If you don’t feel like commenting publicly on the blog, you can drop me a line at:
Or, you can pop on over to my website (www.cherylangst.com) and fill in the contact form there.
Either option will send your question or comment zipping through cyberspace and onto my computer screen where it will cause me to squeal excitedly. So please, don’t contact me too late at night as my squeals tend to wake the rest of the family.
Just kidding, I don’t check my email 24/7.
Mostly.
Thank you for your eloquence fellow colleague and district 43 employee. I am inspired and moved by your letter.
sincerely,
Caroline Davidson
Terry Fox Secondary
I was moved to tears reading your blog!! I cannot write like that, so I thank you for expressing what I have also feel, have lived and still see every day at my school. Thank you !! I am sharing it because everyone … especially parents should read this!
Okay, now I’ve got tears in my eyes! Thank you for your kind words, and for sharing my letter.
Thank you.
I stand and applaud your bravery, intelligence, commitment and love for your students. You are an inspiration to us all. I support you teachers (my brother taught in Calgary), my daughter teaches in Mission, and I will join you on a picket line anyday. Well said! I will share this on my facebook group “Our children deserve better”.
Thank you so much for your support, and for passing my letter on. You’re absolutely right: Our children deserve better.
An excellent letter! One I wish I had written myself! I retired 2 years ago, but your letter made the reality of teaching come alive with all its struggles and underfunding and disinterest on the part of government to fund it properly.
Teachers and students in this province deserve so much more than this government is willing to even imagine.
Thanks for your caring and passion!
Marisa Orth-Pallavicini
Thank you for your letter. I have forwarded your blog address to everyone I know. The teaching conditions you described are all too familiar.
Thank you Cheryl!,
My daughter struggled as a single mother striving to become a teacher, she has now graduated and on the TOC list, and then bill 22. I have never seen her so happy to be teaching and learning from the students. I support all those in the teaching profession and apologize to my former teachers from High School, but hey, I was just a kid.
Hi , I was referenced to your blog by someone in my family on face book. THANK YOU for letting your concerns be heard.
I have been following this teacher situation for some time now. After I was able to review some of the proposed bill 22 legislation information, It can be concluded that the Education Minister is not going to act in good faith in negotiating with the teachers in the near future. Based on the information presented in Bill 22 and the fact that he has had well over a year to resolve this matter with the teachers, it can be concluded that the minister will not be able to bring this matter to a fair and equable solution to both parties involved in the near future. Perhaps it is time for him to resign his position. Maybe his replacement will have the fore sight to negotiate with the teachers in good faith and bring this whole matter to a close. It is time that all teachers along with others of the public make this request verbally and though social media to the government. It is time for George to go.
Your comment is unacceptable. While it is nice that you have a desire to teach, your Union is way off base. You must remember that you are a ‘Public Servant’ hired at the pleasure of the taxpayer, nothing else, period. Your working conditions, salary and benefits are also at the pleasure of the taxpayer, NOT you or the BCTF!
Right now, teachers are paid extremely well with benefits a very large number of working folks would kill for. Taxpayers have been increasing the Education budget by millions, year after year. This in face of other pressures in healthcare and other programs, and during a period of incredible worldwide financial crisis that ALL British Columbians are confronting with difficulty.
It is utterly arrogant for Teachers and the Rogue BCTF to deal with the issue in the manner they have in face of the entirety societal financial issues. While children’s education is important, we the taxpayer can afford only so much, at this time.
Yes there are issues, especially in the realm of the so called ‘Special Education Needs’, but frankly the class composition is the ONLY issue that I identify where a solution must be found. To me, the Special Needs kids is over played and there is a requirement to review this area of concern in a totally different level to refine what such really means. I am not convinced the definitions of what a special needs kid are completely valid, I am not convinced that the requirement of IEPs is valid in a large number of cases. I am not convinced of any advantage for the inclusion of ‘disruptive special needs’ kids in normal classrooms is valid. This is the issue.
