In response to "Why not schedule teachers' PD days in the off season" (Regional Optimist March 14), Mr. Zinchuk has expressed a concern often-enough discussed by parents in every part of our great province:"Why is my child(ren) not in school today, and what are those teachers doing with the day?"
He has also brought up the topic of the school year calendar, and the potential loss of school breaks as a result of the post Labour Day start of school for students implemented by the Wall government this past September. He has combined two separate topics, and has, as a result, presented a misguided view of the school year, teacher professionalism and the use of professional development time within a specific occupation
The school year is set as follows: students must attend school for 185 days, starting after the Labour Day weekend and finishing on or before June 30. In the coming school years, teachers must have a minimum of 950 instructional contact hours with those students. This works out to a total of five hours, eight minutes of instruction per school day. This does not include recess breaks or noon hour, so schools are looking at ways to fit this mandatory number of hours/minutes into a school day.
This presents some challenges, as many schools may have to lengthen their day in some way, whether it be by shortening lunch or recess breaks, or be adding time to the length of the day, or both. Each of these present challenges: students need their breaks to burn off steam, get exercise and socialize with friends. School teams and extra-curricular groups need time to meet, play and practice. Lengthening the school day poses challenges for students who ride busses in from rural areas - having to start out sooner and get home later can be hard on young children, not to mention the impact this might have on community sports, arts and cultural programs that are designed to start after school.
Teachers must work a total of 197 days as laid out by the Education Act. Of these days, 185 are spent with students, leaving 12 days over the course of a school year for such things as professional development, parent-teacher interviews and the days spent in August preparing for school.
We, teachers and support staff members, spent time in August getting the school, our classrooms and course materials ready for students to arrive after the long weekend. As teachers are paid for the 197 days they do work during the school year, many choose to have this income spread out over 12 months, rather than the 10 and change they work. We cannot ask people to work on their own time without compensation. This would not happen in the photography world, nor any other profession, and should not be expected of any worker.
The summer months, the "off season," is about the only time when teachers can attend formal classes to upgrade their qualifications or satisfy their personal interests. Personally, I will spend the majority of my summer in conferences and classes. I will bear the cost of travel and accommodations for those pursuits. I have a potential back-to-work date of Aug. 26, which means I will actually be back in the school Aug. 19 to deal with new registrations, timetable changes, teacher needs and building and facility needs. Most of my colleagues will be in similar situations. My "summer off" is three weeks, and only if I don't take another class in order to complete my masters' degree sooner, so that I can be more effective as a teacher and school leader sooner. I will have spent 27 days of the "off season" doing PD - unpaid time that I will not get back with my children, so I can benefit others.
The post Labour Day start for students has created another issue. As the Labour Day weekend migrates from year to year, this long weekend comes as late as Sept. 6 or 7, so school starts as late as Sept. 7 or 8. Now fit 185 student days in between this date and June 30 - something has to give. This is a result of the Wall government following the demands of Saskatchewan Tourism, and their claim that too much revenue is being lost if sccool starts before the long weekend.
I guess the nearly 12,000 teachers and their families in this province don't count as tourists. No one seems to be concerned we are already at work before the long weekend each and every year. So now we have an issue where, because Tourism wants more revenue in September, we may have to sacrifice some in February or March/April. This is the problem with governmental planning, no one is looking beyond the length of their stay in Regina, to see the bigger picture.
Will families still travel in February if there is no break? Of course they will. Will people still travel at Easter? Of course they will. In fact, people will travel when they can get the time off themselves, and will often book it to take advantage of better travel rates. Where are the statistics showing the massive increases in holiday spending on the Labour Day weekend to justify the issues created by one ministry for another?
As for concern about child care on PD days, these are all set at the outset of the school year. There are no surprises when it comes to which days a child has off. I'm glad though, as a parent and teacher, I don't have to worry about child care for my own children when they don't have school and I still have to work because I have a PD opportunity to attend.
Finally, the most offensive of all comments made is that education is an industry. As an educator of 16 years, I find it highly offensive anyone would refer to our children as a raw material to be produced into something useful. Furthermore, I find it highly ignorant of anyone to assume schools and teachers operate under the false assumption we are churning out a product.
While the school system is still founded and based on an assembly-line model from the Industrial Revolution, the art and science of teaching and learning has evolved well past the structure in which it exists. Each day, a child's teacher shows up for work, expected to meet the individual needs of every child in the room, to help them each grow, learn, develop social skills, meet the demands of a future no one can define for jobs that don't exist as of yet.
The teacher is expected to treat every child with dignity, respect and individuality, and do this all at the same time. When was the last time any of us, as adults were asked to sit in an office of any other professional, and share time with a room full of others? My doctor sees one patient at a time, as does my lawyer, my real estate agent, my banker and even my grocer. Education is the only service in society that is expected to meet all needs all the time for everyone.
Don't take this as a complaint, it is not. It is a simple explanation of the reality within today's classroom. Research and assessments done in the Battlefords show us each year children are showing up in kindergarten severely delayed in multiple developmental domains, to a level three times higher than the national average. If this was an industry, we as the workers would simply say, "This raw material is inferior for what I need to accomplish. Send it back and bring me better to work with." That never happens.
We take all the children who come to us, and work as hard as we can to help them develop as best we can in 185 days each year. We work with, and sometimes without, the support of families and community. We work with limited resources, like access to health care professionals needed to make assessments we cannot, because education is expensive. We do this every day, not for a pay cheque, not for our summers off and not for a demand for recognition or gratitude. We do it because we care about children, their futures and the well-being of this entire province.
Education is a service, not an industry. We are teachers, who are shaping the future of this province one child at a time. We are worthy of a little more respect than shown by the Wall government and the media. We are professionals who know how to maximize our time, as it is limited with our student,s and we know we must get the greatest bang for your buck each and every day. We are teachers.
Brian Hargreaves
North Battleford
Teacher, Administrator, Parent
