Dear Editor:
Re: the letter N. Shore Schools to Return to Normal and editorial, Class Warfare, June 29.
We should in no way be lulled into complacency when told we are going back to normal in education. "Normal" in B.C.'s continuing school wars is nothing to look forward to.
We have had 40 years of militancy from the B.C. Teachers Federation since they turned partisan in 1972.
The epic series of events we have endured is well described in education historian Tom Fleming's new book: Worlds Apart: British Columbia Schools, Politics, and Labour Relations, Before and After 1972.
Fleming describes how "governments of all political stripes - Social Credit, NDP and Liberal - have found themselves in a state of almost perpetual conflict with the BCTF for 40 years" (page 85).
As a parent and grandparent during all these years I can tell you I wouldn't wish this "normal" on anyone.
With Susan Lambert, the president of the BCTF, already saying that teachers are sure to make public education a vote-determining issue in the next provincial election in May 2013, what can we expect in the coming months - in the classrooms, in parent-teacher conferences, and elsewhere? Electioneering will see innovative tactics even though public school teacher associations say they are nonpartisan.
Besides massive public relations ads and other high-tech social media usage I'm wondering if clogging up the machinery of government and our justice systems will also be a ploy.
With thousands of unresolved teacher grievances and two continuing court cases already, this does seem like another approach to battle.
I am very sympathetic to both parents and the public who earnestly seek alternatives to this ceaseless turmoil.
It's just too bad that we've had squeamish governments in B.C. for so long that we're not provided more choices in education as in Alberta which allows charter schools which do not suffer teacher union problems.
Tunya Audain West Vancouver
