Should you get frustrated during this strike (and you will) give this a read and remember what the Liberal agenda has been all along. They wanted this strike. They want to change the legislation and they don't care how it affects B.C. families.
Remember when Christy Clark ran with the mandate, "Families First"? Well, from my family's perspective, that was a lie.
My seven year-old son thrives in the public school system. He loves it. In the two years or so leading up to kindergarten, we were concerned he might have been on the spectrum. He wasn't making eye contact with us. He couldn't maintain focus. It seemed he wasn't listening to us and couldn't repeat back to us what we had just said. (He had a hearing test which he passed.) He couldn't hold a pencil correctly. We were worried.
But then he started kindergarten and my boy blossomed. He had two teachers through the year due to mat leave. They both noticed the things that concerned us and not only helped him to overcome those challenges in school but also gave us ideas to use at home to help him as well.
When my boy started school, he couldn't hold a pencil. Now our dining room wall is filled with his glorious artwork. When my boy started school, he couldn't make eye contact, either frequently or for long periods of time. He couldn't remember what you had just said. By the end of the year, as a five year-old, he was doing stand up comedy for an audience of 80 people at a benefit where he began with a physical comedy bit and ended with a joke he crafted ON THE SPOT which killed and had people laughing harder than anytime I ever did stand up myself.
In that moment, my worries about my son faded and they were replaced with a quietly humble yet ferocious, extraordinary pride.
His grade one teacher fostered in him his love for math and science and reading. Before my son went to school, we worried about his development. Now, I'll walk by his room to find him snuggled in to bed reading stories to his younger brother.
This is what my son has learned in only two years. If the public education system is properly funded imagine what my boy could become?
I love you Zachary Wyatt. I love you Maxwell George (starting Kindergarten next year). Your education is important to me and to your Dad. We believe in you and we will do everything we can to ensure the system that is in place is supported for your highest good.
What you will give back to your community and this province as a result, I have no doubt, will continue to blow our minds.
To his teachers: Thank you for everything you have done to help my son realize his talents, skills and interests. What you have given us is invaluable. Unlike our premier, you have actually put our family (and countless other families) first. You do so now at the risk of financial peril to your own families.
And for this, you have my continued support in this provoked strike.
Christy Clark, you are misrepresenting the people of British Columbia. Should you and the Liberal government continue to disrespect and economically devastate the families of this province by digging your heels in in your grotesque battle against public education in this province, I will be calling for your resignation.
The mark of a great leader is to admit when they have made a mistake. The mark of a mediocre, self-interested politician is to rail against the people he or she represents, at all costs, while claiming it is in the best interests of those against whom he or she rails.
I know there is greatness in my sons. They are worthy of a world class investment in public education. And they need you to evolve on the subject. You can be proud that your investment in them is one that will reap many returns.
It's true, you can't afford to pay the teachers what they're worth. But you can pay them what they're asking. You can honor class size and composition. You can be a part of helping to move this great collective human story of ours forward. Or you can attempt to set it back.
Choose well Premier Clark. The future of the children in this province depends on it.
Enid-Raye Adams
AKA, The Happiness Detective
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