Overloaded teachers need more support in the classroom

As thousands of primary students in Ontario return to school this week, their well-being is close to the hearts of parents and teachers alike.

Still, one thing is being overlooked.

That is the emotional stress in primary classrooms in our province brought about over the last 20 years through cuts to funding for special education.

Indeed, it has become quite common to have four or five students out of 20 in regular classrooms who are experiencing serious social, developmental or behavioural difficulties.

And that situation has been further aggravated by cuts to English as a second language programs and reading intervention classes, which only add to the special needs teachers must attend to.

How were these cuts to education excused?

A few years ago, teachers started to hear the term “the new normal.” That was a belief that teachers were sufficiently trained to work with children of different needs in differentiated programs.

Because of a growing number of students with serious behavioural difficulties, the safety of children, then, became a priority.

Teachers needed to learn what to do when a young child was expressing his anger by throwing chairs around the classroom.

s They had to revisit everything they had learned before about teaching. There is a cost to all this. The reality teachers now face in our primary classroom environment often results in sleepless nights and anxiety. They ask themselves questions such as: “Am I going to be able to keep my students safe and happy today? Am I going to be physically hurt by a student today? How much of the curricular expectations am I going to cover?”

No wonder that many teachers are losing confidence that primary classrooms are safe for both students and teachers.

What if the Ministry of Education with the Ministry of Health got together and realized that adding more support for teachers would result in fewer sick leaves and fewer health problems for teachers and, consequently, more money saved in Ontario’s health care system.

What if the boards of education, instead of talking about “the new normal,” created an atmosphere of full support for teachers who are subjected to aggression in their classrooms?

What if teachers weren’t afraid to talk about how stressed they are and were able to get professional help without worrying they would jeopardize their careers?

What if anxiety caused by students’ aggressive behaviour was eliminated by enough support in every school — specialists who could help children understand their feelings better and discuss with teachers the most successful classroom management strategies?

Perhaps it’s time to agree that teachers who feel supported and helped will secure a better education for our students.