Respecting Education

I come from a family of teachers. My sister and I are teachers and my father was a teacher. I have 1 cousin and 3 aunts who are teachers. My Grandfather was a teacher.

My Grampa started teaching in the late 1920s in a small farming community in Interior BC. He taught in the quintessential one room schoolhouse- it is now little more than a pile of bricks in the corner of a farmer’s field. When the Depression hit, he lost students to the farm- they were needed to help earn the few extra pennies for the family. My Grampa made house calls to check on these students and to tutor and teach them in the small windows of time that they had. The families, if they could, repaid him with the fruits of their labour. He was RESPECTED!

After the Depression he moved back to the city and began teaching in the high school from which he graduated. He was a Botany, Biology and Latin teacher and quickly became much-loved amongst the staff and students. His classes were legendary. He was RESPECTED!

This year, while chatting with the Grandma of one of my students, we discovered that my Grandpa had been her favourite teacher. It has been an honour for me to teach the grandson of someone who had been taught by my Grandpa. We both burst into tears as our worlds collided and we talked about what a wonderful educator, mentor and friend he had been. He was RESPECTED!

My father began teaching in the 1960s at a time when men were just beginning to enter the education system en masse. Over the years, he was branded as the teacher who could reach “the tough kids.” His classrooms were packed with the behaviour problems, the depressed children, the children that needed extra love and support. His mantra was “You can’t save them all, but you can try!” He had former students coming to visit him all the time. He was RESPECTED!

At my aunt’s memorial service last year, there were several students present. One spoke about all of the personal sacrifices my aunt made so that tat student and her peers felt respected, loved and valued. She had perfected her job yet was always looking for ways to be a better teacher and mentor. My aunt sacrificed herself for these students. She was RESPECTED!

 My sister and I began teaching about 12 years ago. We have met many parents over the years, some of whom don’t really understand the terminally ill condition of our education system. But we have felt RESPECTED by the parents. My sister and I have always taught under a Liberal government. We have always taught in crowded classrooms and have been short on resource staff and supplies. We have always subsidized the system.  We have always had classes over-packed with students who require extra time and attention and we have worked ourselves to exhaustion trying to meet their diverse needs. Our government has made a deliberate effort to undermine our public education system to push their agenda for a two-tiered, class-based system. WE AREN’T RESPECTED!

It is time that we all stood up for fairly funded public education!

It is time that students, education and teachers are RESPECTED by our government!