Editor:
As adults, we are not doing a very good job teaching our children about the core values and beliefs of our culture.
Teachers are human beings, as are politicians.
We have a sacrosanct responsibility to guide our children and our society into the future.
We must co-operate and collaborate to fulfil this mandate.
Unions and governments were formed at great human cost to protect and preserve the future for all of us.
Now, it seems, the rewards of a good life well-lived are going to be accessible to only a chosen few — those who can afford to send their children to private schools.
Those who have the public system as the only choice will receive a lesser experience unless that system is better supported.
Those who have the resources will benefit; those who don’t will not.
We know teaching children requires more than a school curriculum with goals, objectives and planning strategies.
It involves parenting; mentoring in loco parentis; caring, sharing and guiding; and setting a good example.
I was a teacher once.
Now I am an old man.
This stage of life involves reflection. I think of all the students I taught and the colleagues with whom I worked.
I remember, above all, a sense of hopefulness for our future together.
Now I hear teachers saying, “What’s the use?”
Many no longer know why they are doing what they do. Some are looking at early retirement or changing careers, working for the private sector or starting a business.
Being constantly told you are lazy, greedy and selfish leads to self-recrimination and hopelessness.
By abandoning our public-school teachers, we are abandoning our children — our future of hope.
It is not just about the money and the contract language.
It is about living in the present with goodness and looking to the future with hope for all of us — together.
Let’s set a good example and get back to the classroom.
Stop wasting precious time blaming each other and get on with the job of teaching children.
Mike Weddell
Kamloops
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