SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Still Stupid in America

Anyone who has watched 20-20 host John Stossel's ABC TV special Stupid in America might be interested in this.  Stossel reports that a new Goldwater Institute study shows that only 3.5% of U.S. Arizona public high school students could pass the U.S. citizenship test.   In Canada, the Dominion Institute has published the results of their Canada Day survey for years with similar results. Their latest report card on history education in Canada did not give very good grades to provincial history curricula either. 

We still see huge literacy and numeracy issues with younger kids who have difficulty learning other subjects as they grow older.  With all the money and effort spent on education, why has little changed? 

Could the reason be, as Stossel's documentary contends, that education "monoply kills innovation and cheats kids?" He writes:

"Competition inspires people to do what we didn't think we could do. If people got to choose their kids' school, education options would be endless. There could soon be technology schools, science schools, virtual schools where you learn at home on your computer, sports schools, music schools, schools that go all year, schools with uniforms, schools that open early and keep kids later, and, who knows what else. If there were competition, all kinds of new ideas would bloom." 

You can watch a portion of Stossel's Stupid in America on YouTube here. 

Trappings of Democracy

There has always been some ambiguity about whether school board trustees are elected to represent their constituents to the school board - or elected to represent the school board to their constituents. As Moira Macdonald points out in today's Toronto Sun, the Ontario government's new Bill 177 sets out to settle this issue. Although trustees will be allowed to bring their constituents' concerns to the board, they will be bound to support every measure passed by the other trustees. Added to the bill's prohibition of trustee interference in the day-to-day management of the school board, the effect is to render individual trustees powerless. The new bill codifies a reality that has existed for some time now - school board trustees serve to obscure the fact that students and parents are at the mercy of unelected education bureaucrats. Teachers would be at their mercy too, were it not for the teachers' unions.

London Anti-Bullying Coalition

Any parent who has had a child be the target of bullying knows how heart-breaking it can be.  Bullying can range from schoolyard name-calling to serious emotional and physical harassment.  In rare cases, it may lead to suicide or tragic violence.

For parents in the Niagara Region of Ontario, the London Anti-Bullying Coalition will be in Niagara-on-the-Lake the weekend of July 18, 2009 advising parents who want to form their own regional anti-bullying coalitions.  Corina Morrison and Kathryn Wilkins, co-founders of LABC, will provide their expertise in how they formed the LABC and what worked for parents and children who face bullying issues.  For information about LABC, email [email protected].

Squirreling Away Knowledge

According to this web-site, "the quality of an institution of higher learning can often be determined by the size, health and behavior of the squirrel population on campus. The Campus Squirrel Listings document the critter quality at universities throughout the United States and Canada.

Too Many Generals, Not Enough Foot Soldiers

Click here for the 2007 "Sunshine List", the names of Ontario school board employees who earned more than $100,000. Since no classroom teachers earn this much, all of the names on the list represent bureaucratic positions. In 2003, there were 788 education sunshiners in Ontario. Each year, the number steadily increased, such that by 2007 there were 5,913 in the province, an increase of about 650%. It's also worth noting that Ontario school enrolment fell by about three percent over the same period. You may wish to look up your own school board and see how it stacks up. A few boards have been relatively responsible, and others - for example, the Windsor-Essex Catholic School Board with an increase of 1275% - have not.

More Money Down the Drain

The Ontario Government has announced that it is "investing $25 million in colleges, school boards, and community literacy organizations in the Employment Ontario network to help laid-off workers and and other adult workers train for highly skilled jobs". It notes that "3.4 million Ontario adults have literacy skills at less than the high school level". That's about 40% of Ontario adults.

We at School for Thought predict with great confidence that this $25 million will have zero impact on literacy in Ontario, since most of the money is going to the very organizations that are already generating and perpetuating Ontario's illiteracy disaster. Furthermore, targeting the money at adults suggests that the Ontario government has no clue that the roots of the problem are in kindergarten and grade 1. After all, the failure rate on the province's grade 3 reading test is stuck at around 40% - not so coincidentally, the same percentage as the adult illiteracy rate.  It's like stationing an ambulance at the bottom of the ski hill to patch up the skiers who can't get down the hill safely - as opposed to teaching them to be good skiers in the first place.

Propper Spelling

So what did you think when you saw the spelling mistake in the title? We thought so! Good spelling is important because it affects the way others regard you.

Click here for a quick spelling test that will let you get a handle on your child's spelling grade level. The link also gives an overview of how to teach kids to spell.

Incompetent Educators

An article in Maclean's magazine reports that "Of the roughly 200,000 educators licensed by the Ontario College of Teachers to teach, only 27 have been terminated due to poor performance since 2004 - an annual average of just 0.002 per cent. In the past five years, not a single permanent teacher has been dismissed for incompetence in the largest school boards in Montreal and Winnipeg: Saskatoon Public Schools has terminated just one; and in Edmonton Public Schools, says a spokeswoman, 'very few if any' have been let go."

Incompetent teachers exact a terrible price from their students' futures. In choosing to protect bad teachers at the expense of defenceless children, school boards and teachers' unions reveal their priorities.

Scholarship Tax Credits

Jay Greene reports that Indiana has approved a modest tax credit scholarship program.

This means that more Indiana families can find the education of choice for their children.  Would that Ontario took note.

Perspiration, Not Inspiration

Here's a book tip for people who yearn to become really, really good at something. You can achieve your dream - but only if you work your butt off! The Talent Code: Greatness isn't born. It's grown. Here's how. by Daniel Coyle reveals that world-class performance - in any sphere, from music to sports to math to chess - is the result of a huge amount of dedicated, purposeful practice. Filled with fascinating examples and anecdotes, the book painlessly conveys important information about the learning process - information that every teacher and coach should have at his fingertips. Far from depending on inborn talent or genius, excellence is the result of personal motivation, good teaching, and purposeful practice.