Physical Education Curriculum and the cuts to schools. Parent groups across the province have developed resources, tool kits, letters, petitions and other materials demonstrating to the government that they cannot divide parents from educators.
HOW DO WE BUILD CONNECTIONS?
Figuring out how to start building connec- tions with our parent and other communi- ties can feel challenging. What is the first step? Can we talk with parents about the is- sues we see in our schools on school board property? Will this be interpreted as being critical of our employers? Can we wear but- tons and hand out leaflets at our schools? Is asking parents to sign a petition acceptable? In Toronto, we’ve
tried different ap-
proaches, some more successful than others. It took a while to learn that school-based, teacher-led organizing could be more pow- erful than events organized by the local, but there is a place for both. The voices and experiences of class-
room teachers who have done this work are inspiring and demonstrate that, al- though there may be hurdles, these can be overcome. The benefit is incredible, from increasing the confidence of members to share their stories to building powerful al- liances from the ground up.
LOCAL LEVEL ORGANIZING
Site-based outreach to parents is incredibly important. One-on-one conversations with parents builds relationships that can’t be achieved by the few elected people in the lo- cal union office. But we’ve also tried to sup- port and encourage our alliances centrally. At our first meeting of the Political Ac-
tion Political Education Committee (PA/ PE) this year, we spent some time sharing what we considered the biggest threats un- der the Ford government and the stakes for our local, for our members and for working people in general. Our planning as a committee is grounded
in the belief that the majority of families in Ontario will not permit the privatization of our public school system. One of our initiatives was a teacher/
parent network that connected the parent groups organically springing up across the city. We knew we had something special when the inaugural meeting of the GTA Parent Action Network took place on the day of one of the worst – if not the worst – snow storms of the winter. Twenty-five teachers, parents, grandparents and stu-
ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ FEDERATION OF ONTARIO 29
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