This has nothing to do with your post Malkin,however,in a way it might.

I spoke to an esteemed literacy researcher in the U.S. today who was dumbfounded that phonemic awareness training in the elementary years was not a MOE Curriculum pre requisite!

My thoughts are that for some strange reason Canadians are so apathetic that the petition may land on deaf ears here and not get the required signatures.

To add, a petition like the one above, will probably land on deaf years, especially with the educrats.

A recent article in Tyee, “The BC College of Teachers, which grants teaching certificates in the province, works with the nine education degree granting universities in B.C. to determine a set of learning standards required to earn a teaching certificate. According to College Registrar Kit Krieger, there is no specific standard for teaching literacy in order to earn your certificate. But the College is currently looking at adding two new standards—for special education and an aboriginal education program—and it could look at adding more literacy instruction, in theory.

“It would be appropriate that the college committees, and then council as a whole, look at literacy to see whether the programs we currently have in place are sufficient in making sure that teachers are able to effectively teach reading and writing so that they can have a literate population,” he told The Tyee. “But it is not currently on the agenda. Whether the premier’s speech puts it on the agenda, we’ll see.”
http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/11/17/BoostGrade4/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=221110

Now would it not be nice, to have one teachers’ college in Canada, have reading/literacy instruction as the number one course?  As you can after reading it, there is not much call for doing something about, besides coming up with more excuses.

Just like today, with the recycled excuses being used whether or not my child was identified as having a bona-fide learning disability on her assessments. It does state, a mild to moderate learning disability, but according to the principal it is not one of the identified exceptionalities. The little chat went from bad to worse, and than good again, after I threaten to pull my child out of school, to protest. I assume that the principal did not want me to go public and open up a nice can of worms, exposing the cracks of the system. So than we talk about other school related things, that I have talk about every year since grade 1, and at least it is consistent - defend the system, curriculum and instruction. Much like the article in Tyee, always talking, but little in action addressing the core problems.

Good News and Bad News

Good news:—Done Waiting, a great grass roots movement in the United States for parents and others to sign petitions to get education reform going.  Read the comments, all with signed real names, and giving a poignant flavor of the feelings of those signing. Most had seen the disturbing movie “Waiting for Superman”. Hope this drive goes far.

Good news – Parent Trigger, a law in California and showing positive legislative interest in 5 other states.  If parents in a failing school get 51 % of attending parents to sign, they can trigger reform: adopting charter status, change principal, etc.

Good news – BC government has just dropped its massive crusade for 21st C Learning. It was pushed by superintendents who had exotic turnaround gurus providing pep talks for over a year now.  A new Minister may just have seen through this hocus pocus.  A 36 point survey of attendees at a recent 21st C Learning convention produced many responses which showed school districts not prepared for this “transformation” for reasons of lack of resources, training, buy-in, etc.  The most telling statistic was that 92% of respondents felt that if the program was failing they did not have the mechanisms or strategies to modify or terminate.  What does that say for concern for students continuing to participate in a failed experimental model? It’s like the casualties in war that continue to pile up when the cease-fire notice takes a while to get to the front. 

Bad news - – It seems that the love affair carries on with at least one of the gurus who presented at this recent BC convention. Dr. Stuart Shanker says that most of the “trajectory” for self-regulation is set BEFORE the child gets to school, that is, parents again at fault. Self-regulation is the new “in” theme.  Teachers will be looking for areas where the children “need work” to “fix” a child. An undoubted misprint kept being perpetuated in slides and writeup about a child being “born 6-9 months prematurely”.  What could that possibly mean?  I did not attend; just saw the reports, twitters, etc. The slides were full of words like proprioception, altriciality, eudaimonia, allostatic, etc. Talk about EduBabble!

Heaven help us as our superintendent has already got the Board chair agreeing to sponsor him here soon!

Yes! Heaven help you-

I just don`t think Canadians have the reform bug-look at what is going on in the U.K.-they have it too.
Our best chance is Tim Hudak he is insensed which is at least something!

They love presentations like this because it excuses their poor performance with edubabble.

Educational malpractice 101.

