The Anarchives Volume 2 Issue 2 Part Two Free The Anarchives To get free paper version send The Anarchives Snail-mail addresses to The Anarchives yakimov@ecf.utoronto.ca Anarchy & Education The Canadian Student Strike This transmission contains: edUcaTIonal chAoS Forward, spam, post, print, or send this everywhere... ########################################################################### ## ## ## . ## ## $$ ## ## d$$b A ## ## d$ $c N ## ## .e$$ee$$e.. a ## ## zd*$$" $$P*$e. r ## ## .$" z$P $$. "$e C ## ## $E $$ $$ $b h ## ## $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Y ## ## '$ $$ *$c $P ## ## 3$$ *$$P ##G ## d$*bc. ..d$$. ##i ## d$" "**$eeee$**""^$$. ##l ## d$" "$$ ##o ## ##9 ## ##5' ########################################################################### 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. ____________________________________________________________ -- /-/\-\ The Anarchy Organization | / / \ \ Free Minds For Free Lives ( | ) --|-/----\-\-- yakimov@ecf.utoronto.ca \|/ \/ \/ jterpstra@trentu.ca `_^_'