You get an apple, we all get an apple!

Warning: This is going to rub some people wrong and is largely opinion based ... albeit informed.

Another fall is upon us and, unfortunately, this one brings the latest versions of TV and radio advertisements surrounding issues brought about by the PC government's negotiations with the education workers of Ontario, each side occupying a polar opposite opinion of the state of schools. As a retired educator, I hold a very biased, yet informed, opinion of the state of classrooms thanks to regularly helping out my former colleagues as an occasional supply, and although acknowledging that I lean right of center toward the teachers and EA's, I truly pray that some common sense infuses the pending negotiations because job action means that nobody wins, least of all the kids.

Ford Nation would have Ontario believe that they are pumping more money than ever into education, refocusing on the three R's and testing performance, pointing a crooked finger at the Federations for being greedy, lazy, uncooperative thorns. OECTA, ETFO, and OSSTF would have Ontario believe that the PC's have short changed the system by over 6 billion during its time at Queen's Park, of manufacturing a state crisis in classrooms, and being completely unreasonable in demands. 

I have to admit that the spin doctors are gamefully employed these days.

Some unarguable facts need to be brought to the table, not the least of which is that schools have quietly become the place where society sends problems it doesn't know how to solve. The family unit has become increasingly disjointed, exacerbated by over scheduling lest "the Jones" look better at parenting, and the family dinner classroom is rarely in session. Combine all of this with a growing willingness to attack, demean, and disparage teachers for "not doing their job", a position often based on media perception rather than first hand experience.

Parents openly criticize both the system and their children's teachers because ...

Parents need childcare programs before or after work because both are employed to fund their lifestyle.
Solution? Schools are tasked with establishing affordable, or better yet free, programs.
Parents send kids to school hungry, the reasons are multiple and varied.
Solution? Schools are tasked with finding a way to feed them ... again, free to parents.
Parents struggling mentally are looking for schools to help their kids who struggle with mental health.
Solution? Schools are tasked to teach strategies, coping lessons, and provide counselling ... at no cost.
Parents criticize schools aren't adequately preparing their kids for the workforce.
Solution? Schools need more career programs and co-op opportunities ... you guessed it, at no cost.
Parents criticize schools for not teaching their kids to understand money while never saying NO.
Solution? Schools are tasked with teaching financial literacy, parenting skills, and life strategies.
Parents criticize schools because their kids are overweight and inactive.
Solution? Schools are tasked with teaching healthy habits, structuring opportunities to move into the day.

Society, and by extension governments, continue adding responsibilities to schools because they're one of the few institutions it has that can actually reach almost every kid, then turn around and ask why schools aren't doing a better job at their "main" job.

The students in today's classrooms bring a host of baggage with them each morning, obstacles that make learning, let alone living, significantly more challenging ...

Kids are vaping or have drug problems, some modelled on parent usage, or through ease of access.
The complaint? Schools have failed to educate students properly about unhealthy choices.
Kids are being bullied, sometimes online at 11:00 at night as kids lie in bed with their cellphone.
The complaint? Schools fail students by allowing bullying despite it being online and outside of school.
Kids are chronically absent, more often than not, absences known to parents.
The complaint? Schools need tighter policies and enforcement officers, but don't dare tie it to marks.
Kids are spending too much time using technology in school ... they can all they want at home.
The complaint? Schools must police the new "NO Phones" policy but allow parents to call when desired.

For clarity, in the school I supply at kids are cooperating with the phone ban, but I suspect that's not the same across the system. Case in point, while refereeing at another school, I queried the students doing the table, and they confessed that their school was not really enforcing the Ministry's new edict. As I have declared on many occasions, the students at my little country school are really awesome and the main reason I still choose to supply there exclusively.

I think possibly some of the answer to all of the above is that Society hasn't allowed schools to focus on their "main" job in a very long time, despite publicly crowing that the system and education workers aren't perfect. Increasingly, schools have become the place society sends those problems that nobody outside of the system knows what to do with, yet is vociferously critical when it can't solve them, and then begrudgingly admits that some problems are too complicated.

"Between a rock and a hard place" comes to mind.

In a small way, education workers have themselves to blame because for the sake of the children, those that stay in the career are the type that will so often make things work out,  even if it results in increased stress and expense. Frustratingly, if someone chooses to not go above and beyond, they are vilified, chastised, and in extreme cases, fired for not fulfilling the contract. It really is a case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't."

Look, I don't have solutions, at least not easy ones. What I do have is great empathy for those friends still choosing the system as a career, and I make sure to loudly and publicly announce that at each and every opportunity. 

I dream of an Ontario where we support, not condemn, our teachers / EA's for doing the best they can, whatever their best might look like. 

I also dream of an Ontario whose elected officials, despite their party, show respect for those who willingly accept one of a society's most challenging and important vocations. Helping our young people find their way in an ever changing and ever challenging world has become significantly more complicated and difficult.

Here's the ask ... go visit your child's teacher or EA and sincerely offer your thanks for the effort they extend in their role of assisting you in raising your child. 

They deserve that at the very least.