Following the media reports, one might be excused for believing that the youth in the province are being held hostage by a group of radical extremists bent on overtaking the government and undermining the very fundamentals of democracy.
B.C. teachers have taken to the streets, so the story goes, and it's no longer safe to go outside.
It's all bullocks, of course.
I can't imagine any more moderate unionists than the teachers. I can't imagine any other group of workers going on strike "to protect public education" and "to stand up for kids." It's like Teamsters going on strike so their employers can get cheaper gas.
And it's not just rhetoric from teachers; most mean it.
Talk to them, and they will tell you with the kind of earnestness only teachers can muster that they really do care about the kids in their class, that they're on strike for all those kids falling through the cracks in an education system that is on the verge of collapse. I'm not kidding when I say that I've seen teachers cry over the kids in their classroom.
But then there are the old, cantankerous guys like me who have just had enough: the teachers who didn't take raises through the '90s for class-size guarantees only to see those stripped by the Liberal government in 2002.
The ones who have watched the system crumble while politicians and administrators promise better times just around the corner. Just follow the yellow-brick road, they said.
We're the ones who are saying, "enough with fighting for the kids; let's look out for ourselves."
It was a relatively short time ago that my English class size was maxed at 26 students and there were no more than three special-needs kids in any classroom. Those of you who went to school in the '90s were probably in classes that averaged about 22 to 24 students.
Now, 28 is the norm, and 30 is not uncommon. And anyone who says there is no difference between 22 and 28 students in a classroom is either a liar or a fool.
But you'll hear utter lies, blatant misinformation and shameless propaganda from the premier (both current and past) and the various education ministers saying that they're improving the education system.
I've stopped drinking the Kool-aid. I'm firmly grounded in my own selfish needs.
So my proposal is pretty simple and it meets the government's "net-zero" mandate: increase my class size by 15 per cent, to 32 students, and give me that much as a raise.
It's simple and it's clean.
The government-appointed mediator can "find efficiencies," to use the euphemism, and we'll get our raise. And someone else can carry the burden of a system about to fail.
Why should I continue to fight and sacrifice for the students of B.C.? Why should teachers be the only ones who seem to care?
Apparently, the government believes it knows better than those of us in the classroom about what makes a good learning environment, so let them decide. And when it falls apart, the parents can start to ask those making the decisions exactly what's gone wrong.
Teachers, of course, can't win -the government has its legislative hammer that it seems keen to pummel us with, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't fight.
If I've learned anything teaching English all these years, it's that Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird was absolutely right when he said that real courage was "knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what."
I'm humbled by the courage my colleagues are showing in this fight, and I'm proud to see it through with them.
