I have to agree with the comments made by L. Holloway and R. Willie in their letter published Nov. 4.
Teachers should be only concerned with the education of our children, and not about politics, but that is now what they are forced to do. Our children are suffering, once again, and are being held hostage thanks to the Liberal government.
While my children were in school, we suffered through cuts in funding. We had the Program 2000 forced down our throats, which turned out to be a huge fiasco. Even with huge parent disapproval and teacher’s support, a program that was still not on paper was implemented. Any child that started school during that time has suffered greatly in their education.
Teacher’s assistants were withdrawn from the school in February one year, leaving my one child’s teacher to have 20 minutes of one-on-one with each student, per week. I was heavily involved in PACs at that time and spent countless hours volunteering at my children’s elementary school, because without it, there would be no hot lunch, no carnivals, no sports day concessions and no playground. Because in those days, the government didn’t fund for those — now they are handing them out — because it was their great idea. We were told to quit fundraising for the school, because the government would look at that and quit giving money to us.
Having a family member who spent 35 years teaching, I am well aware of what teachers are going through. Why should they be any different than the rest of us who work? How many of us bring work home and spend entire evenings and weekends working and not getting paid for it? I wouldn’t want my child’s teacher sitting at her desk working on report cards instead of teaching.
It takes a special kind of person to be a teacher. They should be compensated properly for the work they do, in and out of the classroom. And if withdrawing the services that they are presently doing on their own time is something that the government thinks they can legislate, then maybe they should only be paid for the 24 days that they actually sat in the Legislature, because I don’t know what they’re doing the rest of the time they’re off. It doesn’t appear to be benefiting me or my children.
And maybe the government should start reading up about bullying. You know, the stuff we are trying to teach our kids in the classroom. Because right now, they are a prime example.
Dawne Young
Penticton