The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Teachers Need to Make a Difference

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,”

We often hear these days that education is at a crossroads. This I believe is certainly true, and the divergence is one of political ideology. The choices are a strengthened public system versus one of parental choice, as a thinly veiled disguise for privatization.

As an example of the strengthened public system, let’s look at Finland. Teachers there are highly respected, professional and work with a great deal of autonomy. Competition to become a teacher in Finland is fierce. Only seven per cent of the applicants to the five-year masters program for primary education are accepted.

Why is that? Teacher autonomy, localized curriculum and students given time to learn continually produce world-leading results. This circular model makes the Finnish system the envy of most of the world.

Let’s compare this with the U.S. The Teach for America program takes post-secondary students from many different disciplines, gives them a five-week pedagogy program in the summer and then places them into low-income schools as the teacher of record. Couple this with an education secretary who favours vouchers, choice and charter schools, and it is easy to see the reasons for lack of respect in the American public school system. This is a design for public school failure.

“And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could”

Long I stood. We have certainly stood long enough and will undoubtedly be faced with a choice in Alberta in the near future. While there is not yet formal policy adopted by the opposition, we have heard statements about full funding for private schools. In my estimation, that is a large step down one of the diverging roads — not my choice of road, however.

Public education remains the great equalizer and needs protection from those who would replace it as a matter of convenience and cost savings. All our children deserve an education that allows them to be the best they can be and to strive for anything that they can dream.

As teachers we know that learning does not take place without relationships, and perhaps the fight to preserve our highly regarded system in Alberta begins with us. We need to speak to friends, the parents of our students, politicians and any others we can think of about the importance of maintaining a vibrant public education system for future generations in our province. If the next election is decided on economic factors alone, the value of what we have built will be buried by the debate over the bottom line. Public good has value and we need to teach that to the electorate of Alberta.

While the diverging roads do not lead directly to Finland or to the U.S., I want to choose the path that moves towards a strong, vibrant, universal model for the greater public good.

“Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I ever should come back.”

If the wrong road is chosen, economic realities would suggest that there is no return. The wrong path taken because of financial concern sets up a situation where the cost to re-create what we have would be prohibitive. It is much more economical to maintain and enhance than to rebuild. If our present system is want we want, then we cannot let it get away. The fight for the future of public education will be ours.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,”

It would be easy to decide that the threat is not that great, that what I’ve described here is hyperbole. While that is indeed possible, it is a risk far too great to take.

When future Albertans look back to our time in history it must be with a feeling of pride and of relief that Alberta teachers led the charge to maintain one of the best systems on the planet. Once again teachers will have helped shape the future and our province … and its citizens will be the better for it.

We as teachers have always made a difference, and now should not be an exception.

“And that has made all the difference.”¹