I am writing to express my support of our teachers here in Victoria, specifically for my son’s kindergarten teacher at the “inner city” school Vic West elementary.
I spend a fair amount of time in my son’s classroom and here is what I have noticed.
My son’s teacher works incredibly hard. She has a classroom of 14, which includes several children who have a difficult time maintaining focus and following directions.
She always maintains a kind, welcoming and supportive demeanor, while being fair and firm.
We are lucky, at this school, that we have such a small class size. I am thankful for this every day. I honestly don’t know how teachers can support and assist students to learn, when they have class sizes of 19-plus. It seems unfair to both the children and the teacher, to expect real learning to occur in overcrowded and underfunded classrooms and schools.
I believe in the teachers in my school, and in the teachers that I know on a personal basis. They have chosen this profession, and become educated in this field, because they care about children. They know what children need and what constitutes a healthy and supportive classroom environment.
Our teachers need to be paid properly and treated respectfully. I trust the teachers of this province to make decisions about classroom learning. This should not be a legislated contract, but a proper mediation between the teachers and government.
What kind of role modeling is this, when our children learn that the people who they spend upwards of 30 hours a week with, are being bullied by those that we, their parents, have elected.
We ask students to participate in anti-bullying campaigns, and yet by legislating the teachers back to work, the government is demonstrating that bullying is an accepted part of our society.
Feb. 29 was Pink Shirt Day, an anti-bullying campaign within the schools. Wouldn’t it be amazing if the government wore their pink shirts too?
Our country would be nothing without good teachers and good schools.
Mercedes Calvert
Victoria
