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The Citizen, 1997-10-01, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1997. C itizenTheNorthHuron P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 FAX 887-9021 E-mail norhuron@huron.net Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie Gropp Advertising Manager, Jeannette McNeil The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $27.00/year ($25.24 + $1.76 G.S.T.) in Canada; $62.00/year in U.S.A, and $75.00/year in other foreign countries. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright. Publications Mail Registration No. 6968 Macho, macho everywhere On Monday, public sector union leaders announced an end to their threat to strike against the provincial government, claiming "victory" over the government and its plan to withdraw their right to strike. The government’s change of heart, in turn, had come as a surprise because it had been adamant in the past about never giving in to "pressure groups". Both sides had behaved like testosterone-charged boys in a schoolyard, looking for an excuse to fight. With that threat over, or at least postponed, attention turns to that other dispute where macho attitudes may lead to a teachers' strike in which hundreds of thousands of students will be hurt. Both sides keep posturing, showing how tough they are. If we're not lucky, they'll try to prove it by beating up on little kids. Since he first took office, Education Minister John Snobelen has created suspicion with teachers by his famous remarks that to get change, you create a crisis. Teachers now feel he has succeeded in creating that crisis. Snobelen seems to have gone out of his way to taunt teachers, not just in issues like reducing the amount of time set aside for preparation by teachers, but in legislating that teachers must go back to work the week before Labour Day (most teachers already did but being told they had to is another matter). The facts behind the positions of the two sides are muddy. Ontario teachers, for instance, have the most preparation time per day of any teachers in Canada: 40 minutes. Snobelen wants to cut that in half. But there's much more to the issue than that. That cut would mean thousands of teachers left without jobs (the government says 4,400, the union up to 10,000). The government has made much of its arms-length commissions and how they make decisions untouched by politics, yet the government's own Education Improvement Commission only recommended a cut of 25 per cent in preparation time. The government chose to ignore that recommendation. There's no doubt Snobelen has the sympathy of many parents and taxpayers in this dispute. While people may not have the exact facts to back up their arguments, they have a definite feeling there is something wrong with education in Ontario: that students just aren't as prepared as they should be when they finish school. Anyone who has hired a high school graduate who can barely spell may be willing to back the government in this confrontation. On the other hand, teachers know that it's easier to criticize than do their jobs. They know they have been battered with waves of "reforms" over the years which just seemed to make it harder for them to get down to the one-to-one job of teaching students. They're frustrated and they're angry. The government thinks it can ultimately win because it has public support. The teachers know from experience in past strikes that public support will swing within about three days of a strike. Parents that were demanding a hard line will suddenly be pressuring the government to get the strike over and get their kids back in school. What's forgotten is that while one side or the other may "win", the people the system is set up to serve, the students, will definitely lose in a strike. Perhaps they're losing already from the distraction. — KR Respect which decision1? Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard feels he got support this week when French President Jacques Chirac promised to support "whatever path Quebec chooses". Really? Twice in the past Quebecers have chosen, in a referendum, to stay in Canada, yet France continues to give support to the separatist movement. Like Bouchard, they seem to be like the guy who flips a coin to make a decision, then doesn't like what happens so keeps on flipping until the coin lands the way he wants, then ignores all the past flips. If people in Quebec could see themselves with outside eyes, they might realize how ridiculous this whole business is. The results of referendums will never matter until someday 50 per cent plus one person vote for independence. That referendum will be the last one — the only one that means anything, setting the future of an entire country. It sounds like a satirical skit but in Quebec, it's reality. — KR A pair o,_________________ Photo by Janice Becker Letters THE EDITOR, Hi, my letter to the editor today is just to set the record straight Last week's Citizen (Sept. 24) had a letter to the editor from a B. Johnston at RR 2, Bluevale. Several people have mentioned seeing my letter in the paper. However, this letter was not written by me and the writer did not convey my views and opinions. Sincerely, Bessie Johnston. THE EDITOR, We won't, we can't, back down As a teacher in Ontario I feel compelled to try to set the record straight about this government's "teacher legislation", Bill 160, which was presented in the Legislature on Monday, Sept. 22. Ironically, Bill 160 has been named "The Education Quality Improvement Act". There is little in Bill 160 that has anything to do with improving public education in this province. Indeed, Mr. Snobelen and this government are conducting a campaign to destroy the fundamental foundations of public education in Ontario. The only focus of this government is take another billion dollars from the education budget; this after taking out nearly $1 billion already. How can this possibly improve education? Taking this amount of money from the system, in reality, means the loss of 8,000 - 10,000 teaching jobs. How can this possibly improve education? Bill 160 will allow non-teachers in our schools "teaching" physical education, computer-related courses, guidance programs, library science, and technical subjects. It's one thing to know everything there is to know about computers; it's a very different matter when it comes down to"teaching" what you know to a class of 35 or more students when you have access to 15 machines. Speaking of class size, the Ministry presented figures a week ago that said the average class in Ontario schools has 22 students. Ask your sons and daughters how many students are in their classes. I doubt very much that you will hear a number even close to 22. The Minister says that is because local collective bargaining has created the huge class we see today. No, Mr. Snobelen! Your government has done this with your cutbacks to education. I will be interested to see the magic you plan to perform, by cutting class size while extracting a billion more dollars and cutting thousands of jobs. One of the major issues for secondary school teachers, whom I represent, is the loss of "preparation lime". This does not mean, simply, that we lose most of the time we presently receive during the day to prepare lessons, mark, phone or meet with parents, meet individually with students, photocopy (because many of us do not have textbooks), conference with other teachers, etc. It means greatly increasing the daily workload of teachers by giving us another class to teach, another lesson to prepare, and another class-set of marking to do. Snobelen is not cutting "prep time" in order to increase the time teachers spend with students. He is doing it because this change, alone, will mean the loss of 8,000 - 10,000 teachers in the system. The addition of an extra class (and all that goes with it) and the loss of "prep time" will mean that many of us will have neither the time nor the energy to do all the coaching and supervising of club activities that we presently do voluntarily. However, Bill 160 makes a provision for this scenario, too. It will make coaching, of all kinds, mandatory. So, all those extra-curricular hours teachers devoted to students in the past, because we care about creating well-rounded young people, will be forced on us by this legislation. It is impossible for me, in this format, to do anything more than scratch the surface of Bill 160. There is a great deal of information available if you are interested in getting more than the government's lies, half-truths, twisted statistics, and smoke-screens. Every night on the news I hear Mr. Snobelen offering to listen, if the leaders of the teachers' federations would just meet with him. The reality is that our leaders have met and have talked over and over again; the problem is that no one in this government is willing to listen! They want their billion dollars and they are going to get it, one way or another, from education. If anything else were true, why will the Minister not guarantee that he will reinvest this money in the system and truly improve the quality of education in Continued on page 6