Couple of quick thoughts on the PC return to school plan for September:
It's far from perfect and is vastly underfunded, but there are some notably positive points. Firstly is the introduction of public nurses into the schools. Of course this can quickly be turned into a negative if there are not enough nurses to go around. Secondly, is the built in flexibility of the plan to go forward and get back to regular schooling for all if cases diminish, or shut things down, or drastically scale back if cases increase. There's some good in what the PC's laid out.
Committing $300M plus to education is a nice thought, but not nearly enough. It's kind of like shopping at Giant Tiger, when you could have been shopping at Macy's. Also, the $3.2B from the Liberal platform was a nice thought, but I also would be generous attaching costs to something I don't actually have to pay for. Plus, it's the ultimate game of playing politics by firing a shot across the bow before the PC's costed out their education platform. Lets's see if Steven DelDuca still feels the same way about his lavish educational spending in two years.
While I don't have a grasp on what should have been spent, the four months should have been spent modifying and retrofitting classes for September and maximizing use of space within the school and seeing if there were empty spaces or useful buildings that could be used close to schools. How about smaller desks? Partitions between students? Using nearby recreation centers or empty or under populated school buildings that are still suitable to use. There was a real opportunity to redefine schools both physically and philosophically. None of that was done, but that's what happens when you have the combination of incompetence and disorganization like we have with the Stephen Lecce and the Doug Ford approach to education.
The government is counting on two things: one is the fear that parents won't send their kids back to school, thereby reducing the class sizes in the buildings (though not completely as teachers will provide online instruction for those who stay home). My guess is they're hoping for a 30% opt out. Then they can point out the improved metrics of physical distancing. They are also counting on teachers going above and beyond in terms of safety, which of course they will. Teachers will likely provide extra sanitizer, have extra masks on hand and will be extra vigilant. Heck. I'm a guy who is only a year removed from a heart attack. I sure don't want to catch Covid-19, nor do I want anyone else to.
My message to teachers is the following. Be real careful how you position yourself and your thoughts on social media. What you construe as legitimate criticism, will be seen by others as fear mongering and "typical teacher complaining". While we will have to vastly change how we go about our business, remember that every single work place has had to undergo changes and modifications and their employees have seen their risk factors change by simply going back to work. Plus, these are workers who have gone without work, and may have seen their hours reduced. Teachers have been lucky enough to remain fully employed during the pandemic. Improvise, adapt and overcome has also been, and always will be my mantra.
My message to parents is the following. Trust in the adults in the building when you send your children back into the school, or for remote learning. They do have your children's best interests at heart and will do their utmost to keep the school humming. Trust me, the bulk of us are happier to be back in the schools and doing face to face learning than 100% online.
My message to the PC's and Doug Ford is the following. You've accumulated a great amount of good will during this pandemic for your handling of it and the reduction of cases we are currently seeing but your honeymoon is up. You need to put up or shut up. Increase the money towards education, and maintain the flexibility you have in place for the schools, and we can get through this. Continue to disrespect teachers, and do things on the cheap, and there could be issues.
To Stephen Lecce, Education Minister. The sooner that you are out of the education portfolio the better. You've ridden the fact that you got unions to sign sub-par collective agreements and have authored this "back to school". However, your lack of empathy and haphazard unplanned approach to education means that the best thing I can say about you is that you're extremely overrated.
It will be an interesting month of August as we segue back into the school year.
Steve Clark
Steve is a 20 year veteran of teaching high school in Ontario.
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