[Point Blank]

The book ban is in line with the government’s MO. Make mandates but no resources to support it. No funds to support librarians but wants a board to create a list themselves. On top of this, they want teachers to create a digital catalogue of every book in their classroom, and students can’t access these books until it’s done. Goes without saying they’re asked to do this with no compensation. It’s literally an impossible job, when I taught elementary, I spent over $500 on YA novels that I’ve vetted on Goodreads. How tf am I supposed to create a digital catalogue when I had over 200 novels in my classroom?

I’m now a curriculum specialist with the CBE, and the new K-6 curriculum is absurd. There’s also no provincially created resources for this new curriculum, so now Grade 2 teachers have to learn how sound refracts in various mediums without any support on this concept nor suggestions as to how to make this concrete for Grade 2 children.

They’ve also mandated so many assessments in elementary that a teacher loses at least one month of teaching time just to give assessments. The climate has becomes super regressive because teachers are pressured to teach K-3 children how to write tests all day.

Despite what the provincial government says about this strike, every teacher I’ve spoken with has always pointed out complexity and class sizes as the major issue. Hiring 1000 teachers per year for the next 3 years when the CBE alone is 200+ schools will not significantly impact classroom size and complexity; we also literally don’t even have space anymore for these new teachers because all extra rooms and libraries have already been converted into classrooms.