Through the last few weeks I have been chatting with other parents, teachers, teenagers, and even elementary students about the strike.
After listening to so many varying opinions and thoughts, one thought has really resonated with me. This should not be the teachers’ fight. This should be the parents’ fight.
We should not be just supporting the teachers, we should be taking our own stand, sending our own message to the government.
It is my child, it is your child, that is being taught in a system that is failing.
Quite simply, we have more students with higher needs and more students overall in class with fewer support staff and fewer resources than even 10 years ago. (Google the 2012 BC Education Facts PDF for more detailed information)
Teachers are being forced to manage classes rather than teach them.
We need to use our collective voices to bring a change in our schools.
There are only 31,000 teachers in our BC public school system, but there are hundreds of thousands of parents, if not millions.
We can make a statement with our tweets to our MLAs, letters to the Premier, Facebook posts to our Minister of Education, letters to the editors of our local papers, our blogs, our websites, our social media.
The government will only make a change if we demand it, so let’s demand it. Get the facts, take a stand, create a better school system for our children.
Thank you to all the teachers who have taken on this fight, but it is time for us to take it on.
Isabelle Herzig
Parent