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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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