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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This is one of the most evocative responses I have
received. The writer has given me permission to send it out as long as I don't
publish his name and email address at this time. This has been a very
interesting discussion hasn't it? Thanks for participating. Don</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear Mr. Keith,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Your letter was forwarded to me and I read it with
interest, dread and sorrow.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>You are in the very early stages of this conflict
and understandably in shock. Your desire to carry on and do something like
Mr. Filewod's agit prop piece rather than your Shakespeare shows your heart is
in the right place, as his was. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>You've shown by your request for input, however,
that you are very rightly considering your head. As a drama, media and
english teacher who has seen a monumental destruction of educational validity
here in Ontario and seen my department suffer philistine denigration (the former
head of phys. ed was made our "superhead" presumably cuz, it's all kinetic body
stuff, ya know), I urge you to be bold, bloody and resolute. Anything less
will result in a remarkably rapid deterioration of educational structure,
funding, programs, morale and student discipline/commitment.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If you think the general public on whom you might
(foolishly) rely for support could care less what play you do, think
again. If they see a picture of your show in the paper at all, everything
will be jim dandy at the school as far as they are concerned. Short of
restaging the Clockwork Orange rape or saluting Nazi flags in the photo, it's
all one to them. Are you hoping to get hauled before Admin and splashed
all over the papers for your political daring? Not likely - your
production might get cancelled, however. And the press will have a field
day with your politicizing the classroom/poisoning juvenile minds if it does get
that far - a teacher's neutrality is sacred. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>And do you think they would recognize or care about
your strategy of "class time" production? A Jesuitical conceit at
best. Put on a play, field a football team, put kids in the science fair -
if they're there to be photographed and reported on the public will want to know
just what you/parents are whining about (all public servants are special
interest groups are whiners are to be marginalized). In fact, for most
people, if the schools are open at all THERE IS NO PROBLEM. Just look at
the Toronto custodial strike last year - the walls were smeared with shit and
the floors covered shin deep in garbage and toilet paper and the charade of
"reasonably orderly and safe schools" continued for weeks.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If you think it best to hang on "for the sake of
the kids", think again. You will be bled as dry as Caesar in several years
from your many wounds and unable to provide the educational opportunities they
deserve anyway. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If you think admin will "understand" your gesture
and await better times when they can return their full support to you as you get
back to the business of satisfying parents and promoting the school with your
productions, think again. Anybody from anywhere who steps forward to put
anything on the boards will be the man or woman of the hour. You will be
history. "What have you done for me lately?" is a harsh reality to
get used to. I know this from personal experience - two complete sets of
admin. in two years and the new ones don't know me from Adam. I was given
no drama sections this year because "the english department needed me." I
don't doubt the honesty of the statement, but admin. had no way of calculating
the impact on the drama program, nothing to compare the results with and no
understanding of what it means to give all the drama sections to two music
teachers who have it as a secondary area of certification. You have to be
prepared to lose what you an your colleagues may have laboured years to create
and ready to rebuild from scratch later, if it comes to it. And it is
something you can do if you are proud of your program now.<BR> <BR>If you
think your gesture will be distinguishable from that of certain jocks/others who
just don't give a damn about their federation and are going to coach their
teams/clubs because they need their fix and it's basically why they are teachers
anyway, think again. Teachers are a very anti-authoritarian and
individualistic bunch and you are going to hear an amazing number of rationales
for why people should or shouldn't continue to support their
extra-curriculars. Pyrrhic and moral victories on either side, most of
them. Making yourself feel better about what you do will not avert the
dire consequences of your failure to show the government that you are united and
you mean business. Earl Manners is consulting with your federation, I
hear. This does not give me confidence - Earl thinks he did well here in
Ontario. His legacy at best could be defined as no more than "the best
that could be achieved under the circumstances" and that is the best view of it
because, as I see it, he misread the will of his members anyway - most
people I know were disgusted at the indirection of the provincial leadership -
or was it misdirection? If he has learned from his experience and suggests
a different course perhaps it will work out for you.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My suggestions? Support the voices in your
federation which call for complete withdrawal of extra-curricular services and
other sanctions. Demand clear articulation of expectation and strategy
from your leadership - probably the worst failure of OSSTF here in
Ontario. Do not strike, apart from the odd "day of action" type protest,
unless you are prepared to go to the wall. When they legislate you back
(no "if", here - they will not settle) give them the no-frills education they
are paying for. Develop an aggressive, full-time professional p.r.
campaign which keeps hammering home what each cut is doing to programs - that's
a key place to put your money. Recognize the sacrificial lambs in your
school who are going to suffer the full brunt of this for several years - their
education WILL be diminished and attempts by you to minimize that will mean more
students hurt more gravely later on and for a longer term. Support them in
other ways. Take them out into the community theatres and municipal teams,
etc. and work with them there. Only in this way will the parents, the
principals, the school boards set up a howl that will make the government back
off. We in "Untario" missed a key opportunity in '97 when we folded up and
went back to work after two weeks without a coherent and unified plan of how to
respond. I hope you will be luckier. Do not underestimate Campbell
et al. - there isn't an ounce of rationality or fairness or paternal concern for
the kids in them. They are driven by ideology and the strength of their
mandate. As a result, there is no avoiding more of the sort of legislation
you've just experienced - you are going to be kicked and kicked where it hurts
and there is not plea or manoeuvre that will put you and your students beyond
harm. By the time the government realizes what it has done it will be in
the mess up to its eyeballs and the only thing it will respond to comes then,
with your real threat and its own fear. "Shove the bully back or be
prepared to live with his increasingly hot and foul breath on the back of your
neck" - I've just written that phrase but I realize it reflects what I used to
think, so I'll amend it: "Shove the bully back AND be prepared to live with his
increasingly hot and foul breath IN YOUR FACE." It must be a painful and
ugly and destructive fight and it won't be over soon - but hopefully it will be
briefer than what we are experiencing here.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Seek opinions widely. You will hear from
those who think my response reckless and needlessly destructive. But I
think the current state of education here in Ontario bears me out. The
pendulum may now be beginning to swing but I doubt it will mean much to
servicing students properly before 2005 - and that will only be the
beginning. More than a decade of ill-served students will have passed
through the system before we are back to where we were - and that's with a full
commitment by a new government to undo the damage (ironically, Liberal, here),
something of which none of us is at all certain.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Good luck. Talk regularly with your
membership and across disciplines. Talk with your neighbours and
friends. Write to the papers. Call in to the phone-in shows.
And save some time for your own sanity.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>NAME WITHHELD </FONT></DIV>
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