BCTF Streetcorner Schoolhouses

Ken Novakowski (Bargaining Staff, BC Teachers’ Federation) [00:00:01] At this particular summer conference, because of what was happening, the focus was on all the cutbacks to education and how this was hurting our schools. And Larry Kuehn, our president of the day, came up with this idea. It was his idea to have these street corner schoolhouses. So we created mock schoolhouses, like we actually had huge cardboard framed schoolhouses, and on a particular day during the summer conference in the middle of August, we invaded downtown Vancouver. We took these schoolhouses to every corner. That’s why we called them street corner schoolhouses. To every corner in Vancouver. We had the schoolhouse in front of us, and there’d be four or five of us behind the schoolhouse, handing out literature, talking to people as they walked by.

 [00:00:52] And the response we got was unbelievable. It was overwhelming. It was just, people were upset with what was happening, and it was visible even there. I can remember as we were walking with the schoolhouse I was carrying, because I was staff, and we were walking down the street in downtown Vancouver and this bus driver, this bus goes by and the bus driver honks the horn and waves. And you know, they were, everybody was sort of on side. They knew what was happening. They were opposed to what was happening and they were exhibiting it in all kinds of ways. So, the street corner schoolhouses were fantastic, and we talked to thousands and thousands of people, gave them leaflets and information and, and it was very, very successful. But it was again, as you said, an example of people using creative ways to reach out and talk to others about what was going on.