Ford has Ontario’s teachers singing back-to-school blues

The annual back-to-school blues hit harder this year, thanks to Doug Ford.

While students and teachers are always anxious when classes resume post-Labour Day, this first week in September is particularly fraught.

And those searching for the reason need look no further than Premier Ford’s governing Conservatives who have been acting like bulls in the education china shop ever since taking power in June.

Confusion still reigns over Ontario’s health curriculum, particularly the sections on sex education. A socalled “snitch line” for discontented parents has left educators furious and on edge.

The latest letdown in standardized math test results and the government’s pledge to revamp how this crucial subject is taught will make teachers feel even more uncertain about their jobs.

Nor should we omit Ford’s decision to cancel millions of dollars worth of planned school renovations.

Relations between the provincial government and the province’s massive public education workforce can be bumpy at the best of times. But Ford’s Conservatives may have set a record for being faster than any government before them to pick a fight with the teachers. It didn’t have to be this way.

Just a few weeks over the summer break. That’s all it took for Ford to threaten teachers to do what they’re told, and at least one teachers’ union to offer support to those who defy Ford’s fiats.

Most of the problem stems from Ford’s decision to cancel the updated health curriculum introduced by the previous Liberal government.

In taking this action, Ford can say he’s honouring a campaign promise. But teachers in general strongly favour that updated curriculum, which was introduced in 2015 to reflect a host of social changes such as sexting and the legalization of same-sex marriages.

Ford’s government has tried to provide clarity on what can be taught, but many teachers rightly say they remain baffled about what they can and can’t do.

For instance, the province says that when it comes to gender and sexual orientation, students will be taught everyone is to be welcomed and treated fairly. But beyond telling students to behave nicely, how are teachers expected to explain such complex subjects?

Exacerbating the situation is Ford’s warning that teachers who use the scrapped 2015 health curriculum could be punished. The premier has invited parents to anonymously report potential breaches in what should be taught and even launched a website — which critics have dubbed a “snitch line” — for such complaints.

Yet if teachers don’t know the boundaries, how can they know when they’ve stepped outside what Ford deems acceptable?

Meanwhile, parents will understandably feel discouraged by the latest provincewide math test results. Only 49 per cent of Grade 6 students and 61 per cent of Grade 3 students met the provincial math standard last year, in both cases a worse showing than in 2013-14.

Many teachers fear they’ll be made scapegoats for the decline. Others wonder if Ford’s trying to manufacture a crisis to drive a wedge between the public and teachers so he can make educators toe the line, particularly when the next contract talks begin.

If there is any cause for optimism, it came last week when Ford expressed a desire to work with educators, saying Ontario has “some of the greatest teachers in the world.”

If his goodwill is genuine, Ford should scrap the snitch line, then offer teachers more leeway in how they teach health education.

Let him read the sad history of education-system disputes and school strikes in Ontario. Maybe then he’ll stop poking the province’s educators in the eyes.