Ontario Teacher Strike

A lot of parents are concerned about the impending teacher strike.  All we can say… Don’t Be!!

Do not let yourself get sucked in to the drama.  Close your eyes and ignore the picket lines as you drive/walk through to drop off your kids. 

Teacher labour disputes will not ruin your children’s future.  How do I know?  I have 17 years of academic experience in dealing with every strike and labour dispute ever created.  As a student from elementary school through to the completion of University, I experienced (was the “victim” of) every possible labour dispute in Ontario between the 90s and the late 2000s.  And anyone who remembers those two decades will remember the labour turmoil and the battles between teachers and governments of every stripe.  There wasn’t a single year that I was in school that there wasn’t a lingering threat, and nearly every other year a walk out of some kind.  Labour disputes intensified through my years in high school, and my school board was involved in one of the record breaking events of its kind, that put us, the students in the middle for nearly an entire school year.  And then when I was out of high school and my parents thought “finally we can put this behind us”, we encountered it again in University, this time paying $8000/year to have my schooling disrupted.

So how did it turn out?
The kids turned out alright.  Nearly everyone in my graduating class is a successful adult/professional of some kind.  The majority went to post secondary, the majority have good jobs, the majority have done ok in life.  We are millenials, we have our own set of issues, but none of it can be blamed on teacher disputes and can be a whole blog post on its own!

I should also mention that we had over 30 kids in our classes, and no Educational Assistants in the classrooms. By high school we did have cell phones.  But there wasn’t much to do with them, so they weren’t a distraction (cell phones are the big problem, not strikes, more on that another day).

This isn’t a post meant to stir up political debate on one side or the other.  The facts are that the Average Teacher Salary is aprox $92,000 a year, it breaks down to $89,300 for elementary and $92,900 for high school.  And that teachers have a pretty sweet set up.  Three months off, platinum plated benefits and retirement plans, and maximum job security.  Those are just the facts.

You can fight for one side or the other.  But remember this… the kids will be alright.  Even if teachers walk out, even if classes are cancelled for several weeks.  The reality is that 20 years down the line, don’t worry, it will be ok.

From what we hear the majority of parents are most concerned about what to do with their kids if there is no school.  Suggesting that in the eyes of parents, school has become nothing more than daycare.  And if that is the concern, then maybe we should be more worried about what is being taught those 7 hours, and why loosing those days doesn’t have such a large impact.

If there is a strike, it is unlikely that it will be lengthy.  No one will keep kids out of school for weeks.  A few days is the most likely situation, and it can be treated as a few fun snow days.  In the event we are about to make history and the kids are locked out for weeks, set up a strategy.  Have your kids bring home their math book, make sure to do some exercises every day.  Especially high school students, they should be doing their math chapters on their own, and keeping up with any science textbooks, to make sure that when classes resume it isn’t too much at once.  If your kids already have a tutor, make sure to keep doing your math tutoring.

Remember… it’s going to be ok.