Premier Doug Ford’s “snitch line” shows a disturbing lack of respect for elementary school teachers, but it is not surprising. Former Premier Mike Harris’s government showed a similar hatred of teachers. This decision reflects a long-standing undervaluing of elementary school teachers by all political parties, the public and parents.

Education is the only profession run by the province through a long and complicated bureaucracy. It reflects the importance of education to future society. Elementary school teachers have always been and still are 80 per cent women, who are historically expected to be dutiful, obedient and respectful.

Elementary teaching has always been the lowest paid and least valued profession reflecting this. It is an anachronism in this regard. Respect is relative to the age of the students you teach. This attitude still pervades education. Education is infused with patriarchy.

Elementary schools remain to this day the most political area of education. Every aspect of the job is dictated by the province. Despite having evolved into a formal profession with all the trappings of one, elementary school teaching is still very controlled and dominated in every way by outside sources.

Teachers have little say over what they teach, how they teach it or why. They just implement. This value orientation is rooted in archaic misogyny and patriarchy. It is oriented in a historical view of women’s place as being in the home. Teaching was women’s work. They were (and are) viewed as glorified governesses even today, to be seen and not heard. Parents controlled education, but as elementary teachers became more well educated, parental control was lost.

In the 1970s, the parents’ return to power was marked by the increasingly politicized control of schools by a small minority of disgruntled parents. They began their rise to power when the province capitulated and instituted parent councils as a vehicle for “empowering” parents. The decision moved them out of the role of organizing pizza days for students to advocating for a variety of political issues.

Trustees took an active role in this. Councils changed overnight from passive, polite and courteous meetings of women (there were and are few men involved) to tense, often vicious meetings of a select group of parents with an axe to grind. These parents did not represent the community.

Few people attended council meetings other than those involved and, occasionally, school staff. Principals were often targeted. They were considered guilty until proven innocent. In an increasingly politicized school environment, board administrators accepted parents’ views as fact with little or no investigation. Schools became war zones. Most parents didn’t know what was going on.

With the institution of the “snitch line,” parents are triumphant once again. Uneducated and untrained “parents” will now dictate the sex-ed curriculum (and anything else) to the professional teachers or report them directly to the Ministry of Education, bypassing discussion with the teacher, the principal, the school board, professional organizations and trustees. Board administrators remain dutifully silent at this outrage.

The thin veil of professionalism has been pulled back. It is now about raw authority and power. The thin illusion of professional discussion and conduct is gone. The minority rules. Teachers are being told to toe-the-line. This is a dictatorship, not a democratically elected government. If teachers did this there would be hell to pay.

Contrast this with the traditional professions. Would we ever see Doug Ford ride roughshod over doctors or lawyers in this manner? In these fields the costs and problems are much more serious when things go wrong, yet they are allowed to do as they please and govern their own affairs through their professional organizations. Police officers and firefighters are equally sacrosanct.

Are snitch lines coming to an operating room, a courthouse, a police station or office near you? Don’t count on it.

Although most elementary educators are highly qualified and intensively trained on a regular basis throughout their careers, they are treated like recalcitrant children and not allowed to make professional decisions about anything.

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Robert Bahlieda is a retired elementary school principal with 37 years’ experience in education in Ontario.

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