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The Anarchives Volume 2 Issue 2 Part Two Free
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Anarchy & Education
The Canadian Student Strike
This transmission contains: edUcaTIonal chAoS
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edUcaTIonal chAoS
by Dave Troyer
rmharrop@utoronto.ca
I am a grade eleven Toronto Board of education High School
student who has not been to a regular class since about the end
of November. Sounds good at first doesn't it? Not going to class
in almost three months not seeing a pencil, book, or a teacher's
dirty look. Well if you think it's fun, or 'a good thing', it's
certainly not. I feel as if the same education system that is
intended to prepare me for my life in this world has done
nothing more than take my life away. It is really only a
temporary setback, but I really do feel like I have lost three
months of one of the best years of my life. And it is all
accountable to certain administrators at my school who have
failed miserably to do their intended jobs. It is not by choice
that I am where I am now, typing on my computer keyboard at home
rather than listening to a Biology teacher who I actually find
quite interesting. It is because of a school system that has,
over the years become very dated. The Toronto Board of
Education's rules need to be re-written-written, and the whole
system needs to be examined and evaluated right down to the rats
running around in the halls, and I'm not talking about students,
or any kind of rodents.
My difficulties started very close to the beginning of the year
when I was travelling about the halls of Northern Secondary
trying to locate a man who I have now only met once, Mr. Way. He
is the person in charge of admitting students into Northern
Secondary's "Enriched" program. The reason why I was searching
for him was to get a switch to an enriched English class, from
the regular one that had been scheduled into my timetable. It
had been recommended by both my grade nine, and ten English
teachers that I be in an enriched class. The first and only time
I met Mr. Way was enough for him to realise that I was the
intelligent, strong English student I had presented myself as.
To put it simply Mr. Way approved the change, and I was off to
see my guidance counsellor to make the change in the computer.
At that point one little problem arose; there were going to be
too many changes that had to be made to accommodate my switch
into an enriched class. Because neither I or my guidance
counsellor felt that it was worth disrupting almost all of the
other seven classes I was in to make the regular English fit we
left it the way it was and I went to see my scheduled English
class.
My teacher and I had only seen each other a couple of times
before because in the process of attempting to change my
timetable, I had missed what to the best of my recollection was
three classes. Before my first class in my old class I went to
the teacher to say to her that I was sorry about any
inconvenience this oddity was to her. I also at that point asked
if throughout the year we could arrange some extra credit work
if it seemed appropriate to compensate for my not being moved
into an enriched class. She seemed to think that was a good idea
and I went to my seat to get out my books for class. After class
I went to her again and asked if I could have any assignments I
might have missed while I was away. She smiled and told me about
one I had missed which I could do and hand in next class. I
thanked her and left the class.
The next class I brought the assignment in and gave it to her.
Much to my surprise rather than a courteous thanks, or
appreciation, I was asked why I had not handed the assignment in
with the others. I was also told that I was not wanted in that
class if I was unwilling to participate and hand in assignments
on time because I was going to be an extra bother to her. At
that point I went to my seat and shut myself in thought until
the bell rang allowing me to leave for the day. While I was
thinking about the subject of how I felt about this teacher I
noticed some of her behaviour towards other students. What I saw
was a teacher that really had too much on her hands as do many
teachers, students, and other inhabitants of any school. I saw
her move a certain group of students away from each other
because they were making noise, while leaving two other students
(who I found quite disruptive) to talk their heads off in the
front row of the class. Today I still believe that there was no
favouritism (or whatever it has been called by the different
people involved) on her part. I believe that she was simply too
stressed because of the overly large size of that class, and she
simply couldn't keep track of all of her students at once.
However the simple fact of the matter is that I felt quite bad
about the way she had spoken to me.
With a burning feeling in my stomach, I went to see my
Vice-Principal. I wasn't really sure what to tell him. I thought
that my teacher might be brought into the picture more than as a
character in a story that was being told. Because of the
situation I asked that my confidence be kept; and my
Vice-Principal said that he would do that for me. I didn't want
my teacher to get reprimanded because of what had happened
between her and I, or the way I felt because of what had
transpired. At that point I wasn't really sure how serious any
of this was, and that is part of the reason that I went to
discuss the subject with my Vice-Principal. No matter how
serious my Vice-Principal thought the teachers general actions
toward the class were the simple fact of the matter was that I
needed my timetable changed, and I needed another English
'environment'. When I went to my Vice-Principal I knew that
there was more than one other class in the same time slot that
had empty seats that I could use. I saw this as a simple and
logical change, as did other people who I talked the situation
over with. It seemed however that my Vice-Principal thought that
it wasn't a simple change and that I should go meet with my
current English teacher and see if we couldn't work things out.
This meant to me that I had to go and see my English teacher who
was in no less of an awkward position and tell her to her face
that I didn't like the way she conducted herself in the
classroom. In simple terms I was supposed to go and insult her
to her face, and hope that she still felt like working things
out.
