Critics, especially those on the right, take pride in denigrating public education. They want us to believe that our schools – and by implication, you, our members – are failing our children.
Last winter, on the recommendation of a parent, I took my rather large and demanding class to the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) to take part in its Lest We Forget project.
Early in my teaching career I came to understand the extent to which public education is intricately entwined with politics.
In 1998, delegates to the first ETFO annual meeting unanimously passed the following motion: That the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario work to restore free and full collective bargaining rights to teachers and education workers.
Many ETFO members have fond memories of the Federation of Women Teachers’ Associations of Ontario (FWTAO) and the Ontario Public School Teachers’ Federation (OPSTF), the two organizations that came together in 1998 to create ETFO.
This year ETFO celebrates its 10th anniversary. an opportunity for all of us to reflect on how far we have come since this federation was founded.
Re: “The Pervasive Threat of Declining Student Enrolment,” June 07
Many identify the Stonewall Riots as the beginning of political organization by the gay community in North America. In June 1969, the patrons of New York’s Stonewall Bar, several of them persons of colour, rose up to protest police harassment, arrests, and humiliation.
Although the 1960s and 1970s were the years of consciousness-raising, the rise of teacher militancy, and the beginnings of many social justice movements, it was during the 1980s that progress on equity issues was made in policy, legislation, union structure, and collective agreements.
The new Act boosted federation membership: overnight FWTAO membership jumped to 12,500 from 5,3001 and that of OPSMTF to 3,400 from about 1,6002 members.