>Strikes are dramatic and get press coverage. But more effective I think
>would be for the teacher and students to return to the schools and refuse
>to teach the state curriculum, refuse to give or take the state tests. En
>masse. There are a lot of things you could teach students about that would
>frighten the politicians far more than a strike, and it would be very hard
>for them to fine you for exercising academic freedom.
I appreciate your good intentions, but I don't think your suggestion would
work very well. For one thing, there is a massive ethical problem.
Specifically, we are talking about a school system where most of the
students are below the age of majority. Personally, as a teacher, I have a
great deal of difficulty with any agenda which deliberately attempts to
teach for overt political purposes an ideologically slanted point of view to
children in, say, grade 5. I would imagine every teacher in the province
would immediately explode into outrage at such an attempt. I also wonder,
on a personal note, whether most of our teachers (including myself) are even
sophisticated enough about the ideological implications of what we teach to
begin deliberately slanting our instruction. (History lessons are easy, but
I wonder how one adds an ideological perspective to a lesson on long division??)
Indeed, our protest against this government is a protest against the
right-wing, corporate, down-sizing agenda which motivates all of their
actions with no regard to the damage being done to our social institutions,
or the individual harm being brought to the most vulnerable in our society
(for example, almost the first act this govt. took was to cut welfare
payments by 25%). The political protest (it is not a strike), in point of
fact, is having a huge educative effect on the entire population of Ontario,
and the issues are beginning to be linked to local debates about education
across the country. Public education in Ontario has NEVER received such
concentrated attention in the media and by various political and citizens'
groups.
The protest seems to have become a lightning rod phenomenon for everyone in
the province who is angry at this govt. and its agenda. Apparently the
public opinion polls a day or so ago show that the teacher protest has a
surprising amount of popular support (something like 42% vs. 56% for the
govt. side). To this extent, the larger issue of ideology is constantly
simmering just below the surface of the specific education issues and
occasionally breaks through with considerable energy.
At the moment, the govt. is attempting to get a court injunction (the
hearing is tomorrow), but comment on the radio this morning has suggested
that this may not be easy for the govt. to obtain, since they have to prove
"irreparable harm" is being done -- and that is hard to argue after a
protest of only 4 days. Apparently, one news commentator claims, the govt.
is very quietly working on back-to-work legislation, which would take about
2 or 3 more weeks to bring into effect since the opposition parties are also
actively and aggressively supporting the teacher protest. Even more
interesting, the leaders of 2 of the biggest unions in the province are
threatening, this morning, to turn the protest into a province-wide general
strike, especially if the govt. takes any severe punitive actions against
individual teachers or the federations.
It is turning out not to be an easy time for right-wing ideologues in
Ontario. This protest is democracy at its best. No matter what happens, or
how we end up going back to the classroom, teachers will be thinking very
differently from now on about the nature of political action in education.
We have seen the elephant and are forever changed.
--glenn
Glenn D. Humphreys
P.O. Box 11
Echo Bay, Ontario
Canada, P0S 1C0
Telephone: (705) 248-1226
Internet: glenhump who-is-at soonet.ca
Fax (Phone/Email to arrange fax transmission): (705) 248-1226