On the Front Line: Pleasure Research

I return to work on Wednesday but teachers resumed their position on the picket line yesterday, a week before school is due to begin.  We have been reminded not to go into our schools to prepare for the year, despite the government's political move of removing the lockout restrictions for a week so we can do so.  I am angry, at our union and at the government.  I am saddened that it has again come to this.  I have decided to take a stand not only for students and teachers, but for myself.  I met with another teacher and we 'talked shop.'  There, I said it.  I did not stand on the picket line as I am still on maternity leave for another week, but I did not cross the line either.  What I did do was to take care of myself and I plan on doing that every day for this entire school year, job action or not.  I am calling it pleasure research.

I cannot count the number of times I have participated in job action in my fourteen years teaching.  I prefer not to, as that in itself frustrates me.  This time is different.  This time I feel like teachers have been pushed too far.  Although I was home with my newborn, between keeping in touch with colleagues and my teaching family members (there are many of us), having conversations with the staff at my son's school and following the news, I am well aware of the tension and stress this round of 'bargaining' has created.  I use the term bargaining loosely.  The way I see it, I could return to work in two ways: angry and frustrated that I cannot teach in a system that supports it's students or teachers; or determined to find pleasure every step of the way.  I am choosing the latter.  I will not let someone else, in this case the government, determine who I am and how I act.

So this brings me back to my pleasure research.  Due to lockout conditions and then the resulting full-scale strike, teachers left their classrooms without completing their year or preparing for the next year of students.   Typically I spend the month of June, post report-card writing, as well as a few weeks in August getting organized and planning curriculum and methodology for the following year.  Not knowing what is next for me at school and not being able to be organized and planned is, to put it lightly, stress-inducing.   Being told I cannot spend time (my own unpaid time at that) preparing in a manner that will bring me peace does not work for me.  Teachers, at least I, cannot turn off who they are.  So although being on strike means we are not in our classrooms teaching students, we are still educators.  So often my mind is creating and developing new ideas for my teaching.  On holidays or when out with my children, I regularly see things I want to use in my classroom or find myself pondering how I can really harness students' strengths and interests to help them learn.  Whoever said teaching is a lifestyle is true.  It encompasses all areas of my life and it is impossible to turn off.

I love my job.  Teaching is my calling.  Yes, I believe we need to be on strike.  Yes, I will stand on that picket line to fight for adequate funding of our education system.  I will not, however, close off the part of me that loves my job.  I will not shut down my planning mind or stop talking to my colleagues and friends about what excites or challenges me.  I will not allow this fight to harden my heart, just my resolve.  In the midst of this battle and beyond it, I am going to continue to be grateful that I have a job worth fighting for.  A job that calls me to become my better self and allows me the opportunity to see my students find theirs.  In the midst of the struggle for what I believe, I will be proud of what I am doing and remind my colleagues that they make a difference every day they walk through the door at work or refuse to walk through that same door.  In the midst of frustration and anger, I will take dance breaks, write with my treasured stationery, and connect with those who bring me laughter.  Every day I will research and practice pleasure in its smallest and greatest forms.  Who wants to join me?

To Parents of My Students

Dear Parents,

As the start of school looms and the conflict between teachers and government seems no closer to being resolved, I want to make sure you know a few things.  First and most importantly, I need you to know that there is almost nothing I wouldn't do for your child.  Perhaps right now some of you are finding it challenging to believe  me, and I understand that you only want what is best for your child.  As an educator and a parent, I too want what is best.  This is leading me to return from my maternity leave and to go directly to the picket line.  It leads me to find care for my own children while I go to stand up for all of our children.  It urges me to give up my own salary to fight for a good future.

I know that this job action has happened before, and many think us selfish and greedy.  I need you to know that yes, I think it is important that educators have good wages and working conditions.  (I also know that this just hit a nerve with many of you reading this, and your blood is beginning to boil.)  However, salary is not the contentious issue in negotiating.  In fact, this is one issue on which both sides seem to be fairly close to agreeing.  It is your child I am fighting for now.  Apart from my family, it is your child I know best and care most about.  It is your child I am with often more waking hours than I am with my own.  I chose this path and I will keep choosing it, for it is who I am.

My path as an educator is a complex one, much like parenting.  Like parenting, there is inexplicable joy and heavy heartache.  There is a time for fun and a time to get down to business.  However, it is also simple: I care for my students fiercely and let them know I believe in them and am there for them every single day, just as I do for my own children.  That is why I stand on this picket line.  I believe that all our children deserve more than this government is allowing our education system to give. 

Perhaps this will be yet another round of job action that beats us down, empties our bank accounts and angers the public.  In the face of this possibility, I need to choose strength and hope.  I need to know that I took action to make a change to a system that is eroding.  There is an old adage Never mix business with pleasure.  Teaching IS who I am.  It IS personal.  When the government attacks my students, it attacks me.  So when I stand on the picket line, I am fighting with my heart, not my purse strings.