A group of teacher-librarians representing the BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association (BCTLA) visited the legislature on National School Library Day, October 26, 2009.
On October 26, several MLAs, some joined by members of the BCTLA team, supported Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) by going to Greater Victoria elementary schools and reading with students.
Other members of the group met with Adrian Dix and Shane Simpson in the Opposition Caucus room and discussed with them substantive issues surrounding teacher-librarianship and public education. Vancouver examples proved worthwhile as these engaged the interest of Dix and Simpson. The Vancouver teacher-librarians who were on the team are very familiar with the working and learning conditions of Vancouver school libraries and were able to provide accurate and devastating statistics to demonstrate the inequities between schools (e.g., two school libraries, in schools with similar student FTEs, with vastly different teacher-librarian staffing levels) which are a result of the lack of funding, the removal of ratios from the contract, and the lack of leadership from the ministry (refusal to refresh Developing Independent Learners: The Role of the School Library Resource Centre), all combined with site-based decision making.
Later in the morning, Pat Parungao met with Liberal MLA Richard Lee and showed him the school library inquiry video, created by the Vancouver teacher-librarians’ inquiry group. (http://schoollibraryprogram.pbworks.com/Video-Project).
Meanwhile, the other members of the group visited the Legislative Library and found common ground there talking with the library staff.
The library is spectacular, and still houses a card catalogue and microfiche for items that have not yet been added to an electronic database.
The group worked with the librarians to have a copy of the book, The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future of Educational Change by Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley ordered, and directed toward the MLAs we met with.
Following this, at the appointed time in the day, the group participated in the DEAR Challenge in the beautiful surroundings of the Library Reading Room.
Members of the team met for lunch with Robin Austin, the opposition education critic, and Diane Thorne, deputy education critic. We discussed a wide range of issues around school libraries and education in general, including class size and composition (and the recent ruling), learning resources selection, support for Aboriginal learners, recent cuts affecting K–12, the overall lack of funding for K–12 including the trustees’ call to delay all-day Kindergarten, and the growing federation of all education stakeholders in support of renewed funding for the K–12 system. Before the meeting, the NDP did not know of the recently exposed Liberal cut to BC ERAC (Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium) ($1.2 million ministry grant reduced to $500,000).
Thorne and Austin were engaged by the description of initiatives under way in school libraries to support learning, such as the automation of SD43’s Aboriginal Education Library. They also seemed very interested in the large number of post-secondary degrees possessed by the team members. It just came up as a comment, but the fact that in particular one team member has five post-secondary degrees demonstrated the expertise of teachers working in school libraries and in the K–12 system as a whole.
We believe that the best part of this meeting was forming relationships that will hopefully continue in some form or another.
At 1:00 p.m., the entire group reconvened and picked up our reservation/seating passes, left our belongings at the security check and passed through the metal detector into the gallery. Very few MLAs were in session on each side of the house. It almost seemed as if the MLAs asking questions were positioned in relation to the MLAs behind and beside them in a way such that when the Hansard TV camera was on each of the speakers it appeared as if more MLAs were in the house.
Private members speeches about National School Library Day were given by MLA Ron Cantelon and MLA Diane Thorne (Coquitlam/ Maillardville). We were happy to hear that Ron Cantelon’s daughter-in-law is a teacher-librarian and that Ron supported DEAR. Diane’s speech presented a thorough understanding of the role of school library programs, mentioning inquiry and critical thinking.
As an aside, we were joined in the gallery by individuals introduced as leading members of the technology industry as well as the leader and deputy leader of the BC Green Party. Kevin Krueger, in his non-answering of questions about the effects of the HST on the tourism industry, mentioned that he had just met with the technology group and that they had told him that they “love the HST”! At this, members of the technology group in the public gallery burst out laughing.
The BCTLA team felt quite at home at the legislature and used every resource in our lobby efforts. We think the BCTF was very well-served by letting a group of teacher-librarians loose on the legislature building. The team proved very resourceful, one of many speciality-area-related capacities, including also a propensity for information seeking and provision, which was employed during the day.
We felt that the visit was very valuable and we look forward to the BCTF pursuing more opportunities to work directly with MLAs, including providing the Opposition with information about cuts to the K–12 system and statistics that may assist the Opposition in their efforts in Question Period and in estimates debates. We were pleased to see this as focus in the BCTF Executive key decisions from October 21–22, 2009.
We were very happy to be able to bring our knowledge to the table in support of BCTF, BCTLA, and K–12 public education in general, and thank the BCTF for supporting our lobbying visit. We look forward to more of our members meeting with MLAs in ridings when the current session breaks. We hope next year to have National School Library Day finally proclaimed, and will begin work early on more MLAs’ participation in DEAR. We do hope that next year they will read in the legislature (not just loudly thump their desks and voice agreement when the suggestion was made that the MLAs read after question period).
Representing BCTLA through the BCTF: Heather Daly (BCTLA president), Karen Lindsay (BCTLA vice-president Advocacy),Moira Ekdahl (BCTLA liaison chair), Val Hamilton (BCTLA web steward), Michele Farquharson (BCTLA continuing education co-chair), Sandra Hedley, Kathy Inglis, Geoff Orme, Pat Parungao (former BCTLA president), Mark Roberts (former BCTLA president), and Cheriee Weichel.
