ESSENTIALSERVICE?

The Liberals' plan for education and what you need to know about it.

by Shannon Loewen

We've all dealt with them. Our experiences with them have been good, or bad. or r,robably both, but in the end have heen rewarding. as they have !liven us the most important gift of nil: knowledge. By them. r mean our teachers, from both elernenrary uml high school. And they're about to be screwed if our Liberal government has its way with them.

In its altempts to 'cul the fat' from government spending. the Libernls have turned their eye:. tu our teuehers, who they have m<1de.in essential ervice to minimi1e the amount of resistan<:ethey <,;Unput up so the governmcnl can do whatever they want 10 euui;;ution. And the Liberals de111011i1ewhoever does tnflke a stand so they appear to the gcncrnl public as l:uy. overpaid, ungrateful workers who just want to suck the public and the taxpayer, dry.

However. thi is certainly not the case. Here are a few facts the government has neglect• cu to mention while spewing propaganda about the teachers.

Forget 11.:achcr's assistants, counsclors, library technicians and rhe like. Under the Uberais· new plan for educntion. you won't find most, ir nm all. in your local school any111ore.They have be1.:ndeemed 'unnecessary' and 'wasteful' by thost: responsible for determining how the schools arc. run. Howtwcr, what the governInerll doesn't realize is that if Ihey sl.ish these peoples' jobs. they slash apart the much vaunted qunlity of education you can find here in B.C. Without these people to assist teachers and make learning as effective as il can bt:, students' performance~ will crush, which means bad news to our future economy. If Wl! don't have the kind of bright. innovative people 8.C. needs in the l'uturc, then the Liberal's t1ourishing economic fuIure is a dream. and a fanciful one nt that. What mnke~ it worse is thnt the adrniniwation of ench school must decide what must cul to meet the Libcral's agenda: straining relations between the teucht:rs and the administration when they ore supposed to be workinit together for the greater benefit of the students.

It also seems that the government believes that teachers do not need to cm. 'rhe governrnent wants to take away lhe tcad1ers· lunch hour so thcy can be supervising the stuuents out. ide instead of the lunch hour supervisors. 'rht: government says this is necessary be<.;ausestudents don't listen tu the lunch hour supt:rvisurs, but in reality ull they want to do is cut 'unnecessary' spend-

''KIDS ON THE SIDE''

by

K. & 11.Sedore at their school." (This, in my eyes, would make tardiness l'urgivable). Hey, l'n1 as

So hove you noticed the large populnt,on guilty as the nc>.t pcrson for sleeping in of "111murcstudents" here at UCFV co111- and occasionally being late for clnss (I i;;an pared to other collc.:ges?Not really'? Well. count on one hand how many times it's apparently there arc a lot of us. ulthough r happened this semester and still have fintlo11't know if .111yonc'sactunlly <lone a gers 11:ftover). My question is, though. if I tnlly to lind out exactly how many students can hustle four kids out rile door and to the are con1bining academic pursuits with rais- 'sitter's in the morning and still make it to ing kids on the side. We arc. rn our house, class in ample time, what excust: did this both of us sit down to homework in the studenc have? Piss-me-off.factor: eight. evening·: in forty-five minute intervals. of nine-and-a-hair when this person arrived course, as 011c of us has to go and switch with a hot coffee from Tim Horton's thi.: laundry over... (might as well rnnkc the detour, you're late So what's life like wearing two very dif- for cl,iss anyway). ferent hats? r:or St!lrters, we probnbly get So saying that. the rcul reason instructnrs up earlier than ihc uvcragc student, some want our butts in dass on time is probably day~ .is early as 5:30nrn. We stnrl rolling because they're in the same parentini; boat kids ou1 bc;:twccn6:30 & 7am nnd they are as us "matu:·~ stuclc~ts"; ~lccp-<ler,rivt:d <lroppt:cloff the bubysitter's for Bum when I a~d over-c~llfrnate~ JUSI to be punctual 1/wc have an 8:30am class. OK, well with one lunctwnrng nerve and tardy that's the plan, anyway. ft doesn't always a1t.endee juSt got 0 it. work, I'll adrnit that once -just once- l've ~11hout l~1u~ch111g_ into a rnrnr-lecture (gtvdelivcrcd a kid at thl! 'sitter's wh() wasn't 111gyou rnlorrnatron you already knowquite dressed. Alrighl, truth be known. she that's yo~r parents' privilege), I'll in~1e~1d was buck naked, wearing only her jacket sa_Y,,how1111p.~essed I am with t\1e nrn,1or11y and boots. it's not like it was cold outside! ot younger students who I ve rnet at But J mode it to class lll1 tirne!