I took the time to look up Dr. Stuart Shanker, and more or less confirmed Tunya comments that   most of the “trajectory” for self-regulation is set BEFORE the child gets to school, and parents again are at fault. . On the Ontario education site, he expresses, “Over the past decade, scientists have begun to acquire a much better understanding of why it has been so difficult to change educational trajectories, and it turns out that the explanation for this phenomenon has little to do with IQ; rather, the reason lies primarily in the child’s ability to self-regulate: to monitor and modify emotions, focus or shift attention, control impulses, tolerate frustration, delay gratification, co-regulate in social interactions (Blair & Diamond, 2008).

Study after study is now telling us that a poor ability to self-regulate impedes a child’s ability to attend to her lessons or develop those positive emotional attributes that promote learning, thereby undermining the teacher-student relationship (Blair, 2002). Not surprisingly, teachers – and peers – respond much more positively to children who are able to control their emotions, which has a profound impact on the continuing development of their self-regulation skills, while those who have difficulty receive much less attention and encouragement.”
http://www.ontario.ca/fr/initiatives/early_learning/ONT06_023398

I became curious,after reading his background. “Stuart Shanker is Distinguished Research Professor of philosophy and psychology at York University and director of the Milton and Ethel Harris Research Initiative (MEHRI), a state-of-the-art cognitive and social neuroscience institute at York University.”

After reading, and viewing a few articles and videos, Dr. Shanker common theme, that it is very hard to change a grade one student who is a C minus to an A student. Difficult but not impossible. The key is self-regulation, and to fixed it, as Tunya had stated.

The next link is the BC link, and the presentation link is on this link.

“Some of the big ideas from the presentation:

1. trajectories (one’s path) are largely set by the time the child enters school
2. the child’s capacity for social interaction, symbolic thinking, functional language, problem solving and logical thinking, are largely set before they enter school
3. the foundation for this massive development process is the child’s ability to be calmly focussed and alert – their ability for self-regulation
4. a child is born 6-9 months prematurely
5. If you get a kid in Grade 1 it is difficult to “fix” a child
http://cultureofyes.ca/2010/11/22/dr-stuart-shanker-and-self-regulation/

In the news article: “In Self-Regulation: Calm, Alert, and Learning*, an article published this fall in Canada Education, Dr. Shanker says:

In short, self-regulation serves as a lens for understanding a child, his individual strengths and the areas that need work, and thus as a lens for understanding what we hope to accomplish in our teaching practices.”
http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/self-regulation-calm-alert-and-learning

Although self-regulation is important concerning human behaviour, and learning - my conclusion is more edubabble theory to explain away the failures of the public education system, and throughout society. A new get-out-of-accountability free card, for the public education system.

Teachers Are Not Trained To Be Mental Health Experts!

Thank you, Nancy, for following up on Stuart Shanker, and the implications of his “research” and application of his “research”.  I don’t suppose you bumped into the fact yet that much of his “research” was based on non-human primates, that is, monkeys!?

Anyway, this newest fad, “self-regulation” is a continuation of the progressive agenda in social engineering, thinking human nature is perfectible, and should be shaped and molded like wax into some idealized “new man”.  Believe me, there is a long history on this topic, and I think this will be included in an upcoming book on “Education Fads, Flops and Ripoffs”.  (That’s in the idea stage at the moment.)

Well, even in the behavior modification, social adjustment movement in the past there was some ethics involved, and the basics were still to be taught.  See the following:

“Mental Hygiene for Classroom Teachers” a 1952 book, cautions teachers about their own mental health and that of students, and not to forget the basics:

“Certainly one class of needs of children that might possibly be glossed over if only fundamental psychological and social needs are considered is that of mastery of the essentials of reading, writing and arithmetic … In fact, education in this area is more than a need. It is an obligation that rests upon adults for the raising of mentally healthy individuals.” (H.W.Bernard, pg 87)

“I don’t suppose you bumped into the fact yet that much of his “research” was based on non-human primates, that is, monkeys!?”

