Did you consider?

Re: Vacation 1, Students 0

Did you maybe consider that you may not have had adequate information before you bothered writing your negative, critical, ignorant, and irritating letter?  Who are you to dictate that teachers should or shouldn’t be entitled to their vacation time with their families?  Have you considered that many of them actually worked through their holiday to prepare for online learning in the coming weeks?  I’m guessing no. In fact, I know of many teachers who gave up their vacation time to put hours and hours of time into preparing for the weeks to come.

Have you considered that it’s not an individual teachers responsibility to solve this issue? Is it possible that the teachers were screaming for online tools to be set up and ready for use but the policies and systems weren’t yet in place for them to use? We don't know.  There is no information to educate us on these questions so criticizing isn’t useful or productive. 

When calling for the NDP government and boards of trustees and BC teachers federation to step in, are you aware of the activities each of these parties were undertaking over the past two weeks?  No. You simply don’t know.  You have no idea what people have been doing behind the scenes to make things happen and yet one full day after spring break ended you’re up on a soap box writing a mean letter that is not substantiated by fact.

You’re simply having a fit because you expected a small miracle in a time of great crisis.  Nobody has failed our children – a deeply disturbing event is occurring across the globe and everyone is working to handle it as best they can. Instead of spending time writing nasty letters to Castanet, how about you offer to help someone out during this difficult and trying time. 

Kristi Avery