Never wrestle with a pig

Question: I’m sick and tired of hearing in the news and seeing in social media ridiculous attacks on teachers and our profession by politicians and right-wing cranks. Why doesn’t the Association shut this down?

Answer: Having been personally targeted in some of these attacks, I share your frustration and annoyance with the untrue and even ludicrous claims being made by these peddlers of misinformation.

I think it helps to understand where these claims are coming from. It is commonly observed that “When the United States sneezes, Canada catches a cold.” My sense is that what we are seeing in Alberta recently is the influence of America’s “culture wars,” much of which focus on education and diversity. The contagion seems to be particularly evident in Alberta, but other provinces are experiencing similar outbreaks. The vehicle for transmission is social media, where stories are created, exaggerated, twisted, repeated and ultimately weaponized for political ends. 

So when some American schools respond to the threat of school shootings by including buckets of kitty litter in their classroom emergency kits to provide students with a means to relieve themselves during a prolonged lockdown, you will soon hear some local Alberta politician or corner coffeeshop loudmouth claim that they know for a fact that their uncle’s cousin’s friend’s daughter’s school has litter boxes set up in classrooms for kids who identify as cats. They will go on to claim that accommodating “furries” is just one way that “woke” public schools are contributing to the imminent collapse of western civilization. (If you are not sure what a “furry” is, please don’t Google it on your employer’s computer —Teacher Employment Services has enough business as it is.)

Of course, where there is political opportunity and, perhaps, some money to be made, there are those who will take full advantage. 

As a result, we have seen the rise of various interest groups purporting to protect students, parents and society from the nefarious schemes of public education. Often, these groups will seize upon, misrepresent and amplify issues that involve public education’s efforts to create safe and welcoming spaces for all students, including those who are gender and relationship diverse. They also make wild and unfounded claims about the failure of our schools to provide students quality education, playing on the natural anxieties and hopes that all parents have about their children’s success. Finally, in attacking public education and the profession, these groups hope to advance the private, for-profit, charter and homeschooling alternatives that are so dear to their hearts.

Teachers ... should take comfort in the fact that  ... the vast majority of Albertans support them and want our public schools to flourish.

An example of one of these groups, and certainly not the worst, is the Alberta Parents Union headed up by Jeff Park. Park’s major claim to fame is that he was fined $10,500 by Alberta’s Election Commission for laundering donations to the so-called “kamikaze” United Conservative Party leadership campaign of Jeff Callaway. Park is very skilled at making provocative claims to mobilize supporters and extract money from them, all in support of his cause, which he frames as the protection of parents’ rights. I won’t repeat the madness here, but feel free to visit the Alberta Parents Union website for a taste — try to avoid clicking on the prominent “make a donation” links.

Even more concerning than Mr. Park’s shenanigans are incidents where political figures, including MLAs and recently even the premier, remain silent or actively promote falsehoods and inflammatory narratives about public education in the cynical pursuit of short-term political advantage. The “Let Kids Be Kids Town Hall” organized by the Calgary-Lougheed United Conservative Party Constituency Association is an example.

So what can the Association do? The answer is “not much.” 

President Schilling has called out the premier, minister and other political figures both privately and publicly about their failure to support and defend Alberta’s students, teachers and schools in the face of attacks by members of their own party. 

The problem is that while responding in each instance might be emotionally satisfying, it would only serve to amplify false messages and distract from the real issues and challenges facing us every single day: continued underfunding, large class sizes, lack of school infrastructure, inadequate support for inclusion, and programming and curriculum desperately in need of improvement. 

Teachers, who can’t help but be demoralized by the constant attacks on their work and profession, should take comfort in the fact that objective polling reveals that the vast majority of Albertans support them and want our public schools to flourish. They support providing teachers with the tools and resources required to do their critical work with students to build Alberta’s future.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a useful piece of advice that I myself have taken to heart when dealing with these provocations: “Never wrestle with a pig — you’ll both get filthy, and the pig likes it.”