Respect Lost For Both Sides

This letter is directed to the educators and bureaucrats responsible for this nonsense, not to the 20 or so percent of the teachers that are left who want to make a positive impact in a child’s life.

After reading and hearing about this impending action at this time, you do not have our support, simply because of the obvious facts that your organization(s) have planned to take this action during the months that kids are attending school, thereby holding them hostage and impeding their education for your benefit. Who's going to help out the grade 12's after this little stint is over? Are you teachers going to tutor them or is the teachers association going to cough up a few bucks for tutoring so that they can graduate if this action has a lengthy stay?

If you were to have taken this action 2 or 3 months ago, it would have been more understood by the community that you did not want to disrupt the education of our children as much as possible, but as seen in recent history, you just don’t care… it’s all about you. You should be ashamed!

Last year when I wanted to take my kids camping, it was stated that they would not be able to catch up after a week away, and now you guys are telling us it won’t make a difference. Do you think we are idiots?

We are all dealing with harsh times. We make 24,000/yr and are a single income family with 3 kids. I know what hard times are. Somebody explain to me what you guys are belly aching about. You make decent wages and receive a good benefit package. I have read the information on the Internet.

When I read your memo on teacher’s job action, I was sick to my stomach. You guys have got to be kidding.

Teachers are supposed to make a positive influence in the lives of our children, not hinder their progress, and this used to be the case 20 years ago.

My classrooms had at least 30+ kids in it, and school work was taught on the blackboard, not from ready made text books. They were marked and corrected by teachers who made comments so we understood our mistakes, not by the kid behind us. Our grades were not intermixed, so proper time was allotted for kids to learn in class, and not taught by parents coming home after work, who have to scramble their brains to try and make head or tale out of something we haven’t seen in years.

My respect for teachers and the school board has gone out the window some time ago, and is re-inforced every year.

It takes very special people to become teachers, and I am not going to lump all of you into one boat because I know there are still a few left with the old school mentality. But with the cancer running rampant through the bureaucratic, hypocritical school system, it won’t be long till everyone is infected, because society is breeding them in schools today with “leading by example.”

I hate like heck to have to write something like this. It sickens me that our education system is too blind to see what’s going on here.

Shame on you!

R.J.K.