a teacher, and show why we need to stop thinking about teachers and classrooms today as we do about our teachers and classrooms from the past.

I was educated in a system where teachers had time for me.  My kindergarten year, we were given t-shirts with two kids in a spaceship saying “Grad 2000”.  Anything was possible for us.  As I look back, it occurs to me that I was neither exceptional nor was I limited by much – except for a bit of bad behaviour in grades 5 and 6 (sorry Mr. Doyon and Mme. Bilodeau!).  I didn’t really stand out with my abilities, strengths or weaknesses.  I could very easily have started to believe that about myself as well.  Oh yes my scores were fine, especially in high school, but are they really enough?  I wasn’t in the 90-100% bracket anyway – it’s not like a “read the dictionary” in my spare time ;) – so I could have easily been lost or forgotten in the shuffle/circus.  As I recall, my vice principal, in grade 12, mispronounced my last name at the awards ceremony.  What am I trying to say here?  I didn’t stand out so a lack of motivation or lack of help to become better than average could have cost me in the long run.

Anyway, I didn’t fall through the cracks.  I was able to iron out my self-esteem after surviving high school.  And here are some examples for why I think it happened. 

All through elementary school I just coasted along with decent scores and my mother thought I was a pretty sensible kid (“sensible” was lost in translation from French to English – but that’s a whole other story).  My grade 7 teacher ruthlessly, and thankfully, pointed out that I wasn’t such a great reader (thanks Mrs. Anderson!) so I worked harder and my mother was able to challenge me into practicing (however unwillingly at the time).  If Mr. Watt (“The Brains from Grassy Plains”) had not said to me, “Carol, you’re a good problem solver” in math class all those years ago, I really don’t think I would be where I am today. Had these events not occurred (among others) I might not have taken a couple years for Philosophy and English at CNC before starting my science degree.   I might not have started reading voraciously while riding the bus to UNBC.   I might not have worked with a lichen ecologist on her PhD project, worked for an environmental firm, worked and volunteered with non-profit kids programs and at the Northern Women’s Centre.  Without these experiences I might not have traveled some of the world before and while discovering that I wanted to be a teacher.  I was educated in a system that made the world seem big and wondrous.  My BC public education made me yearn to escape the drama of adolescence and become a part of something bigger – to make a difference in the world.

The problem is that the system has changed a lot since the year 2000.  If we, as adults, keep comparing today’s classrooms to our own past classrooms (especially the success stories) then we are letting these kids down.  As soon as people find out I’m a teacher they can’t help recounting stories from their youth – comparing those classrooms to today’s classrooms.  It’s understandable, and having just done so myself, I can relate.  However, we will also be letting the teachers down if we keep thinking this way. I believe that teachers today face struggles in their classrooms in desperate need of attention.

As a teacher, I have had some incredible experiences.  Some experiences are incredibly shocking and while others incredibly heart-warming and encouraging.  The latter are what keep teachers teaching.  Unfortunately, when teachers consider the cost of living increases and the levels of stress and responsibility in our careers we think of the former.  I have taught in classrooms with the maximum allowed designations (kids with or without funding for their disabilities – from behavioural issues to mental disabilities to the inability to read and/or write) PLUS a scary amount of kids without designations (who seem to have one or several of the same issues).  It is very difficult to have the heart-warming and encouraging moments in a room where students are either yelling/calling out for attention or leaving the room as soon as the teacher’s back is turned.  It is frustrating to try and help a student read his assignment while another can read but cannot write for him/herself – with no extra help in the room.  Some students get funding, it’s true, but the *piggy-backing that happens takes a lot of it away and the school cannot (or will not) afford more support or better technology.  More funds for these might allow students to read by listening or write by typing.  Support workers and students are not always trained on the technology we are provided with (never mind the teachers)… so helping support workers support students during teaching time sucks time out of teaching time for the rest of the class.  So, for example, a laptop with a dictation or reading-to-speaking program will become a burden rather than a blessing.  Does that sound right?  Well it’s true.  Did I mention that we are dealing with these issues at the grade 10 level?  That’s right, I’m referring to my experience with grade 10 science students.  You know, the ones with a provincial exam at the end?  Yep, that’s them.  A LOT of these 15 year olds cannot read or write… and don’t even get me started on the “No Child Left Behind” policy.  These people need help.  They deserve help.  Something needs to be done if these students are to have a fair and equal chance at an education - just like the constitution says they deserve.   Something needs to change so that students and teachers can focus on the good stuff: the heart-warming and the encouraging stuff.

So that’s one account on some of the things actually happening in classrooms these days.  This is not the case in every single classroom, no, but I believe that even one classroom like this is too many.  My personal learning experiences need to be left aside, as do yours, in order to fully appreciate why teachers are talking about class size and composition and why teachers deserve a fair wage increase.

Money is what holds the system in this pattern of negativity and sob stories.  Classrooms need more support and/or effective resources in the classrooms.  Schools need more hours for non-enrolling teachers to support those resources being effective.  Classrooms need to be developed with success in mind meaning less kids with designations mixed together with undesignated kids/behavioural issues.  Schools need more funding per student so that administrators and counsellors can develop those successful classroom compositions.   Only with all of these pieces coming together can we actually hope to deliver programs that benefit each and every student.  It all boils down to funding.  The government has not been funding education adequately and that’s why so much funding is needed!

So when you hear Peter Fassbender or Christy Clark speaking on behalf of the government or Jim Iker speaking on behalf of the BC Teachers Federation please remember the group’s motives.  Who do I believe?  I thought I just asked YOU that question!  No?  Oh, well, I still haven’t figured it out.  Frankly, I was hoping that writing this letter would help me figure it out.  What should you believe?  Believe what you choose (who am I to tell you, really?!) but please believe that looking out for teachers’ best interests and equality in education are the better motives!  If you believe that teachers are asking for too much money then I’m really surprised you read down this far but I also hope that hearing about what needs to be done in order to get public education in BC back on track has helped to answer some of your questions.  What needs to be done requires money.  So, any deal that helps teachers and students is a good deal and it’s a good start.

Thanks for reading,

Ms. S ("The Frizz")

*piggy-backing: extra funding for students with a qualifying designation is stretched thin between that student and the other (sometimes 15 or 20) students who do not qualify for funding but sometimes seem to need it more.  This means that the student who qualifies for funding does not always receive the product of that full amount of funding.