I might say also, that I am totally disappointed in the K-12 system of education in its current form. My two boys recently graduated and are attending University. They passed their Secondary school courses with an average B status. Once they got to University, significant windows of failure are noted in just about every subject. Basic stuff like the understanding of English, English composition, History, Geography, Sciences the basics that all should be exposed to is seriously lacking. This is a total failure of the K-12 system, the teachers and the curriculum.
We need to get back to basics, the three R’s plus Science, and get rid of the ‘fluff’ useless fluff courses. We need to get back to the logic of logical progression as opposed to allowing students the freedom of selecting their own courses, we need to re-align streaming where the outstanding students are moved to academic levels, where those who obviously can not meet academic streams are moved to Commercial/Trades courses. We definitely need to move to a system of teaching where the student is provided the necessary knowledge to succeed, not stuff in which they will never succeed.
Teachers do a magnificent job, but your current demands are just not acceptable. Blame that on the idiot BCTF Labour Union.
or not
I suppose you are lucky the system isn’t set up the way that you wish or your boys wouldn’t be going to university. B’s are certainly not outstanding marks.
“At the pleasure of taxpayers”…….really. I hope one of your boys becomes a teacher so you can follow all he has to do to first qualify as a teacher, then interview to win a job, teach part time or substitute for a number of years before getting a contract, have that contract terminated at the end of each year and be hired back again in the late summer (maybe), handle the job in the classroom.
and then put up with your criticism of his profession if you still think he is at the “pleasure of you as a taxpayer.” By the way, he will be paying taxes too.
Thank you Cheryl for so eloquently describing the currently classroom environment in BC. The composition of the classroom must be addressed and the children of this province need someone to stand up and be their voice to the government. I am proud of the education that my children have recieved as they proceed through the public school system in BC, but as many a teacher has told me… my “non-special needs”, self motivated children are the exception and they learn despite the environment in the classroom. I am appalled that that is an acceptable service for our provincial government to provide. These are very tough economic times, but the reality is that the public school system is our future and we must all fight to protect it and the teachers who deliver education to the children of this province.
OH MY. My kids are too young still, but this horrifies me… Thank you for explaining it so well! From an ignorant bystander, there is a viewpoint that this is all about salaries, which does little to elicit support in many local industries where wages are lower than national average in general… But you have opened my eyes, and I will be reposting.
I do want to add- re: salary dispute – I agree with S Green. We are all in an economic crunch, and most of us make less than national average for what we do here in Vancouver!
Thank you Cheryl. I hope enough people with open minds can read your letter and think, really think about what a difference education can make to our youth. I hope they can see/understand the bigger picture. I hope with that in mind they act. I found your letter inspirational.
Thank you Cheryl for putting it so plainly! I worked for 25 years as a school secretary in an inner city school in the Vancouver school district and you said it all! People who put the profession down have no idea what the working conditions are like. Add poverty, mums who are prostitutes, alcoholism, ESL, transiency, etc. etc. into the mix and you have it! I am passing your comments on to my friends in the teaching and non-teaching roles.
The teacher’s at my school could not finish reading your piece of art in one session,today. We each wept at the truth in your writing. Your legislation paper truly described the heart of all of us. Triage is what we do, too. Our school must have a breakfast and lunch program because our kids can’t function without them. We are so grateful that a local church, a prison reintegration program and other volunteer groups step in to help us hold these kids together. Many are quite bright and with a little high quality education could do very well in the future…, but as you so eloquently explained it is impossible to meet their rightful needs when coping with all the other needs. I have 3 categories 6 not at grade level, 4 behaviorally challenged, and several “entitled” kids in an intermediate split grade class. I am drowning in my tears in fear of their future.
Cheryl, thank you for writing this! I posted this on my facebook page, as did many of my friends, and I wish you could read the outpouring of support this is getting. Keep up the fight…we support you all the way!!
Thank you for your letter. I hope your letter is read in the legislature. We need more letters like the one you’ve written. You have inspired me to write, too!
Thank you for your eloquent letter. If you are going to be a public servant, then you should be respected for your job in the same way firefighters, police and ambulance drivers are. Your job may not be life-threatening in the same way however what you do and your work conditions are deplorable. I come from a teaching family and I chose not to go into teaching because of the way I could see the profession was going. I have shared your blog post on facebook. Hang in there.
