Richmond - The Editor, Open Letter to the Honourable Linda Reid, MLA, I am writing this letter today as a teacher and a parent, in the hopes that you, as a former public school teacher, politician, and now Speaker of the House, can communicate my con
Richmond - The Editor, Open Letter to the Honourable Linda Reid, MLA, I am writing this letter today as a teacher and a parent, in the hopes that you, as a former public school teacher, politician, and now Speaker of the House, can communicate my concerns to the right people about the current situation facing teachers and children in B.C. I taught your daughter last year and it was a genuine pleasure having her in my class.I even brought my class to Victoria to meet with you and take a tour of the Legislature. You kindly bought pizza for lunch and my students enjoyed the visit immensely.I therefore feel that we know each other as parents and teachers and I ask you to please use your considerable influence and persuasion to help teachers, but most importantly children across this province.Quality public education in Canada is a right, not a privilege. Every child, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, or ability, has the right to learn in a public school.Proper support for students with special needs is also a right, not a privilege. You demonstrated this principle of equality to my class when you insisted that the Legislature have a wheelchair-accessible front entrance.Teachers ensure that the future citizens of B.C., regardless of their challenges and ability levels, are equipped with literacy and numeracy skills so that they can contribute to the growth of our province and country.This is a huge job given the diversity in our classrooms today. In a typical Grade 7 class, there are students working from a Grade 2 to a Grade 9 level; your daughter's class was no exception.This year alone, there were over 16,000 classes in B.C. with four or more students on IEPs, individual learning plans.IEPs are for children with special needs, learning challenges, and severe behavioural challenges; basically, for students who need a lot of extra help.Having four or more students on IEPs in one class is extremely challenging.Providing the proper support for special needs students affects the learning environment of every single child in the classroom.Without that specialist support, classroom teachers have no choice but to focus their time and energy on the few students who most urgently need their help and attention. Other students are shortchanged.The government recently changed its funding formula for resource teachers from one resource teacher for every 500 students, to one resource teacher for every 600 students.Resource teachers work with classroom teachers to find materials and programs for special needs students, and to ensure that these students are supported and integrated into the classroom.That's another cut in specialist support that will affect every classroom in B.C. Other specialists like school counsellors, psychologists, and speech and language pathologists are stretched thin; they typically rotate between four to five schools per year, not usually spending more than one full day per week at any given school.Furthermore, teachers deal with serious social, medical, and mental health issues every day. Every teacher has had experience dealing with serious issues like abuse, neglect, bullying, autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, medical conditions like epilepsy and diabetes, mental health conditions including anxiety, depression, drug use, cutting, and suicide, ODD, FAS, rare conditions like Fragile X, and more.Due to government cut-backs and societal changes, we have had to become counsellors and social workers in addition to trying to do our actual job - teaching.So, Honourable Linda Reid and all parents, I encourage you to recognize the significant role of teachers in your children's lives. I also encourage you to speak up and advocate for the quality public education and extra support that your children deserve.Tanya BlumelRichmond
