SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

What’s more important - teaching spelling or combating homophobia?

The mayor may have stayed away from Toronto's Gay Pride Parade yesterday, but it wasn't for lack of trying on the part of the Toronto District School Board. As this link shows, the Tedious Board had a contingent in the parade, which they encouraged students and staff members to participate in, and they also worked hard to "increase their awareness of this important event and its history". To that end, the board provided posters and other resources to promote activities, programs, and discussions about gay pride in general and the parade in particular.

Whether or not you agree it's a good idea to take young children to a parade that features obscene displays of sexual behaviour and gyrating leather-bound genitals, there are two other issues to consider here. The first issue is the dubious merit of teaching controversial or sensitive material without parental consent. I've blogged on this before, and I don't think there are very many situations where it's right or just for the state to over-ride parents' wishes in this way.

The second issue has to do with the question of whether this in-your-face approach to forming kids' attitudes if the most effective approach. While I do agree that people's sexual orientation and gender identity should be accepted, I don't think that centering out the issue - Class, today we will be talking about homosexuals: homosexuals are GOOD - is the best way to lead children in the right direction. To me, this approach underlines and emphasizes differences that really aren't important. If teachers treat differences among their students - religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, family wealth, etc. - as unimportant, then the students are less likely to even notice them. To a seven-year-old, after all, the fact that a classmate has blue eyes is unlikely to become an issue unless someone points it out.

And, apart from anything else, there is a spelling/grammar mistake in the Tedious Board link. Can you find it?

Sunday at the Movies (Multitasking)

Here's a short video (by a cognitive scientist) that sheds light on whether classrooms should be hives of activity and whether kids should be allowed to watch TV while they do their homework.

Virtue has its price

You may or may not know that as of September junk food will no longer be allowed in Ontario schools, but chances are it hasn’t occurred to you that this ban will have a serious impact on school revenues. As this article shows, the Toronto public board will lose three quarters of a million dollars every year as a result of the ban on unhealthy drinks in its cold drink vending machines alone. And don’t forget all those pizza days, bake sales, and door-to-door chocolate bar sales that will presumably no longer be allowed. Of course, there is no mention in the legislation of compensation to school boards for the mandatory hits to their revenues….

Stand for Children in Oregon

More from Oregon, where the Democratic governor has just rammed through more than a dozen substantive education bills over the not-yet-quite-dead bodies of their teachers' union opponents. The passage of these bills is significant for two reasons - first, of course, because they figure to improve public education, but also because they demonstrate that the teachers' unions are no longer invincible. 

The article is also interesting because it highlights the important support of a grassroots group called Stand for Children, saying that the group used to mostly advocate for more funding for public schools but now have evolved into a real force for change. You never know, maybe Ontario's People for Education will follow the same path!