I am in awe of your skill at completely reflects the experience of so many teachers. My husband taught for 35 years and retired with an enormous sigh of relief that he was finally out if the war zone. He did not come away unscathed though. Neither did I nor our children. He was emotionally abused by the government and the media at every turn. I am amazed that he was able to teach and make a difference in the lives of his thousands of students. I think that he found solace in the words of his former students who comment on his ability to encourage that ” light bulb” moment in their learning experience. His great joy is meeting these former students in towns and cities all over the continent, to hear ” Hey, Mr Major!” then hearing from these kids, now grown men and women tell him how much they enjoyed being in his classroom and learning through him.
That experience sustained him not the governments evil machinations.
Thank you for putting this enlightening message out there.
We need more people like you making noise!!
Wow…this is very powerful and summarizes the truth. Thank you for saying it so well!
Wishing all people of BC could read this and “get” what you say.
I have passed this on to young and old, teachers and friends.
In my 32 years, I have never felt so sad and so passionate in taking a stand.
my advice to you and teachers all over canada, stay at home!!!!
the govt will not listen or bend, like CRA, or the RCMP, the corruptions is rampant everywhere.
If you all decide to stay at home and quit, what do you think will happen?
Do as bob marley advises, GET UP STAND UP, FIGHT FOR WHAT IS RIGHT
I have no children, but I have been a hairstylist for 30 years and I have SEEN with my own eyes what is happening through the eyes of my clients, and my friends who have children. I stand on the side of the teachers. Only because if I were a youngster in this day and age, I wouldnt stand a hope in HELL of getting the education that I DID receive in the 60′s and 70′s.
What does that say about our society?
I had at the most, 10 or 12 other kids around me in Elementary school and for me, that was MORE than enough. I have to wonder if those children, who are identified as special needs would NEED that designation if they were in smaller classrooms? Food for thought………because I am sure that I would have been labelled if I were a youngster today. Yet I am fine. And when I say labelled, I mean ADD or ADHD, and the other issues that children seem to be afficted with in this day and age. Gosh, dont get me started on that topic!
We have come a long way in some aspects, but have gone backwards in some. I taught Hairdressing at one point, after 11 years of standing behind the chair, and I had 15 students, ranging in age from 17 to 35 and THAT was hard enough. I cant imagine……….cant FATHOM……..your current situation, and its no wonder why some parents choose to educate their own kids, or, send them to private school, all the while blaming the teacher who has his or her hands tied securely behind their backs because of our government.
And 18 years after that BRIEF teaching stint, I still stand behind my hair chair, and the parents that berate the teachers get an EARFULL from me because I agree with you, and all the other teachers I know. Most times, those parents are more concerned about how they are going to get childcare, because they CANT not work, because they have too much debt, because they live BEYOND their means, and meanwhile, they dont seem to realize that the axe is going to fall anyway, because their children are getting the bare minimum of education.
So, I say keep on babbling Cheryl!! Kudos to you!
Thank you for your honesty and bravery in stating the truth. The people running this country want Canada to be progressive and cutting-edge on the world stage, yet they fail to see the connection between their ideal and the necessity to spend whatever it takes to give all children a balanced educational foundation from the time they enter school. As a parent/school volunteer with two special needs children, I know full well how hard teachers work to keep up with the ever-changing demands made of them. A teacher’s job is often 24/7 – tutor, psychologist, social worker, administrator, recreational leader, life coach, sports coach – oh, and teaching in the classroom.
Thanks, Cheryl for speaking on our behalf!
Thanks Cheryl for finding your voice and speaking out so bravely, Your honesty and insight are so important. As a teacher who experiences the same frustration with the lack of government support I applaud you.
