Teachers, students react to possible return of extracurriculars
Posted February 22, 2013 9:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – The news that Ontario’s secondary school teachers are being asked to resume extracurricular activities is exciting for the province’s students, who say they are thrilled to get back to after school clubs and teams.
“I feel happy and fine because it really sucked not having extra curricular activities,” a Jarvis Collegiate student told CityNews Channel. “This is going to help a lot of kids [in their] academic life and outside of school as well.”
Annie Kidder, the executive director of People for Education, told 680News, this is a positive step.
“(Extracurriculars) are an incredibly important part of students’ education,” Kidder said. “There’s lot of research that shows that this makes a difference in the students level of engagement in school, and that engagement makes a difference to how they do in school.”
“It’s certainly going to make a big difference for students and it’s going to make a big difference to how parents are feeling, who have been dismayed with disruptions at school.”
However, some teachers say they have mixed emotions, despite looking forward to going back.
“For me, bringing it back would be awesome. I love to do that stuff with my students and just see them in a different light. It’d be nice to have them back,” one high school teacher told 680News.
“At the same time, if they don’t, I would stand in solidarity with my fellow brothers and sisters and not do any extracurriculars,” she added. “Sometimes, [dropping extracurriculars is] just our one and only way of getting the point across.”
One teachers tweet read “absence of extracurriculars made me realize just how much extra work teachers do w/out pay! Why should they?!,” while another tweeted “why should they?? Have I missed something and things have changed? What’s different that they should give more of their time for free?”
Other teachers said they do not plan on returning to extracurricular duties without contracts that have been bargained and not imposed.
