Does A Leopard Change Its Spots?
At the time in our lives when Oxford Dictionary is defining “post-truth” as the international word of the year, those of us who do care about truth owe it to our values and the validity of “truth” itself to challenge post-truth narratives. I found this Globe & Mail editorial seriously stretching believability.
Why, for example, say that this was a “long-drawn-out conflict” that started in 2001? In the very next sentence it is stated that “normal” is a “series of skirmishes”. Yes, normal is just that. It has been well chronicled by historian, Thomas Fleming ,in his book Worlds Apart: BC Schools, Politics and Labour Relations Before and After 1972. These disruptive skirmishes have been going on for over 4 decades!
And why does the editorial make it sound like the government started this “bitter class struggle”? On page 76 of Fleming’s book we read: “As the federation’s militancy intensified in the 1970s, its willingness to confront the provincial government increased. Election of the ‘radical Marxist’ Jim MacFarlan, to use Johnson’s description, as federation president between 1973 and 1975 brought a new class-consciousness to the BCTF’s executive office . . . MacFarlan and his supporters believed schools should be used as instruments of social change . . . “ Just who is provoking whom? Fleming describes in his short little book how the BCTF has engaged in battles with whichever political party was in charge, regardless of political stripe, be it Social Credit, NDP or Liberal.
It is time for us to re-read this terse history of our incessant school wars. Sure, there may be a lull while Supreme Court instructions are being worked out. But, does a leopard change its spots? The book, Worlds Apart, is in its second edition and available from info@deepcovebooks.ca.
G&M editorial, Nov 15, Bad faith, bad form, in BC school politics — http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/bad-faith-bad-form-in-bc-school-politics/article32865951/comments/