The ATA News , February 17, 2026 ❚ 3
Stranger things in Swifty times From one generation of teachers to the next
VIEWPOINTS
Nicholas Rickards Teacher and university lecturer
N ew bachelor of education graduates beginning their teaching careers in 2026 will, give or take a few years, be retiring en masse around the year 2060. Sit with that for a moment. 2060. By then, the fears and elations around artificial intelligence will no longer be speculative. The stock market will have inflated and collapsed a few more bubbles (assuming capitalism exists at all). Defining conflicts—Sudan, Palestine, Ukraine—will have reached their conclusions. The fate of the global climate crisis will be clear. And the present world will be catalogued into university syllabi for preservice teachers and incorporated into new provincial curriculum delivered by practising teachers. In Alberta classrooms, the story of this province will be taught as part of a broader Canadian saga, however exciting or boring it may be. Forces shaping our current political climate—the 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, threats to Canadian sovereignty, the renewed hope in our prime minister, the Alberta separatist referendum, even the Great Alberta Teachers’Strike of 2025—will become case studies for the student in the back of a Social 30 class, whose learning is supported by technology so advanced it is incomprehensible to us. It’s a useful thought experiment. Give it a try. It’s 2060. Alberta’s Gen Z teachers are entering retirement. Taylor Swift is turning 68. Super Bowl XCII (92) is on. Stranger Things (2016–2025) is remembered as a weird show teachers once watched on their ancient iPhones when they were young adults. Millennials, meanwhile, are well past their golden years. By then, Boomers have been usurped by a new gerontocracy: millennials. Many of our elder millennial peers have been drawing from the AlbertaTeachers’Retirement Fund for years, sustained in no small part by the Gen Z colleagues with whom they once shared staff rooms. And that’s the point we too often miss: generations in education need
each other. Millennial teachers would do well to remember that we didn’t arrive fully formed. We inherited a public education system shaped by those who came before us. At the same time, we’ve been around the block ourselves. If we take stock, we’ve accumulated enough brick- and-mortar experience to build a bridge for the next generation of teachers—to help them understand the state of public education and where it might be headed. Millennials began our teaching careers during the Great Recession and the Occupy movement. We navigated two Trump presidencies, the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of social media, the peak use of smartphones in classrooms (hard to believe, right?), the vaping epidemic, the introduction of AI and the largest teachers’strike in Alberta’s history— all within a 15-year period.That’s not only a decent résumé; it’s also a living archive for understanding the public education system. Today, we work alongside Gen Z colleagues who will one day fund our pensions while inheriting the schools, systems and policies we help shape. They will bring new perspectives, new tools and new questions. Millennials are no longer the new teachers on the block. We bring a wealth of experience to our colleagues as mentors, school leaders and educational researchers, and we have a responsibility to share what we know, impart what we’ve learned and listen to our colleagues. That means offering guidance without gatekeeping, learning without defensiveness and remembering that the future of Alberta’s public education system is not something Gen Z teachers will inherit alone. The next generation of teachers will shape public education with what we give and leave them—and put their own spin on it. Nicholas Rickards is a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellow and PhD Candidate at Brock University. He proudly teaches rowdy and rambunctious middle schoolers in Lethbridge, Alberta.
YOUR VIEWS
We asked, how is your classroom or school marking Pink Shirt Day (which is coming up on Feb. 25)?
Andrea Riquelme Our leadership students are planning activities and the assembly! Jkrawetz Books, songs, writing, crafts, sharing, a schoolwide assembly led by students, wearing pink! Caleb Koning I wear my pink shirt with my pink tie and have my kids reflect on why Pink Shirt Day is a thing.
Shawnaleeah By wearing pink(!) and reading lots of books about friendship and kindness Ricercatore Our Parent Council provides parfaits after a schoolwide activity on kindness. Alisha Shaikh Creative mural, pink shirt art, kindness tree
FOR THE RECORD
To the students, the teachers, the parents, every resident of Tumbler Ridge, all of Canada stands with you. May the memories of those lost be a blessing. May this community, which has shown its resilience so many times before, once again find the strength to heal. And may this House prove worthy of what Tumbler Ridge has always been, by striving to make Canada a better, kinder and safer place.
Millennial teachers would do well to remember that we didn’t arrive fully formed. We inherited a public education system shaped by those who came before us.
— Prime Minister Mark Carney in the House of Commons on Feb. 11 addressing the tragedy in Tumbler Ridge
Opinions expressed on this page represent the views of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Alberta Teachers’ Association.
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