No I did not find this, but it was at the back of my mind, reading or listening to what material I read this morning. He is very cagey as to his own professional opinion, and I have found he cites the current brain/cognitive research, rather than his own. But what I found personally alarming is not coming clean as to where he is drawing his stats from dealing with the pre-school crowd. I hate to think, he is drawing conclusions from children like my own, whose parents sought government services such as speech therapy, pre-school, medical or psychological by gleaming information from the records. It is a big leap applying monkey research, without the children, to apply his theory of self-regulation. So, I am inclined to think, he is indeed using the records of children, especially those who have special needs.

I cannot even see why people are buying into his version of self-regulation. As a mother for over 35 years, it does not sit right with me. If self-regulation was the key, how does one explain the learning difficulties in reading, writing, and numeracy in children that have excellent to good self-regulation?
As the speech pathologist said to me, after one difficult day, relax things will get better, because she has excellent self-regulation. Her problem is being strong-will, along with being frustrated not being able to express herself.

Being Strong-willed Is Not A PATHOLOGY !

Again, thanks Nancy for pursuing this.

ALL of my grandchildren are strong-willed.  Each strong-willed in different ways.

I would hate for them to be “corrected” or “fixed”.  It is the teacher that needs to calm down and adjust his/her approach to help the child learn.  Note: I did NOT say to “teach” the child, but HELP the child learn.

For more on Stuart Shanker and his primates see:  http://brainsciencpodcast.wordpress.com/2007/03/08/podcast-7-bonobos-with-stuart-shanker-phd/

I agree-thank you Nancy!

The speech pathologist meant it as an explanation to my child’s refusal to asked for the simple things such as milk. She rather go on her 2 to 3 hour temper tantrum, than speak two words, “Want, milk”.  Strong will people run in the family, long with strong opinions. My youngest certainly had both in spades, compared to my other children. He and I saw it as a personality trait to keep in mind, to get her to communicate, without the temper tantrums. Otherwise, she was a delightful child, filled with curiousity and advanced in some ways,  except she was not talking. I bet Shanker, would either dimiss her as an exception, or try to work some mumbo-jumbo so she would fit his hypothesis.

The link that Tunya provided, told me what he does think of children who are not progressing.
“As I understand it, the authors are arguing that language emerges from the ‘dance’ infant and caregiver join. The ‘dance’ is composed of rhythmic ‘action’ and ‘absorb reaction’ states which both infant and caregiver cooperatively alternate between. This dance is initiated by the baby when he instinctively seeks to capture the attention of the caregiver by offering a ‘stimulus’ (crying, smiling, etc.). If the action (a smile) captures the attention of the caregiver, a ‘happy’ exchange can ensue (the dance). If the baby cannot capture the attention of the caregiver, it will often increase the energy of the stimulus (smile becomes vocalization, becomes crying, etc.) until exhausted or entirely frustrated. The authors suggest this pattern is inate to all human infants (and most mammals). Further, if the infant demonstrates limited interest or capacity for this dance, there is probably going to be an IQ or psychological problem exhibited in later years.

Given this ‘dance’ which infant and caregiver engage in, language is seen as a refinement which allows greater control of both external ‘reality’ and internal emotions. Just as ballroom dancers will learn specific ‘moves’ and then sequences of moves, there will naturally emerge collaborative patterns which represent or symbolize emotional states. Sequences of these states can elicit predictable ‘new’ emotional states. Memorizing ‘moves in the dance’ involves defining boundaries and key signals. The process forms the foundation for memorizing words. The pattern of the dance becomes the ‘sentence’. “

The key sentence for me is, “Further, if the infant demonstrates limited interest or capacity for this dance, there is probably going to be an IQ or psychological problem exhibited in later years. “

Shanker should be made to walk in other parents’ shoes for a while. Parents need solid information, and not some mumbo-jumbo dance routine that brings false hope, along with a magical routine that does nothing for their development delays or increasing cognitive brain activities. .

It is a good that I read the link, because it answered another question I had. The cognitive scientists are bumping horns with him and his radical hypothesis. I will stick with the cognitive scientists, and their language theories. At least here the language theory is a working theory, and not a philosophy/psychological hypothesis that Shanker is probably making a lot of money on it. And now he is in thick with the educrats, and reading science and the work of cognitve scientists takes the seat at the back of the classroom.