Dear Cheryl,
I am a retired teacher and have often considered writing something similar to your letter. Thanks for doing such a great job and expressing the issues in such a clear and inspirational way. I only hope that Mr. Farnsworth reads your letter in the Legislature and that the Liberals take note of what they are actually doing to the students in B.C. for their political ends. I had a friend who left a good paying job to take up teaching because he wanted to do something more meaningful with his life. He quickly discovered that he didn’t want to tell people in social settings that he was a teacher because of all the attacks he had to undure–slack, if you had a real job….etc. He is no longer teaching and has gone back to his former job–a pity. Thank you again!!!!
Hi Cheryl,
I also applaud your courage to stand up for what is important in education. I have recently retired from teaching. I too, have written a letter – to the editor of the Abbotsford Times regarding the obvious. Having chosen to teach in inter-city schools for most of my career, I can relate to your blog totally! I was moved while reading your blog. I was also moved by listening to the MLA from Skeena Robin Austin during the debate on Bill 22 on the legislature channel. You MUST try to access a taping of his speech if possible. This man will bring about change, believe me. I’m sure he will continue his dialogue during the next sitting on Monday at 10:00, there is common ground on the horizon. I will be joining my teacher friends next week to support them, thank them for their courage, and offer my services where they are required. One thing that is not mentioned by teachers in their effort to bring attention to issues. We (teachers) seldom or never mention what we are going through in our own personal lives while we nurture the children in our classrooms.Just as an example, one year I lost my dad, sold our going concern fruit farm (which provided a summer job for many of my wife’s and my students), put a modular home on my parents property to give my mom her independence while we bought the family property. During that time I was sued by my sister for an inheritance which she thought she was entitled to. I had personal health issues due to 60 year old carpets which were infecting my skin in an old classroom. I taught a split grade 4/5 class of 32 students with an assortment of disabiliities, behaviour modification identified, severe behaviour identified, and other children not yet indentified in that group. Eight of those kids were requested by parents to be in my room regardless of the obvious lack of resources and over-crowding. I carried on as you have done. I did go home every night, feeling that I didn’t do enough. With a grieving mom, a tired teacher wife, and two daughters who needed me, I carried on, because that’s what “teachers” do, we have to.
Take Good Care of Yourself, you are a GEM!
Rolf Spaeti
If you choose, you can access the letter I wrote by going on the March 1st edition of the Abbotsford Times under- opinions/letters.
Thank you for that Cheryl…I was moved reading your blog. I am an elementary teacher in Ontario and know exactly what you are talking about. Our government appears to moving in the same direction as yours. It’s time that we stood up for our profession, and the students who come through our classrooms every year. Keep up the good fight.
In solidarity,
Matthew
I was moved to tears…I am copying this to give to my teachers (ontario), I think they will appreciate me getting the other side of the coin. I am very frustrated by how difficult underfunding has made it for education across Canada. I don’t understand how the government thinks it is pulling the wool over anyone’s eyes. We have gone to meetings when changes are being made and have been told outright they are actually just courtesy meetings because in the end, the district school board can do whatever they have decided. I feel helpless to advocate for change when there doesn’t seem to be one clear agency to protest too! I hope your letter makes a difference, it sure is eloquently written, I want them to hear your message with all my heart.
It always amazes me how so many people do not value professional teachers and their important roll they perform every day. It is amazing to me that they are still able to accomplish this task with reasonable good results considering all the cut backs in funding the education system. It is not the teachers or their union that is the issue. The education system has been under funded for years and we are now starting to see the results from that continued shortage of funds . Blame the union all you want, yell at the teachers all you want. The bottom line is this; the education system is the responsibility of the education ministry. They have failed for many years to solve the issues plaguing the education system and have now allowed the situation with the teachers to continue escalate. After having numerous education ministers over the last 10 years , none of them have ever been very successful at properly funding the education system. The proof to this is the mess that the education system is in now. It is regretful that the government does not value education more and fund it accordingly.
Unfortunately it seems that we are all in the same boat. The media has not explained all the facts of this teachers dispute in detail. The on going negotiations have in the past traded off wage increases against other benefits. That could be what happens this time as well. So that the government gets it’s 0 mandate and the teachers get some other benefits in return. We have to wait and see if the minister will bargain in good faith or not.
