Nanaimo teachers start lawsuit against school district on class sizes

I have considerable sympathy for good teachers.  From my experience as a parent, taking care of two kids is overwhelming.  Although my son (the elder) is talented at saying “no” to me in multiple language, with different accents, etc., he isn’t yet at the stage where he thinks he knows more than me, thinks I’m just plain uncool, and thinks my time with him is a like a punishment for him, when he has to sit and listen to me try to teach him things he prefers not to be taught.  No one else is looking over my shoulder asking why he can’t recite this or that, why I haven’t used this or that learning approach, or – worst of all – questioning my true motivations as an adult for wanting to spend so much time with children.

After a friend of mine had a third child, he said him and his wife went from playing “man-to-man” defense to zone.  You’re outnumbered, so just take choose space between them and try to juggle until they fall asleep without you being defeated.  Teachers, in my mind, are always playing zone.  They have a different role than parents – of course – but they share certain obligations and expectations.  Also, the purpose of their time is to educate, not just to babysit.  Not easy to do it well. 

That’s why any news of class size issues raises my ears.  Derek Spalding of the Vancouver Sun reported over the weekend that the Nanaimo District Teachers’ Association filed a petition in the BC Supreme Court against the Nanaimo-Ladysmith School District relating to its approval of certain classroom sizes, which the NDTA alleges involves a misinterpretation of the School Act (see a link to another post on class sizes here).  I haven’t seen any of the documents filed with the court, so it’s hard to get a perfect sense of the legal issues being raised, but I presume it reaches back to the debate about Bill 33 (BC Legislative Assembly), which deals directly with class sizes.  Here is some background information on class sizes put out by the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation.

The statutory framework of the this issue involves section 76.1 of the School Act and the Class Size Regulation.  This is a link to an index of the laws related to K to 12 education put out by the Ministry of Education, which points to different relevant provisions that may be useful for anyone interested in learning more. 

Far more lawsuits start than end with a judgment.  We’ll see where this one goes.