SOCIALISM IS THE PROBLEM IN THE CANADIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, AND UNTIL THE SOCIALIST THOUGHT IS FOUGHT HEAD-ON AND REMOVED, NOTHING WILL CHANGE

I see little evidence that Canadian parents are hankering for sweeping change—because few seem aware of how deep the educational problem is, and amongst the various groups and factions acting for change, there is no consensus on the exact nature of ‘the problem’ itself (as far as I can gather, and I do not claim to have a complete overview of course). By and large one finds, in the species known as “The Canadian Parent”, the same passivity, fear of confrontation or ‘giving offense’, combined with a sort of lethally naïve trust—one might almost call it a quasi-religious faith – that despite all, there are still goodhearted, benevolent creatures out there identified only as ‘they’ are taking care of things, constantly seeking the best interest of children and parents (‘they’ being ‘the experts’ ie the Ministry, school boards, teachers).

Parents may quibble around the edges here and there, they may puzzle in round-robin fashion over individual issues such as why the schools abandoned perfectly sensible and effective methods from yesteryear—-phonics, the teaching of spelling, logical methods of instruction, rote learning, etc etc.—-they may endlessly ponder these individual problems, argue, write to complain, all the while hoping to gain an audience and hoping that ‘the experts’ in charge will listen.

BUT…over the course of time, nothing really happens. Nothing changes, except for the worse. And no one, seemingly, can determine why.

In my opinion, the reason little is changing is that the deeper problem is not addressed or confronted. No one is willing to step right back and take the wider view. To name the UnNameable! They would find it too shocking because too many of their safe assumptions would begin sequentially toppling, domino-fashion.

If they are not politically interested and aware, stuck in this ‘I’m a nice Canadian’ mentality, few parents ever step back to the wide view of the situation, and see that these separate decisions and ruinous, ineffective polices, all emanate from one deeper cause: an utterly different way of thought. This way of thought—and it’s not worth quibbling over which word is the exactly perfect one—is known under various labels:  Progressivism, Socialism, Leftism, Collectivism, Statism… and in extreme forms of the Progressive Disease, a disease which indeed progresses, it’s known as Communism, Totalitarianism.

It’s the exact OPPOSITE of ‘classical liberalism’, (which is now known, as best I understand it, as ‘conservativism’—words and labels get confusing!) which seeks the freedom and development of the individual consciousness and rich life of the individual human being.

Opposed to this is Socialism, which in present-day Canada/Toronto infests educational people and school boards, as near as I can determine, from top to bottom. It is a way of thought which believes in the ‘social engineering’ of human beings (that’s your kids and mine!) so as to eventually steer society into a supposed Utopian age safely free of war, [imaginary] environmental doom, racism, sexism, (list all those nasty ‘isms’ here), as a previous poster here touched on momentarily. To accomplish this, it is a prerequisite to first ‘collectivize’ people’s thinking, starting with the most receptive, children! The goal is to indoctrinate, breed IN a passive fearful compliance and trust of the State, and breed OUT any resistant healthy individualism and rugged competence, competitiveness, personal thought and skill/mastery and charity and morality and religious feeling and faith—to remove any and all components of a healthy self-reliant and developing human individual as this society earlier understood one to be, before the ruinous Age of Progressivism.

(sorry for length but that’s what it took—please see following post for last half)

Yes, it is quite another thing entirely for the average, non-political person to soberly realize that there is no ‘they’ which can be trusted to steer the helm. To do this, the first step they would have to take, is to begin to free THEMSELVES as adults, from the thrall of this corrosive collectivist thought which is now soaked right down to the bones of Canadian daily culture. If they could only once ‘hop the fence’ and regard the whole thing from the other vantage point, then they’d see, that the individual issues are only separate symptoms of a much deeper, more serious disease, a steadily-developing infection.

Once you see this you understand, all in a moment, why you do not get anywhere with the school system and ‘educators’ (with a few rare exceptions). It is because they are True Believers. They Truly Believe that they know better than you! You are just a parent. But they are Experts, part of an elite, enlightened Guild which will accomplish great things! They Truly Believe that their ideas will re-engineer society for the good of all. They will never agree with you if you challenge their deeper belief in socialism from which spring all their nonsensical actions. To agree with you, would in many cases mean to repudiate their life’s work!

