A classmate of mine from Earl Marriott Secondary, Jacob Smith, wrote to The Province earlier this month expressing his opinions on the teacher strike, and inspired me to write a response as a fellow student who is frustrated with the dispute and some of the arguments surrounding it.

First of all, if we are going to use Smith’s marriage metaphor and view the BCTF and the provincial government as parents in a dysfunctional relationship that negatively affects the children—in this case, the students—then it is also necessary to recognize from where the dysfunctions are stemming and how they affect the partners. In this case, the government is an abusive partner that has been manipulating the BCTF. It has broken the law twice and the BC Supreme Court has deemed its treatment of the teachers to be unconstitutional after it stripped teachers of their collective bargaining rights in regards to class size and composition, erased the teacher-to-student ratio for specialized teachers, and failed to reinstate them when ordered by the court, yet still the government is unwilling to make things right.

Smith is lucky to have had the privilege of never experiencing any difficulties due to class size, but there are numerous others who have. It is not simply “the teachers’ problem” as Smith declared, but a student problem as well. Large classes make me so anxious that it impedes my ability to learn and affects my grades when I cannot contribute to discussions or debates, ask questions for clarification, or present in front of my peers. Some might argue that this is a mental health issue and not the school’s problem to deal with, but it’s my belief that if it impacts my education and if the school could do something about it, then it becomes a school issue as well. I know I am by far not the only person in a BC public high school that struggles like this. After all, every student is an individual with differing needs and ways of learning, and ideally, teachers would try to cater to them all so that each could achieve their highest potential. However, in a large class, the likelihood that some students are not going to receive the support they need is almost guaranteed. Teachers don’t have time to check in with every student on a daily basis to see how they are progressing and help guide each to their equivalent of success. Instead, they typically do their best to come up with class plans that will hopefully work for the majority well enough to get them through the course and on their way to graduating. Our school system is built around the idea of creating workers to contribute to society, so we go to school to learn the necessary tools and then we are put into the workforce to earn our worth, and those who are incapable of progressing through this system are left to fend for themselves and often suffer. Neuroatypical or disabled students have a much higher risk of not succeeding, particularly minority students, and teachers need the resources to better support them.

Smaller class sizes would be beneficial to most students as they give the opportunity for more personal attention and additional instructional help. Teachers would have the flexibility to try out various approaches and teaching methods rather than tailoring to the generalized majority, which would make classes more varied and interesting at the same time as reaching out to students who are not as receptive to the basic methods. Studies have shown that students in smaller classes participate more, are better behaved, and concentrate longer. The STAR (Students-Teacher Achievement Ratio) project in Tennessee found that academic performance, particularly that of poor and minority children, was better in smaller classes of ideally thirteen to nineteen students. Most of those I know who struggle at school fit into either or both of those categories on top of facing learning or mental health challenges, but I would not call a single one of them unintelligent despite what percentages the computers spew out. From what I have witnessed, we all have had our own experiences of flourishing academically due to a teacher’s efforts and the right type of instruction when we had previously thought ourselves to be weak in a subject area.

Based on this, I disagree with Smith’s statement that “this is really about… more money for [the BCTF]”. Money is a part of the equation, but it is certainly not the driving force behind the strike. Teachers continued with job action, losing a significant ten per cent of their already low salary, even after the government tried to negotiate wage increases, and they are insisting that the key factors of class size and composition be settled before a deal can be reached. They are losing money while fighting to better the quality of education for BC students, and I don’t understand how that is greedy or self-serving.

Furthermore, I believe that the teachers’ monetary demands are in line with their work, especially since they have been paid under the cost of living for a long time. Recently, I read a satire that said that we should pay our teachers the same wages we pay babysitters. If we paid them $5.00 an hour for an average 6.5 hour day, that would be $32.50 per student; with 30 students, that would make a total of $975 per day. Multiply that by 180 days in a school year, and their annual salary should be $175,500. However, the highest salary after a decade of work for a teacher with a master’s level of education is $81,488 in Vancouver, and that’s not including the hundreds of hours of unpaid overtime that teachers put in for planning and marking. On top of that, teachers are not simply babysitting. Through education, they are in charge of helping individuals become critical thinkers, leaders, and members of the community, and inspiring, motivating, and guiding younger generations into doing something worthwhile with their lives—a task that is demanding enough as it is.

What I do agree with Smith about is that, while I see the current working conditions as having a negative impact on our learning, the dispute to find a solution has affected students on top of that. I do support the causes behind the strike, but the government’s way of retaliating rather than procuring a fair deal, such as imposing a lockout that provoked a full strike, has been harmful to students as well as teachers. As a grade twelve student with a provincial exam, the last three days of school that were cancelled for me were valuable for preparation and revision, particularly after missing days due to the rotating strikes. As a peer tutor, I witnessed the last minute, frenzied rush that went into completing assignments, tracking down students who had not handed everything in, getting it all marked in time, etc., which was made even more hectic by the lockout that barred teachers from staying before or after school for more than forty-five minutes. Students could seek help and make up assignments or tests only during instructional time. The effect of this I felt prominently, as I typically come in either after school or during lunch hours for one-on-one help from my teachers, and the lockout stunted me at a time of year when I desperately needed all the help I could get.

So here I am, voicing my opinion as only one more infuriated student out of hundreds of thousands. I am tired of the government waving scraps of meat at the BCTF by offering meagre compromises that don’t address the real issues that affect me and my peers. This dispute has gone on long enough without any concrete results, and now what I would like to see is the change that teachers are advocating for. I would like to see the education system restored to its previous learning standards. I would like to see improved working conditions so that learning environments will be enhanced, ultimately resulting in better learning outcomes. I would like to see teachers paid what they deserve for the high amount and quality of work that they do. I believe that the education system and those involved in it are worth investing in; after all, when it comes down to it, we are investing in our future and the individuals who will bring it.

-Martina Dansereau

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Smith's article: http://blogs.theprovince.com/2014/06/03/jacob-smith-b-c-public-school-students-are-like-kids-caught-up-in-a-nasty-divorce/