Unfair term

Dear editor:
The purpose of this letter is to clarify a few misconceptions about the secondary occasional teachers.
First of all, we are not all retirees. I, personally, graduated university with a BA/BEd in May, 2005. I moved here with my husband in August, 2005 because the Rainy River District School Board advertised in the Thunder Bay paper for (literally) months saying that they needed occasional teachers.
I was excited to return to my hometown. I was excited to begin working for the same school board that had provided me with such a wonderful educational experience as I was growing up.
My expectation was to be treated positively, fairly, and according to standards similar to those of other school boards in this province. I was disappointed.
The working conditions I frequently was subjected to left me exhausted—physically, mentally, and emotionally. Although I loved my work (and still do), the working conditions were really difficult to live with.
Before and after school, conditions also were difficult because my husband was unable to find work and it is incredibly difficult to support a household on an occasional teacher’s salary.
An occasional teacher has very few guarantees. I am not guaranteed to work at all in any given month. I do not receive benefits (I could go on and on about the lack of guarantees for occasional teachers, but I will not subject you to that).
This strike is about getting just one thing out of this board that I can be sure of. That is, this strike is about guaranteeing secondary occasional teachers a decent daily wage that keeps up with the cost of inflation.
The easiest and fairest way to do that is to tie our wages to those of the regular teachers (please note: even if this did happen, our wage still would not match that of the lowest-paid teacher on the teachers’ grid).
As an occasional teacher, I frequently have been called in as early as 6:45 a.m. I have taken over classes for weeks on short notice and with little preparation time. I have taught classes at all levels (Grades 9-12 essential, applied, and academic). And I have taken over classes that even a very experienced teacher would find challenging.
I have planned class periods and marked assignments. I have given up lunch hours to help struggling students. I have offered up my out-of-class time to the students that I have taught—even though I am not their regular classroom teacher.
The term “occasional teacher” is not even a fair one because, as any teacher knows, you can’t just turn off your commitment to education when school hours are over; even if, as in my case, you don’t have a full-time, permanent teaching contract.
Yours sincerely,
Tara M. Hahkala-Crawford,
BA/BEd,
Fort Frances, Ont.