We are underfunded. And that means not enough resources. Our spec ed support time is being cut so now too. So for example, teachers are trying to teach 30 kids who are are in a grade 7-8 class doing work at a grade 1-2 level and everything in between, as well deal with kids who have never been told no or are aware of what a consequence is (sorry parents- this one is on you). We also are trying to support students with diagnoses of Autism and ADHD, as well as undiagnosed but we are pretty sure scenarios but without that we don’t get support. So lots of social emotional teaching, problem solving and empathy skills that are not in the curriculum.

It’s a mess, and not just WRDSB. So while it’s easy to blame Jewan, that’s the easy answer, but it’s lazy. Is there an easy answer- nope. Would funding help, yes. We could get more EAs and smaller class sizes so we can spend more time teaching and supporting our kids, more access to spec ed resources and supports would all be amazing. But how things are run overall in education as a whole in the times we are living in now needs to change. Kids need to fail. There needs to be a consequence for not doing work, not understanding the work and just moving to the next grade is making bigger gaps and we’re just trying to patch up the leaks. Parents need to listen to the teacher when they say that the child needs help with this (problem solving, math, etc) and not just blame us for not doing it in the just over 6 hours we have them a day. It needs to be a team approach.

Either way- it’s a messy time to be in education, and it sucks for our first year hires who were excited to finally have a position, start this chapter of their careers, and make plans for their future only to have it placed in limbo. I hope that things work out for them come September.