Flooding the zone. Drinking from a firehose. Or even the old-time circus midway game of whacking moles. These can sum up what the last few weeks have been like in public education in Alberta.
The government has made several announcements, either in the legislature or by social media, that directly affect teachers or compound the stresses already being felt in classrooms and schools. It can be a lot, and at times overwhelming, especially since the government tends to make major changes or policy announcements on a Thursday or Friday afternoon, often with no news conferences or time for people to respond.
I have seen it time and time again. The clock is pushing toward quitting time and bam! The whole AIMCO board has been fired. No warning, no press conference, no accountability. We saw a similar modus operandi just one week earlier, when the policies around transgender students were tabled in the legislature. At least we knew these were coming; however, tabling them late on Thursday when the house doesn’t sit for several more days is bad governance in my opinion.
Of course, this is all done by design and has been the way the government has operated for years. It is common for me to do press interviews on four or five different topics in one day. This is also done to distract us from the bigger issues in education. As I have said repeatedly to reporters, “What is the problem the government is trying to fix?” I can guarantee you that the majority of teachers in our overcrowded classrooms are definitely not asking for “opt-in” procedures when to comes to instruction on gender. Teachers want their class sizes addressed, resources for their students and respect for the work they are doing, day in and day out.
Through all of this, we need to make sure we keep our focus on the major issues in education and not get distracted. That being said, we also need to react to the surprise terrible policy choices coming down. As your Association, we will continue to do that. It is important to share the perspectives of teachers and our own sound policy, especially in an era of misinformation and mistruths. Though it can be exhausting, we are fighting the good fight for the right reasons, and, soon enough, the flood zone will become nothing more than a trickle. ❚
ATA President
