Time’s up. When Kathleen Wynne became premier last month she vowed to reach out urgently to restore extracurriculars. Elementary teachers promised to hear her out and decide by March l.

Now we have an answer: They can’t be counted on to come through for kids — no matter how much they talk it up about talking it out in a “respectful process.”

Both sides are talking in circles. And leaving kids in a cul-de-sac.

The term is nearly half over. Yet the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) persists in sticking it to students, holding after-school activities hostage. By digging in its heels, ETFO is giving students the back of its hand.

Sports may be outside the formal curriculum, but they shouldn’t be treated as optional “extras.” The reality, after decades of customary practice, is that they are in-school, not merely after-school activities.

There are no quick fixes, but ETFO has unintentionally made the case that the status quo no longer works. Just as the health sector is facing radical reforms and the media world is being turned upside down, we cannot continue along the same path in the schoolyard just because that’s the way things were always done.

Public school teachers have allowed their union to bamboozle (if not bully) them into an organized protest — a union-directed withdrawal of services during the school day. Whether you call it work to rule or “volunteer to rule” is splitting semantic and pedagogical hairs. ETFO president Sam Hammond assured me last month that it was just a matter of days (March 1) until matters were resolved.

Now Hammond is Ontario’s sole outlier. ETFO continues to hold out, while accusing other unions of selling out.

A smart, tough and far more seasoned union leader (who shall remain nameless) described to me the despair within the labour movement over ETFO’s self-righteous, self-defeating tactics: You don’t whip your members into a frenzy of indignation without a reasonable prospect of achieving concessions at the end of negotiations. Otherwise, you can never talk your members down from the ledge when the inevitable time comes to compromise.

Perhaps ETFO will come to its senses in a few weeks, as Hammond keeps hinting. I certainly hope so, for the sake of students. Either way, his actions have made a compelling case for no longer leaving students at the mercy of irresponsible union tactics.

Last week, the opposition Tories proposed new rules to make teachers more accountable for writing report cards, providing remedial help, and meeting parents. They also want to limit a union’s power to exploit extracurricular activities during labour disputes.

When the Tory motion came to a vote last week, high school teachers had just called off their boycott and ETFO seemed likely to follow suit. Against that backdrop, the Liberals joined with New Democrats to vote down the proposals. Two days later, elementary teachers refused to play ball — with the government, or with students.

If the Tories ever win power, those reforms will be on the agenda. But the Liberals, too, should be held to account: Wynne made a pledge to parents, and the onus is on her to deliver.

After all, it was Wynne who, as education minister in 2009, weakened the education act by taking out language requiring teachers to perform “co-instructional tasks” related to their jobs. That came back to haunt her at a recent Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) hearing, where an ETFO lawyer said Wynne’s 2009 move gave his union free rein to boycott.

If the OLRB falls for that lawyerly line of reasoning in its upcoming ruling — that teachers need not collect milk money, let alone meet parents at a convenient time, or organize field trips — it will create an opening for Wynne to undo her mistake.

Rather than wait until the next inevitable boycott, now is the time to rethink the work day in our schools. A 2001 report to government suggested reorganizing teachers’ schedules and compensation to reward those who choose to coach. Time for an update.

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There are no easy answers, but here’s one question that won’t go away (whether or not ETFO comes around): Shall we cling to a 1950s model of voluntarism for today’s students, when everyone agrees that extracurricular activities are a vital part of the school day?

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