Dear editor,These are excerpts of a letter written by Comox Valley MLA Don McRae that was read in the legislature March 5:"I endeavour to be a good teacher. I try to create a positive learning environment to create relationships with my students, be available outside of class time and effectively teach the courses in a meaningful manner. This semester I have 128 students and 18 IEPs in total. This does not include my advisory group, with whom I meet once a month and try and assist their progress through the school year.”"My concern is that I do not know just how effective I will be as an educator this year. With large classes, management becomes a bigger issue, and more time is spent trying to get students on task rather than teaching content and skills. I find it difficult to create positive relationships with my classes when there are so many students of varying needs and issues. It stretches one's ability to have students reach their full potential when you can spend so little time with each individual.”"I will do my best to work with the students and give them the skills and knowledge they will need to be successful in my classes. My concern is that I may not have the ability to be as effective a teacher as I have been in the past. There is only so much time one can spend marking (an additional three more students adds 10 percent more marking load on a teacher per class), prepping, doing the paperwork, making the phone calls, answering the e-mails and learning new programs like BCeSIS.”"If I continue to teach classes of this size and composition, I do not see how the system will get 18 more years of service from me. I would eventually break or stop caring, and then it would be time for me to move on.”I contacted Mr. McRae's office after I read that he was urging anyone with concerns to visit him at his downtown Courtenay office on Fifth Street. His receptionist assured me that he would return my call yet he has yet to do so. I also read in this newspaper that he said he was not defensive about the letter he once wrote.Seeing as this letter was written while he was a teacher in the Comox Valley prior to you taking office as Comox Valley MLA, it leads me to want to ask him these questions:Do you still stand behind what you wrote in that letter? Do you believe that the situation in the classrooms in regards to class size and composition since you wrote your letter has improved? Do you believe that some classes such as the ones that were reported in the September 2011 Superintendents class size report are conductive to a proper and effective learning environment? What do you believe has changed in regards to class size and composition since you wrote this letter that would lead you to vote for Bill 22?It is my understanding that the Supreme Court of BC ruled in April 2011 that the B.C. Liberal government illegally stripped the right to collectively bargain class size and composition levels from the BCTF contract in 2002, and that the Liberal government was given a year to restore this language back into the BCTF contract. Once Bill 22 is passed, teachers will not be given back the right to collectively bargain class size and composition levels until 2013. It is also my understanding that all the members of the governing Liberal party who are going to rise in the legislature to speak about Bill 22 have done so.Seeing as you possess a unique perspective on the teaching profession that few other MLAs have I am perplexed as to why you have yet to rise in the Legislature and speak about this bill.John Turner,Courtenay