Dear editor,
I just want to respond to Mr. Lindsay’s letter in last week’s paper about students being insulted when they received a blank report card at our local schools.
Mr. Lindsay was upset and angered over this matter and I can assure him that teachers agree with him that these blank cards are an insult. However, these cards are the result of a directive to schools by the Ministry of Education and had nothing to do with teachers.
An overly bureaucratic and obtuse government felt that schools needed to comply with the requirements of the School Act to produce report cards, even though they knew these would be largely blank due to teacher job action.
In a move perhaps to try to make teachers take the blame, as Mr. Lindsay has indicated, or just further evidence of a government completely out of touch with real families and children of the province, these blank report cards rightly deserve to be ridiculed by the public.
The best way to find out how your child is doing in school has always been and remains to be to talk to his/her teacher. Teachers want to talk to parents about the progress of their children in school and we hope that they all do so often or whenever any concerns or questions arise.
If parents have concerns over government actions of this nature, they should direct those to our local Liberal MLA, Don McRae.
Steve Stanley
Editor's note: Steve Stanley is the president of the Comox District Teachers' Association, the local branch of the B.C. Teachers' Federation.