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Previous Generations Built Our Profession And Our Country
There are several important reminders in this issue of the ATA Magazine. Alberta teachers’ pension benefits are secure; the pension promise is real. It’s not too early to start planning for retirement—to make financial plans and to think about life after active service in the profession. (In fact, it’s also clear that the earlier one makes financial plans, the better.) It’s one of life’s great transitions.
Retirement benefits have been secured for Alberta’s teachers over many decades. It took many years of lobbying to finally establish the Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund Board in 1939, and plan improvements have been negotiated. Retirement at age 65 has been augmented with early retirement options and cost of living adjustments have been improved, among other things. Security in retirement is considered to be a normal product of a successful career in teaching.
I have great respect for Alberta’s retired teachers. Over my years with the Alberta Teachers’ Association, I have had the opportunity to attend some events organized by the Alberta Retired Teachers’ Association (ARTA). I’ve met teachers who taught me, a graduate of the Lethbridge Public School District No. 51, and helped make me the person I am. I’ve met up again with teachers who served as Association representatives on various government and ATA committees. I’ve met up again with my retired colleagues and with my colleagues around the Provincial Executive Council table.
Generation after generation, these are the teachers who have built our profession. Who pressed for legislated minimum salaries for teachers? For contracts of employment? For security of tenure? Who made the case for a pension plan for teachers? Who pushed the merits of collective bargaining? The teachers who served before us.
And who pushed government to close normal schools and establish teacher preparation programs in universities, like other professions? Who planned and delivered teachers’ conventions and specialist council conferences? Who worked on curriculum writing committees? Who marked examinations? Who revised teacher education programs? Who went on strike for improved conditions of professional practice? Who lobbied school boards and government for improved classroom resources?
We always stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. But colleagues, it doesn’t really stop there. Alberta’s retired teachers have not only built our profession, they have also helped to build our province and our country. Teachers are a mainstay in our democratic institutions and have helped to build communities across the province. A column in the ATA Magazine in the early 1940s regularly reported the names of teachers who left their classrooms to serve in the Second World War. My father’s name was listed in this column “For King and Country” in 1942. I always feel very humbled when I attend an ARTA event—I’m surrounded by colleagues who have truly made a difference to our profession, our community, our province and our country.
I announced my own retirement plans this past month. A selection process is now underway to name a new executive secretary and a period of transition will begin in 2017. I will retire on Jan. 31, 2018. That will be almost 41 years in the teaching profession and 34 years with the Association, including more than 15 years as the Association’s chief executive officer. That should be enough. My wife constantly asks me what I will do in retirement.
“All you do, Gordon, is work for the ATA morning, noon and night,” she intoned moments ago, as I completed work on this column at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night.
Transitions always have a few bumps, and I expect my retirement transitions will too. But like many others who are ready to pull the pin, I do look forward to a new chapter. And I’m enormously grateful to generations of Alberta’s teachers who have helped to put in place our retirement benefits, and have built our profession and our Association. And they haven’t stopped there—they’ve improved our communities, our province, our country and they have protected our democracy.
