SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

There is strength in numbers

I have written before about the Manitoba math professor lobbying for changes to the way math is taught in elementary schools. Now she has created WISE Math (Western Initiative for Strengthening Education in Math), a coalition of concerned professors, parents, citizens, teachers, employers, scientists, mathematicians, and post-secondary educators. Their website is a gateway to a wealth of research-based information on how to teach math, and it invites interested parties to join their initiative.

Given the appalling performance of Manitoba students on the latest PCAP (16% of tested grade 8 students were unable to use a calculator to total a column of numbers), WISE Math definitely has its work cut out for it!

An irrisistible force is hitting an immovable object in BC

Out in BC, Canada’s version of La-La Land, the teachers’ union has just won a huge legal victory. Without a contract since the end of June, the province’s teachers are working to rule - refusing to do such things as prepare report cards or supervise playgrounds at recess. As a result, the school boards association applied to the BC Labour Relations Board for financial relief, asking that they be reimbursed for 15% of teachers’ salaries. Their request has just been turned down by a labour tribunal, signalling, one supposes, that all teachers are legally required to do is perform classroom duties during school hours - roughly five hours a day 190 days a year = 950 hours a year. Given that most people work about 250 days a year, this translates to teachers working less than four hours a day over a business year.

Here are some of the things the BC teachers’ union is apparently asking for: 

• 26 weeks (half a year) paid leave to care for someone (being a family member is not a requirement);
• a year’s pay as a “bonus” for retiring veteran teachers;
• two weeks’ paid leave upon the death of any friend; 
• five paid days per year for professional activities;
• two sick days a month that can be saved up;
• a substantial pay increase that would make BC teachers “the best paid teachers in the country”.

Of course, no government could afford all this (the BC school boards association costed it out at more than $2 billion), and so it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. H/T to FG & LDA