Nigel Barriffe

STRONG TEACHERS MAKE STRONG SCHOOLS Like most teachers I know, I never imagined we would have to take our politics so seriously. We were supposed to focus on the kids getting a good education and let other people – hopefully good people – take hold of the larger world around us. Now, it’s all too clear: If we really want to focus on our kids, we also have to deal with the world around us, especially to the school system in which we teach. We have to find a way to be the teachers we know we can be. We have to stop the cutbacks the TDSB has faced over the last decade. And we have to bring our communities with us. We already know the austerity drill: lots of “caring” official rhetoric covering up more cuts on the ground. And we know that it means reducing essential resources, raising class sizes, putting the pressure on wages and pensions. We have no choice but to respond. Strong schools need strong teachers – teachers who have autonomy to work for what their students need rather than Ministry-mandated “outcomes”, test scores, administrivia and demands for empty accountability. We have to take back real power on the job – not only in doing our classroom work, but in making genuine decisions, as school staffs, on matters such as school budgeting, student distribution, school organization, and curriculum integration between classes. We also have to bring our communities on board. It’s their power and care for our students that gives real peace and order to our schools. Finally, we have to face up as a union to the pointlessness of hundreds of dissociated curriculum “outcomes” policed by irrelevant and destructive standardized tests. In survey after survey, Toronto teachers have said how bad this curriculum/testing framework is. We have to fight for real standards – standards that can only be judged in practice by classroom teachers. Promoting real standards lies at the core of our profession – in our development of an engaging and purposeful curriculum and in our response to what our students do with that curriculum: their actual reading and writing, their projects in history and social studies, how they do math, what they think about the natural world. This is dealing with the real stuff of the world; it’s what matters – to us and to our students. If we have the courage and determination to reach out to our parents and communities on these issues of funding, local power and curriculum and testing reform, I think a strong “education quality alliance” is truly possible and will make all the difference in own lives. We can’t stand alone in fighting for the kind of school system we know will make a difference. It’s the big reason I’m running for Executive Officer. I hope I have your support and your comments and critique as we move through this campaign. There is a lot of work to do standing up with teachers as individuals in a profession that has been hit hard over the past years. But it’s work that needs to be done to make our schools our students and ourselves strong. We need to look after each other as teachers and friends. Let me know what you think. Nigel