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An education system sadly failing its children
Perceptions by Gerry Warner
Enough is enough!
On Sept. 2 more than half a million B.C. students are supposed to bring their shining faces back to school after a strike-extended summer holiday, which barring a minor miracle, will still be continuing Tuesday depriving the province’s children of their fundamental right to a civilized education.
I say civilized because at least when it comes to education this province has no right to call itself “civilized.” And in this ludicrous situation, I think we must all share the blame.
What the hell happened this summer? It was certainly obvious by the end of July that there were no negotiations going on. But that didn’t seem to bother the holidaying teachers or the government negotiators, who as far as I can tell, all headed for the lake or their back porch barbecues while one of the longest education strike/lockouts in B.C. history festered away in the closet.
Shame on the whole damn works of them for dereliction of duty! What were they thinking? The Tooth Fairy was going to deliver an agreement! Vince Ready was going to wave his magic wand and have a contact ready for them to sign in September after they returned from the beach. Considering the chaos the system was left in at the end of June did they seriously think they could just forget about the horrific mess they created and the problem would somehow resolve itself?
Obviously they weren’t thinking at all and here we are now knocking on September’s door and everyone is still wondering if classroom doors will be locked Tuesday and the system plunged further into anarchy.
And don’t kid yourself because anarchy is not too strong of a word to use. It takes time for teachers to prepare for a new school year especially when the previous year was not properly completed. Did teachers even prepare to go back to school the past week or were they prepping to continue their job action?
The government isn’t blameless either. It must have been obvious to them that so-called “negotiations” were at a stalemate and if they wanted kids back in the classroom come September they were going to have to legislate them back as is sadly normal in B.C. That’s what I mean about anarchy in the supposedly “best place on earth” as our license plates so proudly proclaim.
But you know who else is to blame in this destructive situation? I’m talking about you Mr. and Mrs. British Columbia.
The BCTF claims the majority of parents are on the teachers’ side. A recent provincial poll bears this out and so do the honks on the picket lines. If that’s the case why aren’t you parents bringing pressure to bear on teachers as well as government to put their pointed heads together and hammer out an agreement. It’s done everywhere else in the world. Why is it done so seldom in B.C.?
It must be obvious to everyone by now that the relationship between teachers and government in this province is totally dysfunctional. In a dysfunctional relationship, both sides are to blame and you don’t resolve the situation by supporting one side at the expense of another. So I urge all of you parents who regard our educational system as more than a place to park the kids while you’re at work to fire up your computers and email both your MLA and your BCTF rep and make it abundantly clear to them that this deplorable situation has got to end once and for all. I don’t care which side you support. Just do it! If you don’t, it’s going to continue indefinitely and you know who that’s going to hurt the most.
The children – the forgotten victims of 20 years of B.C. educational warfare waged by adults who have never grown up themselves and who seem incapable of putting the children’s needs first.
– Gerry Warner is a retired journalist and a Cranbrook City Councillor who speaks for himself and not for Cranbrook City Council.
