education

Thursday August 16, 2001

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 16, 2001

Let’s not take summer away from our kids; Education: An idea with merit, but not now

Not here, not now. There’s a case to be made for an expanded school year that students (and their parents) could opt into. The province’s Task Force on Effective Schools is fundamentally right in suggesting some study on the issue is worthwhile.

A shorter (five-week) summer break and other more frequent breaks through the rest of the school year has shown itself to be a popular option for eight schools operated by four boards across the province. Student learning momentum is kept without a two-month interruption, and some families obviously find rescheduled holidays work for them.

But they certainly won’t work for everyone, and since our climate makes air-conditioning a requisite for summer programs, some boards would find it financially disastrous.

This is an idea that should be considered across the province only in the long term. Now is not the time to bring more radical change into Ontario’s schools.

Teachers and students are already trying to cope with enough change to rattle anyone: New curriculum; standardized testing; the loss of specialized special-ed, music and physical education teachers; textbook short ages; teacher testing/recertification (and the resistance that goes with it); the end of OAC and the so-called “double cohort; ” a loss of experienced teachers to early-retirement offers; and still uncertainty about after-school activities. And that’s not including the funding shortfalls and inequities that are forcing school boards into confrontations with their teachers and damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t choices about what they can a fford. Just about the last thing school boards need is a provincial directive to offer alternative school-year programs.

But there’s more to this than the logistics of climate control and issues of teacher contracts, parents’ schedules and learning retention.

Summer holiday is one of the last great perks of being a kid. The great writer Ray Bradbury wrote in his book Dandelion Wine about how, for a youngster, summer holidays begin by stretching off to a distant horizon, with the next school year so far away it doesn’t bear thinking about. When school lets out, summer is an infinite time of hikes and games and adventures, swimming and sports, comic books and fireflies and sprinklers to be run through. All too soon, part-time, then full-time, jobs strip that away. We need to really think about if schooling should take away the rest.

In this part of the world, summer is still, for most youngsters, so anticipated that it makes the rest of the school year bearable. It doesn’t matter if it’s Haliburton or Hutch’s, Wasaga Beach or Pier 4, the Bruce Trail or the Bayfront Trail, summer is still when families do the things we don’t make time for during the rest of the year.

There are some things more important than keeping our nose to the grindstone. And what our children make of their summers is part of that. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial, A10, 8/16/2001)

Tuesday September 12, 2000

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Tuesday September 12, 2000 Ontarians have had it with classroom warfare; Education: Public won't support disruptions Ontario's schools are once again in danger of becoming a labour relations battleground rather than a place for learning. The optimism that usually marks the start of the school year is missing, especially in public high schools, and there is concern for what lies ahead. Students and parents are worried about teachers working to rule; withdrawing extra-curricular activities, includi ng sports and after-school clubs; and taking other job actions, such as rotating walkouts and possibly even a strike in Toronto. It is an understatement to say that Ontarians are tired of the continuing tension and uncertainty. What is most frustrating is the apparent inability of the Mike Harris government and Ontario's teachers' unions to discuss their differences, or at least agree to a truce until the next provincial election campaign is under way. It's unrealistic to expect that relations between the Tories and the unions will be easily repaired in the wake of the government's heavy-handed Bill 74, the Education Accountability Act, which among other things increases high school teachers' course load and could mandate extra-curricular involvement. But it's not asking too much of all parties to go the extra mile to start communicating with each other to avoid damaging, unnecessary disruption in schools. Harris has an opportunity to take a more constructive direction by opting for a more moderate, less confrontational and more inclusive approach to education reform. Last week, the premier said that his government plans a more pragmatic, less ideological approach to governing -- but he wasn't specific. Education is an ideal place for Harris to show that he's serious about adopting a Bill Davis, consensus-building style. He would send a good signal by slowing down to listen to what critics are saying. This gov

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday September 12, 2000

Ontarians have had it with classroom warfare; Education: Public won’t support disruptions

Ontario’s schools are once again in danger of becoming a labour relations battleground rather than a place for learning. The optimism that usually marks the start of the school year is missing, especially in public high schools, and there is concern for what lies ahead. Students and parents are worried about teachers working to rule; withdrawing extra-curricular activities, includi ng sports and after-school clubs; and taking other job actions, such as rotating walkouts and possibly even a strike in Toronto.

It is an understatement to say that Ontarians are tired of the continuing tension and uncertainty. What is most frustrating is the apparent inability of the Mike Harris government and Ontario’s teachers’ unions to discuss their differences, or at least agree to a truce until the next provincial election campaign is under way. It’s unrealistic to expect that relations between the Tories and the unions will be easily repaired in the wake of the government’s heavy-handed Bill 74, the Education Accountability Act, which among other things increases high school teachers’ course load and could mandate extra-curricular involvement. But it’s not asking too much of all parties to go the extra mile to start communicating with each other to avoid damaging, unnecessary disruption in schools.

Harris has an opportunity to take a more constructive direction by opting for a more moderate, less confrontational and more inclusive approach to education reform. Last week, the premier said that his government plans a more pragmatic, less ideological approach to governing — but he wasn’t specific. Education is an ideal place for Harris to show that he’s serious about adopting a Bill Davis, consensus-building style. He would send a good signal by slowing down to listen to what critics are saying. This government has assumed almost complete control of education from school boards, barging ahead on major reforms with relatively little concern for the views of teachers’ unions.

There is an equal onus on the union leaders to hold their noses and offer to dialogue with the Tories, starting with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation. The OSSTF acted responsibly by returning to school on schedule this month. However, the union drew a line in the sand by pledging to battle the demands of Bill 74 in negotiating unsigned teachers’ contracts. In Toronto, 7,000 public high school teachers have set Oct. 2 as a strike date if negotiations fail. The OSSTF is walking a fine line. Job actions that detract from the quality of a student’s overall educational experience are ultimately self-defeating.

The OSSTF and the other unions have every right to oppose the Tory agenda, take their issues to the public, and campaign for a new government in the next election. But the battle shouldn’t be fought on the backs of students. Both sides must preserve the integrity of the classroom and all of the after-school programs that are fundamental to a good education. (Source: Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

 

John Snobelen Meets With the Board of Trustees

Pen & Ink caricature by Graeme MacKay (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada). Illustrated in 1997.

Why Ontario teachers went on a province-wide strike in 1997

Back in October 1997, a strike kept teachers and students out of the classroom for two weeks.

The 1997 strike was not about wages. It was about the Mike Harris-led PC government’s proposed overhaul to education.

On Oct. 7 that year, a crowd of 20,000 teachers gathered inside and outside Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens for a rally opposing Bill 160, which introduced legislation for Progressive Conservative Premier Mike Harris’s changes to education.

“If he does not move off his legislative agenda, every school in this province will be shut down,” Eileen Lennon of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation told the rally. “We will not back down.” 

Reporter Steve Erwin outlined some details of the bill.

A Meeting of the School Trustees – By Robert Harris

It would give the province control over the levying of school taxes, the ability to dictate school funding, set class sizes and teacher prep time, and allow non-certified teachers to instruct.

Erwin said the government’s stated purpose was to “improve the performance of Ontario schoolchildren.”

But teachers saw it as a pretext to cut $1 billion from the system and lay off up to 10,000 teachers.

Education Minister John Snobelen, himself a high school dropout, dismissed the “union bluster,” according to the reporter.

“I wasn’t surprised by the turnout or the rhetoric from last night,” he said. “I think that was all pretty predictable.” 

Snobelen would be replaced as education minister in a cabinet shuffle two days later. (Continued: CBC News)