Dear Editor:
Your Dec. 4 story headlined Teachers to Stay Course on Job Action is not good news.
As a parent and grandparent, I have followed this teachers' strike with growing alarm. There is harm being done to families and to society in the issuance of useless, blank report cards.
Since it is parents who ultimately are responsible for their children's education, they need accurate reports by which to judge if they have made an appropriate choice of school for their child.
They need to know if they should stay, advocate for more services or withdraw to another setting - be it another school or home education.
The School Act mandates that there are to be three progress report cards. If the present impasse leads to a state of equilibrium, then a second and third report will not be forthcoming. How are parents, so late in the game, going to be able to make an informed decision about their child's future?
I think the teachers' union actually likes the fact that parents are denied a tool for evaluating their child's progress. Instead of automatically receiving graded report cards (a right), parents now must initiate a process to get assessment information through personal communication (a privilege and a favour).
Parents were not at the table when their rights were bargained away during this latest strike. Since these are public government schools, I see this switch in procedure as undermining the role of the family in education.
This is not good for the long-term health of civil society.
Tunya Audain, West Vancouver
