SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

2010 In Review

It's a good time to look back over the last year's education successes - so, here for the record, is a list of all the education improvements that parents and teachers were blessed with in Ontario during 2010. 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year fellow Groundhog Day cast members!

I’ve been involved in education reform since the late 1970s when my wife and I, both former teachers and suspicious of the instructional methods being used in local Winnipeg schools, taught our kids to read at home (thank you, Sidney Ledson). Fast forward more than 30 years and I’m sitting with my granddaughter who is in JK in Kitchener going over her homework reading assignment. The text in the workbook she is reading is, understandably, monosyllabic. But after we navigate past tap, map, and nap, little Estelle is confronted with the word “triangle” (I kid you not!) But it’s OK because the publisher has printed a drawing of a triangle right above the word! Déjà vu! The reality for those involved in challenging our public schools to be better is that each New Year for us is like another day for poor Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day. Things are particularly trying as we start 2011 because the media and much of the public have concluded, based on things like the PISA test results, that we don’t have a problem in our schools. However, as countless anecdotes like mine above, pleas from frustrated parents, and continuing complaints from college and university educators attest, there IS a need for improvement in some fundamental areas. One prediction that I can confidently make for the New Year is that there will be a continuing need for groups like the SQE to provide parents with help for their children and to continue to challenge the education establishment. Your contributions to the discourse on these necessary changes is greatly appreciated -- even if you don't agree with us! On a personal note, may 2011 be the best year ever for all of you blog readers and participants.