Editor:
We need to ask three questions when talking about the current teachers' dispute:
Why do so many parents need to hire tutors to help their children do their schoolwork? Why are so many parents required to help with children's homework, which the children don't understand and often the teachers can't help? Why are there so many children labeled as 'special needs' - many of whom are behavioural problems?
I agree with Bernard McGrath's letter (Coast Reporter, March 23) - teaching is a 'calling' and teachers are so fortunate to be doing a job they love.
With curricula that include curious revisions and complicated new methods devised by the universities and the B.C. Teachers' Federation to 'support your children's learning' and that is reintroduced every half generation or so, common sense has not been part of the equation. The wheel is reinvented frequently, but lacks the essential ingredient -teaching teachers to teach in a logical, sequential manner with a common sense, basic curriculum.
Politics should not play a part in teacher negotiations. Bill 22 attempts to deal with some of these issues. An old statistic that still remains true is that the primary reason for a student's learning success is the teacher.
Support our dedicated teachers, but not the union.
Rhona Kelly
Roberts Creek
