A Message from
Education Action: Toronto

May 2, 2011

Respecting Teachers/Deskilling Teachers: Where Do Our Teacher Unions Stand?
The Blatant Hypocrisy of ‘Close the Gap’ Rhetoric at the TDSB;
The High Cost of High School;
Who’s Bashing Teachers and Public Schools and What Can We Do About It? An American Perspective;
Literacy Conversation;
Sanctuary Schools Forum

Dear Friends,

Respecting Teachers/Deskilling Teachers: Where Do Our Teacher Unions Stand? George Martell

I hope you have had a chance to read Rick Salutin’s five part series in the Toronto Star under the title “Saving Public Education.” In this engaging (if somewhat sentimental) series, Salutin covers a lot of ground: from dealing with the respect we should show to teachers and the fragmentation involved in “school choice” to the contributions our public schools make to Canadian democracy. You can reach his articles through the following link:
www.thestar.com/saving-public-education-why-teachers-matter.

In these notes I want to focus on the issue of respecting our teachers that Salutin raises and the need to provide them with the freedom and support necessary to do their jobs properly. I also want to ask the question: Where do our teacher unions stand on this issue of respect?

The Blatant Hypocrisy of ‘Close the Gap’ Rhetoric at the TDSB
Doug Little

A recent piece in Education Week, Feb 9/11 Am I part of the problem? by Chris Myers Asch provoked my conscience to the point where I finally had to put up or shut up about the blatant hypocrisy of recent rhetoric at the TDSB and in the American trend setter to the south. One can at least say that ‘closing the achievement gap’ in the USA has come about for a series of reasons. America has been shamed into addressing the issue by the anemic scores on OECD sponsored PISA, TIMMS testing. It is clear to all education savvy observers than the simply awful scores of the American underclass is the factor driving down the overall national results. When their scores are broken out, American white, Asian and middle class students read, write calculate, problem solve and understand science as well as anyone on the planet. When the average scores of black, Hispanic and poor students are added, the USA drops like a stone to #19.

Myers Asch had been a Teach for America alumni who had worked on education programs for very poor kids in Mississippi. He was steeped in the view that America could and ought to close the achievement gap between the races and classes. Later, he finally became a parent himself in his 30s and realizes that he is doing everything in his power to give his two daughters every conceivable educational advantage. He is, in fact, working very hard to ‘widen the gap’.

The High Cost of High School
A Report from People for Education

Many Ontario schools rely on fees for a substantial portion of their operating expenses.

Some secondary schools raised as much as $90,000 through course fees this year. And many other schools raised thousands more through a range of activity and athletic fees. Revenue raised through fees is neither equitably distributed among schools, nor consistently accounted for.

Quick Facts

• 68% of Ontario secondary schools charge fees for courses.
  
• 73% of secondary schools charge Athletic Fees.
  
• 92% of secondary schools charge a Student Activity Fee.
  
• The top Athletic Fee reported in a secondary school is $1,800
  

Who’s Bashing Teachers and Public Schools
and What Can We Do About It?
An American Perspective
Stan Karp

The short answer to this question is that far too many people are bashing teachers and public schools, and we need to give them more homework, because very few of them know what they’re talking about. And a few need some serious detention.

But the longer answer is that the bashing is coming from different places for different reasons. And to respond effectively to the very real attacks that our schools, our profession, and our communities face, it’s important to pay attention to these differences.

Literacy Conversation
Regie Routman

If you are like me
You are weary,
Weary of tests and test scores
Weary of “scientific research,”
Weary of “stuff”
Stuffed into our curriculum

Our weariness
drags us down
like a dead weight
And we fail to question
what we are told to do
Even when we know
It’s not right
for our children

We trust materials
but not ourselves
We believe the media
but not ourselves
And if it’s “research”
We embrace it
and quickly doubt
all we know

These are tough times
in which we teach
We need courage and energy,
Compassion and skill,
Knowledge and insights
And time together
To collaborate and reflect
and renew ourselves.

Trust your own literacy –
What you do
in your life and in your classroom,
What you know
in your mind and heart and bones,
What you believe
And what you’ve researched and observed.

At the centre of much of the writing in this latest Education Action:
Toronto message is a focus on the current assault on our classroom teachers and how they can be supported in their work. If we are to have a genuine public school system, it is essential that all of us – parents, students, communities, labour – build a solid alliance with our teachers and their unions in our local schools and in the wider political arena. That alliance has to have a clear classroom perspective, centred on strengthening our teachers’ ability to engage their students and to offer programs that make a real difference in their students’ lives.

We also want to draw your attention to the Sanctuary Schools Forum, organized by Educators for Peace @ Justice and No One Is Illegal. It will be a great morning of thoughtful discussion. We’ve attached the notice below.

In solidarity,

George Martell and Faduma Mohamed
Co-chairs Education Action: Toronto

Sanctuary Schools Forum
Saturday May 7th (10am – 1pm)
OISE, Room 2-211
252 Bloor St. West
Organized by Educators for Peace & Justice and No One Is Illegal

Opening Panel 10:00-10:30
Resisting Neo-Liberalism – Tim McCaskell (Educator, Activist & author of Race to Equality)
Preventing Gender Based Violence & Supporting LGBTQ2 Youth and their Families – Javier Davila (Teacher, Gender Based Violence Prevention Office, TDSB)
Keeping Students Safe from Deportation – Sheilagh Hewlett (No One Is Illegal)
Protecting Students from Police in Schools – Sabrina Gopaul (Jane & Finch Action Against Poverty)
Working Groups 10:30-11:30

• Movement Building: Mobilizing Teachers to Resist Neo-Liberalism - Nigel Bariffe (teacher, activist, TDSB) & Tim McCaskell
  
• Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell - Sheilagh Hewlett & Parmbir Gill (student)
  
• Preventing Gender-Based Violence - Javier Davila & Kyro DaSilva (student)
  
• Resisting Policing - Sabrina Gopaul & Kabir Joshi (student)
  
• Creating the Framework & Next Steps 11:30-12:30
  
• Moderated by Caitlin Hewitt-White and Syed Hussan
  
• Register at: http://bit.ly/SanctuarySchoolForum
  
• Refreshments and light snacks provided
  
• Get more information at: www.epjweb.org (ready by May 1) and http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/
  
• To endorse this event or request a table, please contact Lynda Lemberg at unite1999@hotmail.com

Forum Mission Statement
Our schools, and especially our students and their parents, are increasingly under attack.
Teachers have a unique and special responsibility to ensure that our schools can be places of sanctuary where we can all create the socially just and equitable communities we expect and deserve.

In order for teachers to be effective agents for social change and justice, we must work in direct coalition with our students, their parents, and all other groups who are working to address the issues which affect the daily lives of our communities.

Often teachers find ourselves working in isolation from our colleagues, from the communities we work in, and from the lives of our students and their families.
The Sanctuary Schools Forum will be an opportunity to break this isolation, and connect teachers to each other as well as to the social movements being led by our students and their communities.

Sponsors / Endorsers
OSSTF District 12 Human Rights Committee
TDSB Gender Based Violence Prevention Office
Student Teachers Union, OISE
Education Action:Toronto