As it happened I went to my English teacher and talked the
situation over with her as best as I could without doing what I
had essentially been asked, which was to tell her that I thought
she was a bad teacher. I didn't and still don't feel that she is
a bad teacher, she was simply too stressed. I would have done
what my Vice-Principal had asked if I hadn't felt so trapped
between doing what I was told and doing what was right. I felt
was right was to let the situation rest for the meantime, change
classes and go and talk to my English teacher to let her know
that I was a sympathiser of the inadequate working conditions,
rather than an enemy as I was forced to present myself as. The
results of our conversation were nothing more than an increase
of worry on my teacher's part, that she had done something
dreadfully wrong. My teacher and I agreed that it was best that
I not go to her class.
With the situation unchanged I went back to my Vice-Principal to
request that he make the change in my English class. He would do
nothing for me, even though my teacher, guidance counsellor, and
almost anyone else who had heard the story thought that the
class should be changed for me. He said I would have to try to
deal with that class, only giving me the excuse that he had
"nothing to tell either the new teacher or the old teacher about
why I was changing classes" and that "he needed something to
tell them" or he couldn't make the change. He then asked me what
I thought he should tell them? I felt that if he wanted
something to tell them he certainly had it with what had already
transpired. At the same time I felt like he was asking me to
make something up as he had already forced me to do when I met
with my English teacher earlier. So without anything resolved I
left the Vice-Principal's office feeling incredibly trapped. I
couldn't go to my old English class, and I had been given no
other choice.
A couple of days later when I went to see my Vice-Principal I
was told that he was away sick and that another Vice-Principal
had been asked to have a meeting with me. When I went down the
hall to the other office and spoke with the other Vice-Principal
neither of us really knew why I was there so we decided that the
best thing was to wait until my regular V.P. had returned. The
week ran out and my regular Vice-Principal had not returned
leaving the situation up in the air.
Over the weekend I developed the flu which kept me in bed at
home for over a week. During that time my mother received a call
>from my guidance counsellor, his reason for the phone call was
to tell my mom that the school wanted a meeting with my her to
sort out my situation. This phone call immediately told my
mother that my Vice-Principal had broken my confidence. That
evening my mother came home and told me about the call, and
without a moments hesitation I knew also that my Vice-Principal
had not kept his word to me that he would keep my confidence.
I could have gone to no one else in this situation, except the
next higher level up from me. It is almost like the relationship
between a boss and an employee, my Vice-Principal is the next
person up the power ladder from me. So without going to a higher
level I was trapped. As it turned out the higher level came to
us. My mother had a meeting with the Principal of Northern,
along with my English teacher and the Vice-Principal. During
this meeting it was heard by everyone there that my confidence
had been broken. It was also heard that what my Vice-Principal
had said caused my teacher to loose sleep, not what I had said
frightening her unnecessarily. My Vice-Principal also said that
I could now have my English class changed. When I heard
the news that night of what had occurred at the meeting you
might think that I would have been relieved to have my class
changed and have myself back in school. What must be understood
however is that at this point I had been out of school for a
fairly long time and there was only one week left until exams.
With exams that close I was left with no way of learning the
material I had missed, and feeling that it was going to be very
difficult to return to classes and sort things out with all of
my teachers without having the choice of telling them this story
I am telling to you right now. Some of the teachers may have
rightfully said tough cookies to me and not given me the
necessary work to catch up for my exams. Stuck in a state of
emotional distress, and confusion as to what to do about this
whole situation it was left until after the Christmas break. I
was told that after the break I would be allowed to go back to
classes and that everything would be sorted out.
When I returned after the break I walked into my
Vice-Principal's office to find him looking quite surprised to
see me, and quite confused as to what to do, even though the
Principal had asked me to go and see him. As it happened, he
took me down the hall to the Principal's office where I was
'read the riot act' so to speak. I was told that I was to be
allowed to go to my regular classes for two weeks and "if at the
end of these two weeks I had not missed any of my classes they
would put me back on the roll". My Vice-Principal was told to
give me a note to show my teachers that stated just that.
Here's how the note read:
"At present David is officially 'off roll'. His mother has
arranged for a trial period of two weeks going to his old
classes. If this is successful he will be formally reinstated.
For this period there will be no attendance and the report will
probably show N.M.A. Please let me know if he fails to attend or
profit from your class. Welcome back"
First of all this note is faulty. My mother didn't make that
arrangement, and she did not know that these were going to be
the contents of this note. They have also turned this into an
issue of attendance and profit even though the root reason I was
not attending was the breach of confidence made by my
Vice-Principal. This note has turned out to be the final blow
>from my school. I have not seen the inside of a classroom in
three months, all because my school did everything to push me
out without making the slightest attempt to get me back into
classes. I question even the validity of this note because I
don't understand what rule allows them to set these guidelines
for me. Or did they just make them up?
I am now leaving my friends and possible new friends and fellow
Northerners for destination still unknown to me, I hope it's
something better; or maybe all of are schools are failing this
badly?
This situation is one of many reasons I am striking this year, I
hope you will make it one of yours. We need major changes at all
levels of our education system whether it's the issue of sexual
harassment, breaches of confidence like this one, or better
curriculum.
____________________________________________________________
Get with the program. Contact TAO today.
____________________________________________________________
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