“Finnish Lessons” by Pasi Sahlberg
British Columbia has lessons to learn and this is the teaching resource
Great letter!
Thank-you
Ms Angst,
I read your “Teaching in BC” letter, but I can’t get past one thing. Given how incredibly demanding you describe your job to be and given that you also have a family, where did you find the time to write a novel? I admire that very much, but unfortunately it does make me just a little bit skeptical about the over-the-top claims you make in your letter.
The problem for me is that you’re not unique. In fact, in my time I’ve known several teachers like you who have managed to combine ‘full time’ teaching in the public school system with a very serious sideline. Most of the people I know are athletes, but a few are musicians and writers. I have no doubt that you’re all very capable, disciplined people. However, I can’t help but think that there’s no way you could be pursuing those sidelines if you had responsible professional jobs in other fields (especially, dare I say it, in the private sector). In fact, I know a few non-teacher professionals who also pursue serious sidelines, however they have all had to resort to casual employment in order to support these ambitions.
A lot is being written about how teachers are not engaged in the current job action for the money. I’m inclined to agree with that. However, I’m not at all convinced that it’s about the students either. I actually think that what you’re trying to do is preserve a lifestyle that gives you a good secure income, but also allows you to set strict boundaries regarding how much your livelihood can impose on the rest of your life. A limitation on class size is one example of such a boundary.
Perhaps I’m missing something here and you can enlighten me,
Thanks a lot,
Paul Ford.
Ms. Angst,
Paul Ford here again. I just went to your writer website. You actually say that ‘you pay for your writing addiction by teaching’. That is definitely inconsistent with your dramatic claims about ‘students first’ that you put in the “Teaching in BC” letter. Would you agree?
http://www.cherylangst.com/About.html
Thanks,
Paul Ford
Mr. Ford,
Google “Angst Cheryl book.” Page 3 gives a Wikipedia entry for Montgomery Middle School which mentions she cowrote a math textbook. Google the same thing, but replace book with textbook and see that she has also worked on a grade 12 math text.
I guess, following your logic, we should not have teachers writing textbooks. Let’s leave the textbook writing to people who haven’t been in a classroom. Makes perfect sense to me.
Your argument means that no doctors can write in medical journals, no lawyers can write screenplays, no athlete can write a book on hockey skills.
What is your profession or job? What are your outside interests? Are they compatible? Because if they aren’t, and you are not dedicating 100% of your non-work time to your job, then the moral stand that you are taking is on ground as shaky as Richmond in an earthquake.
I would offer another take on Ms. Angst’s outside writing interest, which she does devote a portion of her non-working time (you have no idea how much, by the way, you merely make assumptions). I would suggest that her passion for writing is something that makes her a better language arts teacher, and her passion for both teaching and writing may inspire the students in her class. I would suggest that her love of writing shows her students that there is a world beyond the television and DS screen, and offers them a role-model of what joy writing can bring.
Your logic fails, sir. Do you suggest that music teachers not learn an instrument, or practice at home, or write songs, or be in a band? Do you suggest that PE teachers not participate in exercise outside of school, or be part of a team, or run in the occasional marathon? Do you suggest an auto shop teacher never go to a car show, or change her own oil, or never restore a ’65 Mustang?
And as to Ms. Angst’s quote about her writing addiction, it’s pretty clear to most reasonable people who understand the nuances of writing that it is an example of humour, something that every teacher needs to keep in their mental toolbox in the challenging times and situations we have to teach in.
Yes, I am also a teacher. One of my outside interests is technology. Uh-oh! I’m responding to this on a computer – maybe I’d better log off and send it to the electronic recycling depot, and get rid of all the equipment in my classroom while I’m at it – wouldn’t want my students becoming interested in that sort of thing.
Enlightened yet?
Thank you for sharing your story. I worked for the government for over 30 years and must say I was always proud of the way people rose to the challenge of always doing more with less. What the present government does not seem to understand is that there is no more room to do more with less. K-12 is in a crisis and our future (our children) is at risk. So, rather than treating teachers with respect and open dialog and bargaining they decide once again to strip rights from teachers and ignore the needs of our youth. It is one more sad day for BC.
