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As this week draws to a close, so does what should have been the end of the school year for students. Unfortunately, that school year was cut short when teachers started their full scale strike on June 17. My kids are in elementary school so they didn’t have final exams or graduation ceremonies that were affected by the strike, but they didn’t get out of grades 1 and 5 unscathed either. Here’s how the strike has affected my kids (and our family as a whole) so far. We found out this week that my children won’t get their report cards. While that doesn’t sound like a big deal to some, we place a lot of weight on report card marks and on the comments teachers give. We’ll change the whole way we’re doing things at home if it will help in a certain area our kids are struggling in, but without marks and report card comments to go by, we don’t have any specific focus this summer. That’s two months of targeted learning that will be lost. Our kids are also sad they didn’t get a year-end ceremony or a real chance to say goodbye to their friends and teachers this year. There was a weird feeling in the hallways that last day when kids were told to clean out their desks “just in case.” They were robbed of the closure a proper year-end brings. With no end in sight to the dispute, I can offer no comfort about next year either, and my oldest asks a lot. There were more than a few tears when the year-end field trips were called off. My daughter had helped with two fundraisers in order to go to Science World, but the much-anticipated trip was cancelled. That was a hard pill to swallow. All of the kids at our school also missed out on the big year-end carnival our PAC usually puts on. The massive fundraiser that draws hundreds of people and raises thousands for our PAC to start the next school year with was cancelled due to the uncertainty of the strike at the time. Teachers make up a good portion of our volunteer force, and if they couldn’t help or attend with their families, we knew we couldn’t pull off a successful event. Of course, the strike also affects other union members who can’t cross the picket lines, and that has stalled the completion of our accessible playground project. This Saturday we’ll open an accessible playground sans an accessible ramp because the unionized company that has pledged to do the work won’t do it while the strike drags on. It has been hard trying to explain to my kids why these things are happening. We love and respect our teachers and agree they deserve a raise and need more control over class size and composition, but we feel like bargaining chips that have been beaten and worn and we want off the table. Teachers want to pressure the province, but my family and thousands of others like mine are feeling the weight, while the government sits back and counts the money they’re saving each day teachers are on strike. The government has said they won’t legislate teachers back to work or put more money on the table, and teachers have said they won’t back down, that they’ll strike through the summer if necessary. I’m not seeing a light at the end of this dark tunnel. I understand that teachers see this strike as their only option to get the funding they need to support kids adequately in the long run, but it’s just not working. I think the only way to properly fix this problem is with our votes in the next election where education can be made an issue and real pressure can be applied directly where it’s needed — on the politicians who set the priorities for our province. Until then I keep hoping that both sides will find a way to give a little and get a deal this summer so our kids don’t suffer the same unrest come September. |
