Letters, Aug. 27

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/08/2025 (213 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Selecting teacher candidates

Re: Province tackles teacher turnover (Aug. 26)

As an educator with a number of years teaching in northern communities, I read the article with a great deal of interest.

As mentioned, the problems with teacher retention and student achievement have been ongoing.

I would welcome this initiative with a couple of caveats. First, care should be taken to select candidates who are highly motivated as well as numerate and literate.

Secondly I would recommend that teacher candidates complete their practicum in public schools in urban centres. This serves two purposes — exposing the candidates to a variety of educational practices which are generally not seen on the reserve and providing a role model for urban students and teachers.

I would also like to see some First Nations/Northern schools develop as best-practice schools.

Kathleen Little

Winnipeg

Pandemic’s impact

Re: Supporting the right to read for all (Aug. 25)

Jon Gerrard makes excellent points about the connections between appropriately supporting students, especially those with learning disabilities, and positive behavioural outcomes. Our political leaders ignore this knowledge at our collective peril.

But it is also vital to note that a growing body of research now points to COVID-19 infections, even mild ones, as a factor in psycho-emotional changes throughout the population, including in youth. As an illness with well-documented neurological effects, COVID can produce detectable changes in the regions of the brain associated with behaviour (such as impulse control), in addition to its more widely recognized effects on memory and concentration.

We cannot consider youth behaviour without also reflecting on the contribution of multiple rounds of COVID infection on the developing brains that dwell behind the unmasked faces of those we are sending back to school in the coming days, as COVID levels once again begin to surge throughout North America.

Failing to protect children and adolescents from the ongoing pandemic leaves a legacy etched into growing bodies and minds.

Kristen Hardy

Winnipeg

Firefighters’ duties

Re: St. Vital fire station temporarily closed (Aug. 18)

In viewing this article focused on the availability of fire/paramedic services in south Winnipeg, I wondered if the recent fire event and property loss situation and the late arrival of fire crews was the result of pumper units having already been deployed on medical calls. Current practice is to simultaneously dispatch both fire trucks and paramedic units to deal with such calls.

The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service incident response report on the city’s website declares that over 100,000 fire department service calls are made annually, most of them being medical response calls. With virtually all the calls also being attended by both fire and paramedic crews, the monetary cost to the city and its taxpayers must be staggering. And it would be sad indeed if property fire loss is added to that cost as the result of this practice, and tragic if there are lives lost in those fires.

Jack Goodman

Winnipeg

Challenges for families

Re: Affordable child care space meaningless for families unable to find space (Aug. 22)

Tom Brodbeck’s recent opinion piece raises important concerns about the challenges, federally, provincially and territorially, to deliver on their promises of accessible, affordable child care for Manitoban — and Canadian — families.

However, while the lack of available spaces is urgent, we must not lose sight of the broader and equally critical goal: building a quality early learning and child care system within a coherent policy framework. Measuring success solely by the number of new spaces, as politicians and citizens so often do, is short-sighted. Expansion without aligned policies and a well-supported, well-trained workforce undermines the very objective of providing meaningful early learning experiences.

As highlighted in the Atkinson Centre’s Newsletter of Aug.21 — Patchwork to Policy Coherence: Building Coherent ECE Systems — Canada’s early childhood education (ECE) landscape remains fragmented. Access, affordability, and quality vary significantly across regions due to inconsistent regulations, wage disparities, and uneven educator training requirements. The lack of a unified system leads to consequences that go beyond inefficiency — it directly impacts children, families, and the ECE workforce.

Without robust workforce development, expansion outpaces staffing capacity. Programs open without enough qualified educators, children miss out on quality care, and educators continue to face low wages, minimal professional recognition, and little say in system design.

On this point, we — I write as interim CEO of the Canadian Child Care Federation — strongly agree with Brodbeck’s conclusion: governments must get serious about workforce development. It’s not just about creating more spaces — it’s about creating better ones.

Marni Flaherty

Ottawa, Ont.

Sorry state of facilities

Anyone travelling from Winnipeg eastward on the TransCanada highway may have the need to stop at the Pinegrove rest stop. This is a very busy spot but the condition of the ladies rest room is deplorable.

There are two toilets, one of which has been out of order all summer and the door on the other cubicle (the handicap one) does not close. This is a disgrace! Surely we can do better than this for our regular travellers and visitors to our beautiful province.

Margaret Scott

Winnipeg

Time for national service

Re: The benefits of national service (Think Tank, Aug. 23)

David McLaughlin’s op-ed, The benefits of national service, looks like one of those ideas whose time has come. At a time when unemployment among young people is very high, it would afford an opportunity for meaningful work and experience to those need it.

It would also be an opportunity to foster understanding and build relationships between people with differing ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds. There is no better way to for example understand the perspectives of Indigenous people than to spend some time with them, working side-by-side.

And it might help to get some folks off the streets and back into mainstream society. Great idea!

Tom Pearson

Winnipeg

The needs of dyslexic students

Re: “What it means to be literate” (Letters, Aug. 23)

Thank you to writer Natalie Riediger for speaking on behalf of the dyslexic community and asking Ken Clark and all other educators, retired or otherwise, to focus on the issue of teaching reading and writing in the most effective way.

It’s laughable, and frankly abhorrent that the province of Manitoba, all school divisions and teachers are even spending time debating what needs to be done in this province to effectively teach all students to read and write. The research is clear. Other jurisdictions have already begun changing to structured literacy.

Our province and our school divisions are kicking this issue down the road and failing our students every single day. When we know better, we do better. Our province now knows better and is refusing to do better. Families need to unite and hold this province accountable for the failure and gross neglect of our children.

The disparity in literacy rates correlates to income because families who can afford expensive assessments and tutors can remove the barrier to literacy for their children. Access to this fundamental human right should not depend on income. Dyslexia affects one in five people.

This is not a small problem.

Jennifer Rodrigue

Winnipeg