Number 2 daughter is going to UBC in the fall, to do her professional year.
These days that's not something I'd normally recommend: it's an expensive program, and the chance of landing a job in a reasonable time at the end is remote.
Except that she's English-French bilingual, and consequently almost guaranteed a public-school job in French Immersion when she has completed.
If she still wants it by then, having experienced the reality.
It's ironic that as she's taking steps to enter the profession, her brother-in-law (we'll call him Eric), married to our eldest, a French Immersion specialist, is taking steps to leave it.
Eric is in his mid-30's with a degree in physics and math, subjects he taught in the International Baccalaureate program at two International Schools. He returned to Canada four years ago, armed with the reputation and paperwork of a highly-effective, motivating, and motivated teacher, who also coached.
Neither he nor our daughter could get an interview in Campbell River that summer.
So they settled in Victoria, on the grounds that there were three school districts in the region, so chances of a job appeared better there than elsewhere on the Island.
Our daughter was interviewed over the summer and was on the Victoria Teacher On Call list when school started. She was in a job by mid-November, replacing a colleague on maternity leave, and hasn't looked back since.
Eric, on the other hand, couldn't get even an interview in Victoria, although everyone acknowledged that the district was seriously short of math and physics specialists. Apparently Victoria already had more TOCs on the list than the union was comfortable with. Fortunately, he eventually fluked into an interview in one of the other districts, and slowly started to gain BC experience and seniority.
He's had at least a part-time job in that district ever since the first year, but has taught his own subjects only occasionally: most semesters he's ended up mostly dealing with students who haven't completed their science and math courses in previous semesters.
And, of course, he coaches.
This semester he finally got to teach physics, replacing a colleague who was trying something else.
Then a couple of weeks ago he was advised once again to apply for a very-part-time job that had been posted for next fall, and they'd try to fill it up over the summer. He knew that meant more course-completion.
But Eric's not a special education teacher. He doesn't feel qualified, and finds the job both frustrating and soul-destroying.
Happily for him, he has options outside the school system, and he's going back to college to explore them.
He's not the only one who is frustrated: his principal expressed dismay that he couldn't place Eric more appropriately, and that he's about to lose a real asset to the school, a teacher who has qualifications and skills the school really needs. But the financial situation is such that the district cannot plan appropriately for next academic year, and seniority governs whom he can place where. His hands are tied.
And that's why I wouldn't recommend a professional year for most people.
Not in BC, anyway.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Signs from an election
When the campaign started in North Island I mentioned to my son that, judging from the signs, it looked to be all Claire Trevena in Campbell River, except for some empty lots. He said, "That's not surprising. It's embarrassing to be a BCLiberal these days."
That didn't change for about two weeks, but shortly after the "debate" we started to see the occasional Facey lawn sign, and by the end of the campaign there were quite a few. Even so, the Trevena signs, all on private property, still outnumbered them about 5 to 1.
But it was an indication that things were going to be tighter than we could have predicted earlier in the campaign, and in the end the signs didn't even tell an accurate story:
Claire's margin of victory was down somewhat from last time, 50.7% for Claire (BCNDP), versus 42.16% for Facey (BCLiberal), and 7.14% for Bray (Conservative).
Once again, Campbell River went BCLiberal by a small margin.
Tellingly, Claire won big in the communities of the north and on the islands.
So what happened? I believe it's a different story in Campbell River than it is in the rest of the constituency.
Campbell River: I like the theory that what happend here is another manifestation of the "10-second Socred" phenomenon, a blast from the '50s and '60s, when we could never figure out why the between-elections-unpopular WAC Bennett was always re-elected with a majority, and why, once the election had passed, one could never find anyone who had voted for his party.
Apparently, in this election even the pipe dreams of the BCLiberal platform were more a more comfortable fit for many voters than the NDP promise of "Change for the better, one practical step at a time". This in spite of the still-unresolved BC Rail scandal, the HST debacle, the fantasy balanced budget, the culture of cronyism... and we could go on and on.
But there was more to it than that. The BCLiberal campaign slimed NDP leader Adrian Dix so vigorously that, by the end, BCLiberal partisans had no trouble publicly associating him with fraud. Some of that stuck. In a similar vein, the Facey campaign distorted Claire's record and positions so thoroughly in its advertising that her advocacy for a Campbell River hospital morphed into a claim that the new hospital would be shelved if an NDP government was returned. Her work for the BBC turned into a "she's not from here" meme, and Catalyst closing the Elk Falls pulp mill magically became her fault. I don't think the print advertising to this effect made much of a difference, especially after the front-page story in the Courier-Islander that quoted Claire accusing Nick Facey of lying, but local radio ads on this theme, run just before the election, certainly changed some votes.
I wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Campbell River Mirror after the last Facey ad they published:
As one of his former teachers, I'm pleased that Mr. Facey "thoroughly benefited" from the education he received in Campbell River.
However, it appears that he didn't always pay attention: I'll bet not one of his Social Studies teachers ever said to him, "It's fine to distort the record of a political opponent for political gain." He acquired that idea on his own.
In case he just missed the lesson, he should know that disagreement is is the lifeblood of democracy, but distortion is disrespectful of the system, and inevitably leads to cynicism and less participation.
Surely he isn't in favour of either!
It would have come out just after the election; unfortunately, they chose not to publish it.
Rest of the constituency: The story there is Claire's personal and ongoing relationships with the communities. Voters in the north know that Claire has really worked on their economic issues, like the Port Alice mill. The First Nations know from experience they have Claire's ear. And they really worry about the environment, about oil tankers, and climate change, and salmon, and the reckless attitude the BCLiberals have towards almost any development.
That, and the voters there know Claire, who has represented them well for 8 years. By contrast, Facey was and is Campbell River, and so are almost all of his supporters.
And that's why Claire beat Facey by just over 2000 votes.
As for the provincial results... I predict it will be a long time before any party in BC will again treat BC voters like the rational adults we all claim we are. Sad, really.
That didn't change for about two weeks, but shortly after the "debate" we started to see the occasional Facey lawn sign, and by the end of the campaign there were quite a few. Even so, the Trevena signs, all on private property, still outnumbered them about 5 to 1.
But it was an indication that things were going to be tighter than we could have predicted earlier in the campaign, and in the end the signs didn't even tell an accurate story:
Claire's margin of victory was down somewhat from last time, 50.7% for Claire (BCNDP), versus 42.16% for Facey (BCLiberal), and 7.14% for Bray (Conservative).
Once again, Campbell River went BCLiberal by a small margin.
Tellingly, Claire won big in the communities of the north and on the islands.
So what happened? I believe it's a different story in Campbell River than it is in the rest of the constituency.
Campbell River: I like the theory that what happend here is another manifestation of the "10-second Socred" phenomenon, a blast from the '50s and '60s, when we could never figure out why the between-elections-unpopular WAC Bennett was always re-elected with a majority, and why, once the election had passed, one could never find anyone who had voted for his party.
Apparently, in this election even the pipe dreams of the BCLiberal platform were more a more comfortable fit for many voters than the NDP promise of "Change for the better, one practical step at a time". This in spite of the still-unresolved BC Rail scandal, the HST debacle, the fantasy balanced budget, the culture of cronyism... and we could go on and on.
But there was more to it than that. The BCLiberal campaign slimed NDP leader Adrian Dix so vigorously that, by the end, BCLiberal partisans had no trouble publicly associating him with fraud. Some of that stuck. In a similar vein, the Facey campaign distorted Claire's record and positions so thoroughly in its advertising that her advocacy for a Campbell River hospital morphed into a claim that the new hospital would be shelved if an NDP government was returned. Her work for the BBC turned into a "she's not from here" meme, and Catalyst closing the Elk Falls pulp mill magically became her fault. I don't think the print advertising to this effect made much of a difference, especially after the front-page story in the Courier-Islander that quoted Claire accusing Nick Facey of lying, but local radio ads on this theme, run just before the election, certainly changed some votes.
I wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Campbell River Mirror after the last Facey ad they published:
As one of his former teachers, I'm pleased that Mr. Facey "thoroughly benefited" from the education he received in Campbell River.
However, it appears that he didn't always pay attention: I'll bet not one of his Social Studies teachers ever said to him, "It's fine to distort the record of a political opponent for political gain." He acquired that idea on his own.
In case he just missed the lesson, he should know that disagreement is is the lifeblood of democracy, but distortion is disrespectful of the system, and inevitably leads to cynicism and less participation.
Surely he isn't in favour of either!
It would have come out just after the election; unfortunately, they chose not to publish it.
Rest of the constituency: The story there is Claire's personal and ongoing relationships with the communities. Voters in the north know that Claire has really worked on their economic issues, like the Port Alice mill. The First Nations know from experience they have Claire's ear. And they really worry about the environment, about oil tankers, and climate change, and salmon, and the reckless attitude the BCLiberals have towards almost any development.
That, and the voters there know Claire, who has represented them well for 8 years. By contrast, Facey was and is Campbell River, and so are almost all of his supporters.
And that's why Claire beat Facey by just over 2000 votes.
As for the provincial results... I predict it will be a long time before any party in BC will again treat BC voters like the rational adults we all claim we are. Sad, really.
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