Teachers' 'temper tantrum' no way to bargain, Ottawa parent says

It's now been more than twomonths since Ontario education workers staged their first one-day strike.

Three of the four major unions representing teachers at Ontario's English-speaking schools the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO), the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) and the Ontario Elementary Catholic Teachers' Association have held walkouts this week, closing schools across the province.

Teachers with the largest French union, theAssociation des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens(AEFO), are working to rule.

The teachers say they're doing it for the children, who are facing larger classes and dwindling resources thanks to government cutbacks.

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CBC Ottawa has heard from supportive parentsand from theteachers themselves,but as thisOttawa Morning interviewproved, not everyone's onside.

The following are excerpts of the conversation between host Robyn Bresnahan and parents Victoria Scharf and Justine Bell, whose children attend elementary schools within the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, where ETFO has just announced teachers will walk off the job for another two days next week.

Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Education strikes 'short-term pain for long-term gain,' union head says

5 years ago

Duration 0:47

Elizabeth Kettle, president of the Ottawa Carleton branch of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, says even though the strikes are "difficult" for parents, it's important for teachers to fight for the future of public education.

Scharf:I just don't think that the reasons for striking and prolonging these talksare appropriate.

As soon as you introduce wage increases into negotiations, I feel like itright then and there becomes not about the students, and more about selfish reasons.

I tell my children that this is not an acceptable wayto handle things. If you're not getting your way, it's not appropriate to just take a temper tantrum and walk out.- Victoria Scharf, parent

I don't think that [teachers] are selfish in requesting it and negotiating.I do think they're selfish in their job actions and walking away from the students.

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I don't likethe message it provides to my children. My child thinks it's a vacation. He's happy that they're on strike.

I tell my children that this is not an acceptable wayto handle things. If you're not getting your way, it's not appropriate to just take a temper tantrum and walk out.

Bell:I definitely echo the frustration, but I would say that it's not about the teachers when we're talking about the education system writ large.

We've heard over and over again the system is incredibly strained, and those teachers are at the front lines of that system.

They have an influence on our children that is going to last a lifetime.I would say that no, this is not a temper tantrum.

These arepeople that are advocating on behalf of our future citizens.

Scharf:I think that there areother ways that they can start looking at ideas and implementing them that reducecosts instead of increasing costs. At the end of the day, Ontario is in a major deficit.

If you want to see all these increases happen and you just keep putting more money into it, we're going toget higher taxes.

Bresnahan: From the union's perspective, they're saying that compensation for teachers is a part of this, but they're also looking at things like class sizes.

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How many students does your son have in his class right now?

Scharf:I would say about 26.

Bresnahan: Do you feel like a bigger class size would affect his ability to learn?

Scharf:No, I don't think so, because I look at our neighbouring province in Quebec that hasan average class size of 30.1 students,and their test scores show that they're excelling.

So I do believe that the education system is broken, but I don't think that these are the measures that we need to put in place to fix it.

Bresnahan:What, in your opinion, would fix it then?

Scharf:I hear that there's a lot of violent children.

You can start looking at adopting other things, for example in [an Irish school] they started scrapping homework for a month or two and replacing it with acts of kindness homework.

That doesn't cost a single penny. It's not putting extra pressure on our children. It's fun, it's engaging, and if you keep practising acts of kindness, then you're gonna see a decline in violence.

Bresnahan: Do you not thinkthat maybe there's a connection between bigger class sizes teachers not being able to give as much one-on-one attention to students and this rise in violence?

Scharf: I don't think children should need one-on-one [attention]. I think in the real world nobody is holding their hand as they get older in college and university. You're getting to bigger classes as you move along in life.

Bell:In myparticular experience in bringing my daughterinto junior kindergartenover the past four months, I've learnedvery quicklythat kids have temper tantrums, but this issue of rising disruptive behaviours and violence is real.

As much as we want to give them homework on acts of kindness, at that age group it is the teachers that have to demonstrate that.

It's very difficult for teachers when you're having a child demonstrate these types of behaviours to be able to focus on teachingthe other students.

Bresnahan:Victoria, I want to come back to you on the point of special education funding, because this is something that directly affects you and your 10-year-old-son.Does that worry you?

Scharf:Well, it's not clear. I don't knowhow special education is being impacted at this point.

What does that mean?Does that mean not putting more money into it and they're not in fact cutting?Are they taking away more staff?It's not clear right now.

I do think that transparency during this negotiation is needed.

The public needs to know what exactly is being proposed and what's being rejected to fairly judge who's being reasonable and who's not.

Bell:I think bargaining 101, in order to have an effective strategy and effective outcome, both parties recognize that the negotiations need to not be public.

We don't actually know what exactly they'repushing and pulling back onand we shouldn't know, because that's part of effective bargaining.