Extra homework.
The B.C. Teachers' strike is over and students are back in their classes.
It was a long two weeks for both teachers and students, but now that classes are back in session students are going to have to work harder to complete their curriculum; especially high school students and, for the most part, the graduating classes of 2006.
This will not be an easy task for students having missed this much school and it will definitely take a lot more time. Just how concerned are our local Grade 12s with coping with the aftermath of the strike during such an important year?
Grade 12 student Michelle Lancaster from Osoyoos Secondary School says that it was definitely a bad time for the grads, but then it would have been a bad time for anyone.
The strike has definitely hurt students' education and grads' futures. It will be as much of a struggle to learn everything needed for the provincial exams as it was teaching ourselves over the break, she said.
Lancaster says she agrees with what the teachers have been fighting for.
It is a good cause.
She feels mandatory classes after school hours are unfair though. Students are already coping with enough.
Teachers are doing a good job with helping students make up for lost time and giving their own time for extra classes, says Connor Welsh, another local Grade 12 student.
Welsh does not feel the strike will affect his Grade 12 future. He is confident the teachers know what they are doing and what they can cut out of the curriculum to make more time for the most important information.
An anonymous Grade 12 student says he feels the teachers' fight was justified and that they had every right to be mad.
With as much school as we had lost already, teachers should have gone the whole way and kept fighting, he said.
In contrast a Grade 12 teacher from OSS says that any more class time lost would have been too much.rnAnother Grade 12 teacher at OSS says that the strike is definitely not fair to the Grade 12s, though she feels the students are working hard, focusing, not complaining and making the best of the situation.
They are a great grad class and they are going to be successful.rnAnother Grade 12 teacher says everything teachers were fighting for was just.
Government left teachers with no choice, even if it meant breaking the law. If we didn't do something, no one would.
With class sizes as large as they are now, this teacher feels it is difficult for students to get the help they need and that after school classes should not be mandatory.
Students should be able to receive this help in class time, but with so many students in the class it is impossible.
This teacher was not happy with the outcome of the strike. He believes that when you think something is right you have to go to the end.
To him, this quote by Albert Einstein summed up the teachers' feeling towards the government during the strike.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can be achieved by understanding.rnThe Grade 12s this year are a strong group of students and they will be able to pull through with the expectation of working a little harder, he added.
