January 10, 2002

British Columbian teachers are having big problems renegotiating their contract with the British Columbian government. They have to date, reached "phase 2" of their job action. They have cancelled all volunteer extra-curricular supervision and participation of activities. No sports, no fine arts, no after school tutoring. The students are understandably upset. There have been isolated cases of walk-out protests all over the province in the last few days. There's supposed to be a province wide one on January 23. There's also supposed to be one tomorrow at......where? Kitsilano Secondary, or something like that. They're going to march on their MLA's office -- Gordon Campbell's office. Teachers at that school are aware of this, and plan to schedule unannounced tests, quizzes, in-class essay, in other words, do as much as they can to hurt the students.

Let me ask you a question. Who is losing out in this dispute? How can anyone deny that the heaviest burden falls upon the students? These students are getting gypped out of plenty of things. Some sympathize with the teachers. Their union told them to cancel all volunteer work, when in fact, as teachers, they love to do this kind of stuff. The teachers care about the students. This is what people say. This is what probably most teachers say. Most of the general public is unsympathetic to the teachers. This is a bad time to for labour in this province...in the recent economic downturn, and following years of government mismanagement by the NDP....people aren't happy if civic employees suddenly disrupt their lives to get paid more. So.....we have students who are being hurt. They, it would seem, are not on one side or another.....they just want to see the dispute settled. We have the general public. Unsympathetic to the teachers. We have the government. Unsympathetic to the teachers. We have the teachers. Sympathetic to the teachers. The students are going to protest outside GORDON CAMPBELL'S office. The government. They want to get it settled. They are placing the onus, tomorrow, on Gordon to do so. And the teachers are trying their best to inflict the maxiumum possible pain on the students. Seems to me like the teachers are alienating the only group who is not against them! Care for the students? Giving tests on purpose to harm students who are trying to in a way, help them, doesn't seem too caring.

Ultimately, of course, the students are responsible for what they miss when the cut class to do this. Unfortunately, the teachers, who say that they care about the students, aren't really showing it. They try to hurt the government, gain leverage, by hurting the students. That hurts. And it makes liars out of the teachers. In a day and age where public perception is so important, the BC teachers are not helping their cause by hurting their students. All they're doing is hurting their students. Bravo.