.Speak.ingof punctuality, I had an 8:30am class one year that had u chronically late student. ln fact. r don't recall this student e-..er grucing tht: clas:-.room bcrore 9arn. One dny I approached the tardy inuividual during a break and asked innocently how many children s/hc had. "Oh. none" was the response. "Why did you think I had kids?" "I thought you wcrt: always late because you had to first drop your klds off ln closing I'd like to make a couple of looug• gestio11sIll the aclministnition here nt the college: ing in schools. Also the government wants t0 i111.:reasecla.s si1.e again at all lcveb. despite advice from the teachers that it would be H bnclideu to do so. as it would affect the lime the tcni;;hcr c.:ould interact directly one on one with each student. decreasing the general quality of education. Yet in the government's view, this is another good wny to t;lll expenses.

UCFV. (Take issue with rhc adjcctiv,;. if you want. after all. the reciprocal or "mature" would he ?).

I. Sy11chroni1,ethe buildings' clocks. the technology does exist, people!

2. Make the ability to read t1nd eompre• hend an analogue clock a prerequisite.

/\s to the general belief teachers an: laq. Lio nothings nothing could be l'urlhcr from the truth. Unlike many people. who lead nine 10 five jobs und don't hring their woI k with them, a teacher's job begins befnre the bell rings ,111ddocsn·t end when it rings.

Teachers arc responsible f'or marking, lcs• su11 planning and writing reporl cards nniong various other things. whkh tukes hours after the school day is done nnd 1Ivcr with, And while they're at school they 111us1 dcal with belligererH students. hostile purents (not snying all parents are hostile), the ever present social worker, and at limes, the police. If working alongside vinlcnce, drugs, and indifference is supposed tn be an idyllic joh, thc11I fear what a really tough one looks like. Tead1ers also often voluntt:er hours of their extra time to students, ranging from 0111.: on one tutoring 10 t:Xtruc.:urricular acti vii ies. As for tile fact they have two months vncc1tionwhile school is out of session. may it be reminded thm teachers do not get paid <luring thO!-.etwo months nnd ui'tell have difliculties making ends meet during those times.

Teachers were offered an eight pen.:cntraise by the government. and have he-.!n vilified f'or :J!,~i11gfor lhirty percent. The government has said there·s no money for such a raise. yet believed there was enough to give themselves a nice. fut raise in the process. F,ight percent is an insult lo the hard working teachers. when the l:qually hardwnrking nurses ask1.:dfor si>.ty four percent nnd got 1hir1y two. Tt:ac.:hersdon't expecI they'll gt:t n thirty peri;;ent raise, but they bdievc they deserve " fair ont:. rc11ccting or the.:amount of hard work th<:y put in. So the strike. Teachers don't like th1: foct of depriving education lo students nnymorc than the parents do, but they'll dn it ro insu,e the fn1:t thut lhc students get the qu,1li1yof t:ducation they deserve.

So 110w the big que!-.ti1111.Do Liberals belit!ve that education is really e~~cnti,II? By 11Iakingit an essential service, i~11'1it e,1',H!11licll that students get a quality educm1on'! Apparently not. It's bad that there's going tn be a s1Iike. bul it would he c-..en \\Orse 1r there was,,·t 011c.

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