In our petition we talk about support for and improved implementation of Distance Learning. This does not mean privatisation and massification of class planning via Online Platforms such as Edgenuity.

These are part of the questionable efforts to cut costs, eliminate teachers and to privatize public education via corporate curriculum.

This is one of the political dangers of COVID-19 and societies reactions to it.
We should not allow for profit corporations to literally teach our students and replace teachers as they do so.

For the sake of our society and profession, academic freedom to design and implement our own lesson must be vigorously defended.

There are problems with online platforms.

#1. Devalue Teacher’s Role:
All of the curriculum is pre made, presentations and assessment. Even the work is graded for teachers.
Students just click through videos of other teachers explaining the content and complete edgenuity assessments at their own pace.

It makes one cringe as a teacher watching the most basic, white washed presentations of subject matter.

This is not good for promoting critical thinking or connecting with our students' daily realities.

#2. Live instruction is reduced to giving instructions and trouble shooting edgenuity.

Teachers can clarify content but a teacher’s role becomes secondary to the corporate canned curriculum.

#3 Also students are working on different lessons at different times, so it is difficult to create community in your classroom.

We can not allow districts, unions and teachers to relax thinking that their whole year is planned out for them!

We must consider how much this will change and devalue what we do and the implications for a wider society instructed by multi million corporations.

We want and support authentic online instruction with teacher control and options over curriculum design.