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In the spirit of open conversation and to support an array of perspectives, Professionally Speaking welcomes letters to the editor. The opinions expressed in letters are solely those of the authors and should not be interpreted as the view of the College. We reserve the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Letters should be sent to ps@oct.ca, be in response to content in the magazine and include the writer's phone number and registration number.
According to Statistics Canada's 2016 Census, 29 percent of Ontarians identify as visible minorities. In the March 2020 article "Teaching Through the Decades," not one visible minority group is represented, nor teachers representing any cities with populations larger than 120,000. How can we talk about how classrooms have changed in the past half century if we don't represent the variety of perspectives within our communities? How can we ignore the largest cities in the province and a third of our population and claim to discuss our "ever-changing profession"? The lack of representation is discouraging and paints a false picture.
While teaching has changed greatly, sadly many one-sided perspectives have not.
Bhumika Munroe, OCT, is a Grade 7/8 teacher at Whaley's Corners Public School with the Peel District School Board.
Editor's Response: Professionally Speaking is committed to promoting and reflecting the province's diversity in education through intent, images and language. While this article did profile teachers of different ages, in a range of locations, in English- and French-language boards, and at Catholic and secular schools, we recognize there is a cultural diversity that we did not include. We endeavour to ensure the publication is inclusive and will be more conscious in our consideration of representational criteria going forward.