Territorial teachers: Union vs Union warfare

Full-day kindergarten taught by a combination of teachers and early childhood educators would be a vast improvement over the hodge-podge of school, daycare and babysitting that currently makes up the day of many four- and five-year-old children. It is disappointing that Ontario's elementary teachers don't see it that way.

The Ontario government's promise to implement full-day kindergarten and junior kindergarten has become controversial. Charles Pascal, who is advising Premier Dalton McGuinty, suggested some creative ways to implement the program -- including the use of early childhood educators as well as teachers, and holding some classes in sites other than schools.

The teachers' union, jealously protecting its turf, has responded with concern. They want only "certified" teachers running the classroom, even though many instructors with an early childhood education designation would be just fine teaching four- and five-year-olds. If we were ECE instructors, we'd be insulted at the union's suggestion that we're good mainly for providing child care before class begins and after it ends.

The union is particularly out of touch in its suggestion most parents will reject Mr. Pascal's model. As it stands, half-day kindergarten and junior kindergarten is the bane of working parents' existence. It involves getting young children to school for 21/2 hours of education, then whisked to a babysitter (or someplace) for lunch and an afternoon of daycare that is tough to find and whose quality varies widely. The logistics and expenses are a nightmare.

Lucky children, whose parents have the resources, already enjoy full-day kindergarten, either at private schools or fancy daycares staffed with, yes, early childhood educators. The proposed Ontario plan would put the most vulnerable children on equal footing and should be welcomed by parents and teachers.

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