Surrey - The Editor, Dear Mr. Fassbender, I am a teacher and a parent and I am appalled at your government's handling of the negotiations with my union. When I set out to become a teacher almost 30 years ago, I never would have thought that I would be in this position.
I feel disrespected and devalued. And I believe that you and your government do not care at all about our students.I love my job and I love my kids. I put hours of my own time into my work. Yes, I mark their work, I prepare lessons and materials and I write report cards at home. I also read professional books (that I pay for myself), I think about ideas I want to try and I lay awake at night thinking about my kids, especially all those ones that need something extra from me. On top of that, I spend hundreds of dollars each year on books and other materials for my classroom. This year, I am changing schools and I was planning on spending the last two weeks in August setting up my new room. I have no idea how I am going to accomplish that now.It is bad enough that you are refusing to budge from your position (and are ignoring two court rulings), that you refuse to fund education properly, that you stole 10 per cent of my wages with your "lock-out" and that your government makes comments that school might not start until sometime in October. But now you are also offering to give parents money (saved from the education system, of course) for daycare just in case school does not start in September. And you continue to claim that you want to settle this and are bargaining in good faith? You must really think the people of B.C. are gullible.Come Sept. 2, children need to be in school, not in daycare. Do the right thing and sit down with the BCTF and a mediator now, with a more flexible position and a real willingness to settle this dispute justly and fairly.Ivana SmithSurrey