I sometimes wonder if many other Albertans are curious about how schools are doing since the back-to-work order from October, where the provincial government decided that we need to notwithstanding-clause the educators back to work.
If you haven't been wondering, allow me to express my perspective on it.
Who Am I to Judge?
Easy, I'm one of the 50,000-plus educators in Alberta trying their best and being given the worst. Next to Alberta health and AISH, we've been both slandered and disrespected by a government who seeks to muzzle the wide population with efficient gaslighting.
I've been an educator for more than half my life but a teacher for only eight years. I started just before COVID and, boy, the difference is real. I remember when we went online, educators were praised as heroes. We did the courageous turnabout in less than two weeks to continue education. We had drive-by graduations and remote learning. We were told 'it'll all be OK; it'll go back to normal!'
It didn't. Now we just have a new, and worse, normal.
The New Normal Is Worse
Whether a government that allegedly bargained in good faith has abandoned us, the burnout of parenting and life has beaten down too many parents barely scraping by, or simply, you don't care that your child doesn't understand inference, we are facing a literary crisis. Children are prone to being roadblocked by a simple conjunction sheet and instead would rather look to the teacher and pose the question 'what should we do here?' Despite explanations and written directions, my 10-year-old Grade 5s still don't understand they can figure it out alone.
Now, this isn't a ham-fisted 'parents-be-better post.' Rather, I'd like to point the way to what is happening.
Government Distractions
This current government will point one way for you to look and burn the evidence while you're distracted. I've written to the minister of Education many times and have yet to be acknowledged; my boss is ignoring me. Yet he says 'teachers are being heard.' This seems strange. I'm not saying my experience is gospel, but I will say, perhaps we need to consider that after all of this alleged bad-faith bargaining, cutting services, gutting hospitals, allowing separatists and leaking our information, this government might not care?
But they have 3,000 teachers on the way. Yes, from where? I've taken on two practicum students this year who both admitted that this is all way more than they expected to handle. Teachers are looking elsewhere in droves. I even briefly considered turning to alcohol and drug case management since it's in line with being an educator yet seemingly less stressful.
That shouldn't read so nonchalantly, yet here we are. We still have more needs than ever and more students than ever. Yes, they upped the budget. However, do you notice how they don't break it down? How much is really going our way and how much do these wonderful operations cost?
