Many Alberta students are sleeping in these days, struggling with the feeling that they should be doing something else.
A province-wide teachers’ strike, about to enter its second week, has meant that some 750,000 children have not had to set their morning alarms, take buses or prepare lunches.
Declan Reid, 15, has taken it one day at a time, seeing friends and attending an impromptu soccer camp organized by local coaches not affiliated with his Edmonton high school.
The rookie linebacker said suspending his team’s games because of the strike isn’t ideal, but he feels more sorry for the older players who are already halfway through their final season.
“These last few weeks could be really beneficial for them,” he said.
“Put out their tapes for the universities to see and see if they’ll look at them.
“For me I always wanted to play football. Now it’s a bit sad.”
Thousands of people with flags and picket signs gathered in Edmonton and Calgary on Sunday. The demonstration was in support of public education, ahead of a possible teachers’ strike on October 6.
A second week out of school could be different, he said, as he plans to return to his 10th grade studies at least for a little while each day if the strike continues.
“Obviously you want to have time off from school, but it’s also like there’s a void in your day,” he said.
“I support what [teachers] We’re doing it, but I just hope it doesn’t last long.”
He is not the only one.
Adilee Verburg, an eighth-grade student in Red Deer, about 150 kilometers south of Edmonton, has mostly been hanging out with friends and reading, but it could get boring if the strike days keep piling up.
“There’s really not much to do right now,” said Adilee, whose mother is a teacher. “I’m hoping it’s all over.
“I feel like if the government listened to the teachers, all of this wouldn’t be happening now and we would be back in school as usual.”
The labor action by 51,000 teachers is considered the largest strike in provincial history.
The first formal bargaining meeting since the strike began on Oct. 6 will take place Tuesday between the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the government’s negotiating team.
Finance Minister Nate Horner said last week the province had received a complex counteroffer from the union and it would be the subject of Tuesday’s talks.
A previous government offer on the table, overwhelmingly rejected last month by teachers, included a 12 percent pay rise over four years and a promise to hire 3,000 additional teachers to address overcrowded classrooms.
Premier Danielle Smith’s government has repeatedly said the offer was fair and would address issues raised by teachers.
Union President Jason Schilling has said that 3,000 more teachers are a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed, and that the number should be closer to 5,000.
Union spokeswoman Heather Grant declined to provide details about the union’s latest proposal. He said last week that exchanging offers is one aspect of the negotiation and that the two sides are meeting to move forward.
For Sloane Laurence, 10, a fifth-grade French immersion student in Red Deer, the strike happened just as she was starting to enjoy school for the first time, so she hasn’t stopped studying.
He completed a map of Canada that he started in class just before the strike began and is preparing to learn multiplication next week.
“That’s one of the things my teacher told us to do,” Sloane said, adding with a smile that multiplication could be daunting, since she’s only “somewhat” good at math.
He misses his friends and his teacher, whom he credits with making school something he is not afraid of.
“My teacher is actually very kind and very funny,” he said.
“Every year before fifth grade, I never wanted to go to school. But fifth grade was really fun for me.”
Red Deer student Lillie Fulton, 13, admitted she’s not the biggest fan of school and is enjoying the time off, but doesn’t want to be away for much longer.
“I want to go back to school because it gets me up in the morning,” he said.
Her five-year-old sister Vylett has just started kindergarten and is worried about her teacher. Every night he asks his mother what is going to happen.
Melissa Qerimi, a Grade 10 student at the Alberta School for the Deaf in Edmonton, wrote in an email that the first week of the strike was really stressful as she tried to catch up on her homework.
A possible second week out of school seems like more of the same, he said.
“I’ll probably even start learning the next units or chapters of each of my subjects,” Melissa said, adding that she feels the stress of schoolwork without support from teachers.
“At the same time, I fully support teachers: they have the right to strike,” he said.
“They are some of the hardest working people I have ever seen and they deserve what they are asking from the government.”