Mine was on black Thursday when after 25 plus years putting my heart and soul into making BC the best apprenticeship program at the stroke of a pen our commission was closed and replaced by an administrative process in an office in Richmond.
There are many other stories and groups dismatled and public neeed ignored and we must be vigilant in standing up for what is right and fair. You and the teachers have my full support for the wonderful and important job you perform for us the public. Good luck and thanks for standing up for the children.
Thank you for your excellently written letter. It is so nice to see a proper description of what is REALLY going on! Somebody needs to get your Union to do a better job of gettting these sorts of facts out to the general public. The government runs rampid within the media, spinning their words and going out of their way to try and make the BCTF look like rebels who can’t be dealt with….yet there is rarely a clear voice from the union that really lays out all the issues and makes their stance understood. This letter needs to be out in the mainstream media!!!! People need to read it! What ‘OUR’ BC government is doing is crimminal (that’s not just an opinion, it’s a ruling!). This is NOT democracy! They don’t like how things are going so they just make new laws to take away any rights teachers have and so it goes the way they want?…. WHAT? I can’t believe this is happening here in Canada. If the public wants to get behind a movement, perhaps it should be to demand the resignation of some of our VOTED representatives…yes, “REPRESENTATIVES”. They are supposed to represent us, the people of BC, not take away the rights of workers to a fair bargining process. In one breath they try to make the BCTF look so awful and unrulely that “they haven’t been able to negotiate a contract since 2005, and even worse, only once in the last 30 years…. and yet in the next breath, say the last contract teachers got a 16% raise. Well, not only do I not believe it was anything like that, but I highly doubt that if they couldn’t negotiate a contract that they just gave that raise out of the goodness of their hearts…. how ridiculous! I think teachers are very appreciated, but I think their issues need to be clearly voiced (as you do in your letter). I think a lot of people don’t understand the whole class size issue and I have even heard some people say that “teachers just want smaller classes so that they don’t have to work as hard”….OMG! I know I wouldn’t want (and couldn’t do) their jobs. Maybe teachers should all go to a straight hourly wage and charge for ever prep and marking minute they spend, every early setup, every class and lesson taught during lunch and reccess, before school and after school, field trips, sporting events, etc etc… the list of extra time they put in is endless! I guarentee the government wouldn’t even consider that, because deep down they know how hard our teachers work, not just within school hours, but outside of the regular school hours…. Even more so now as more and more time is taken from them within their timetables to accomplish what is expected of them. Please ask your BCTF to do a better job of getting ALL the facts out there so that the general public can get behind teachers as they should, and put a stop to the bullying tactics of OUR (ya right) government. We need to all support the teachers in this FIGHT with OUR government, not just because they deserve our support, not just because our kids deserve better school and learning conditons, not just because they deserve a fair and EQUITABLE wage for their work that will continue to attract top notch teachers who really do care, but because what our democratic government is doing is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! Thank you to all teachers for all you do. You have MY support 100%
I just read the post from Paul Ford…. really? Come on. I am stunned (and trying very hard to contain myself from saying what I really think!) Are you trying to say that people shouldn’t have outside interests other than their jobs? Do you not have any hobbies? This is right up there as one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard. You say “Teachers just want to maintain their lifestyles”…WHAT? Wow! Perhaps you should change places with a teacher for a day or two and see how you fair, and then, make sure you don’t do anything for yourself after you leave work because that would just be wrong… Like the writer before me wrote, I would sure like to know what you do… I would bet you somehow find time to do something you enjoy in your time off too…or no, wait, you’re too busy making ridiculous statements on websites for that… better get back to work!….Unbelievable!
I am interested in joining your push forward,legally, in our teacher struggles to improve life for our students and ultimately their families, too. I mentioned the possibility of legal recourse, a la Vander Zalm, to my co-workers. We were thinking that it be even more powerful if it was initiated by parents of our students. If not then each of us thought about how exciting it would be for our students to actually see democracy in action. No violence, course language, or bitterness just people exercising their rights to civil protest. Timing is important. Do you have any suggestions?