Other View Teacher replies
Vancouver Island News Group
Wed 26 Oct 2005
Page: 0006

Section: Victoria News - Opinion
Byline:
Source:

At least Tom Fletcher has been consistent in his opinions regarding the B.C
Teachers' Federation. The amount of vitriol he has heaped upon this organization
in the last six months makes one think the BCTF just might be connected to Al
Qaeda. Within the last year, Fletcher has written in his editorials that the
BCTF (and by definition, B.C. teachers) are: "whiners," prone to throwing
"tantrums," and led by our noses, zombie-like, by our "militant, socialist" BCTF
executive and president Jinny Sims. Mr. Fletcher has also painted the picture
that all is fine in our public school system.

"Underfunding is not occurring under the Liberals," he claimed. The challenge
to follow the money and expose the smoke and mirrors of government budgets was
not followed up by Mr. Fletcher.

Just where is the money going? Not the classrooms.

"Class-size does not matter", he claims, after citing one study conducted by
the C.D. Howe Institute, (the
East Coast version of the Fraser Institute and promoters of privatizing public
services). He ignores the mountains of evidence that prove lower class sizes are
a major contributing factor in the academic success of a student throughout
their lives. (See the STAR study and SAGE study. Both are widely accepted as
being independent and comprehensive research on class-sizes and learning.)

Yes, after reading editorial after editorial attacking the BCTF like no other
organization in existence, a reader may come to the conclusion that there might
be an agenda at work here. These slanted editorials seem just like the drumbeat
we come to expect from the Liberal/Campbell cheerleaders and financial
supporters we know as the Canwest Global media. It's too bad because I remember
the Victoria News as more balanced in the past.

It must have driven Mr. Fletcher nuts to see the amount of public and
parental support for teachers and the BCTF during the strike. Every honking horn
of support must have made him cringe. This support did not wane during the two
weeks. This strike was not about money, but learning conditions and bargaining
rights. The public is quite clear that class-size matters. The fact that maybe
one per cent of B.C. teachers crossed the picket line clearly demonstrated that
the BCTF is not led lock-step from top-down, but rather from the grassroots up.
This strike showed that teachers were raising the alarm that B.C. public
education is running off the rails due to an ideology which promotes privatizing
and underfunding any public service, no matter the consequences. The public
responded by standing behind teachers, and, by definition, the BCTF, in our
quest to strengthen public schools, and to reject the Liberal efforts to
demolish one of the strongest education systems in North America, if not the
world.

In the right-wing attempts to demonize the BCTF and treat it as a terrorist
organization their real motives come out.Teachers are " weapons of mass
instruction against the war on error" the Campbell Liberals continue to wage
against society's vulnerable, elderlyand the working classwage earners of this
province.The BCTF is blocking its scheme of a two-tiered education system in
B.C. and the Liberals don't like it.

This teacher would like to thank all the parents and general public who
supported us in so many ways. I go back to my classes with a lighter wallet, but
rejuvenated and thankful I have chosen such a wonderful profession!

Paul Waterlander

Victoria

Copyright 2003 vicnews

Edition:
Length: 567 words