Hence they may somewhat-listen, nod and smile politely, and thank you for coming and for ‘voicing your issues’ and ‘advocating for your child’—as I, just an ordinary Dad, was told when speaking on behalf of my two daughters. They will nod and smile and then go back to doing EXACTLY what they were doing before, which is advancing the Great Socialist Project. (The TDSB uses the code word ‘Social Justice’ and even has a ‘Social Justice Action Plan’).

No, they are not listening, and they are not educating. Not as a primary goal. Any absorption of the classical basics by the children is only incidental and secondary, and serves as a guise so as not to rouse parents to notice the true, primary agenda, which is constant indoctrination. Turning the children into so-called ‘socially aware activists’: a new breed of mini-footsoldiers who will go forth and multiply…

Just as I am sure that that few will see it this way—they will call this ‘fear-mongering’ and ‘too extreme’ and all the rest—just as certain as that, is the certainty that a thousand years of complaints, pleadings, phone calls, e-mails, and so on, sent to the True Believers, will never, ever make a difference…because they Truly Believe that you (me) are wrong, and they are Right.

What WILL make a difference? Ordinary people en masse rousing themselves, noticing that this is so, and going forth in their lives to repudiate Socialism anywhere and everywhere, as the evil, failed body of thought and lies which it is. There are hopeful stirrings, especially in the USA, prompted by the imminent fiscal catastrophe.

One can only fervently pray there may be a similar uprising here, a tipping point reached, and not only of a fiscal nature.

Let A Thousand Flowers Bloom ...

Collectivism, one-size-fits-all approaches, monopoly government compulsory schooling, force-fed egalitarianism, etc. all need to be seriously challenged.  Human nature does not work that way.

From the book, “The Predictable Failure of Educational Reform” by Seymour B Sarason we get Charles de Gaulle’s comment about governing France:

“How can you govern a country that makes five hundred different cheeses?”

100% agreed, human nature does not work that way!

It’s the age-old battle between freedom and slavery among human beings, without and within themselves.,,,manifesting itself in the here-and-now once more.

It is truly sad that our children, in this otherwise wonderful age,  are caught in this web…this stale, stale web of lies.

One key problem is that too many average parents won’t even touch this whole topic because the left has pre-emptively branded anybody who makes and repeats these accusations as an ‘extremist’, a ‘McCarthyite’, etc etc.

So, sadly, many won’t ‘go there’ even in their own minds, in private using their own computer to investigate that root issue. And there lies the whole problem. And it’s not just parents; when I approached someone reasonably well-known in fighting for educational change (no one here, by the way), they only saw it as ‘my issue’. As if it could just be my personal issue, just another issue on the same level as arguing over the validity of phonics!

Socialism must be discredited widely, even when it hides under other names, before anything will truly change. But I guess I won’t bang the drum any more, I made my point.

Paul, timely post since I just returned from the parent-teacher interviews. I came back upset, with the same type of thoughts running through my head, as what you have posted. Bottom line, socialism is alive and well in my corner of the world. I have nothing but contempt for a public education system, that does everything in their power to prevent my child and other children from getting the skills and abilities to stand up on their feet to navigate this world. Or as Paul has stated, “. To accomplish this, it is a prerequisite to first ‘collectivize’ people’s thinking, starting with the most receptive, children! The goal is to indoctrinate, breed IN a passive fearful compliance and trust of the State, and breed OUT any resistant healthy individualism and rugged competence, competitiveness, personal thought and skill/mastery and charity and morality and religious feeling and faith—to remove any and all components of a healthy self-reliant and developing human individual as this society earlier understood one to be, before the ruinous Age of Progressivism.”

Today, in one of the interviews it was touched on. I called it the touchy-feeling junk that is a requirement to learned, and spit out on exams, if one wants to pass. What is missing, is the fundamental knowledge that is needed to make informed decisions. As I said to the one teacher, how can students understand Animal Farm, without knowing about the communist system. The response was there is no need, because any testing will be on the themes power and corruption. Background knowledge is another area that is exited out of the public education, leaving children to construct an understanding, based on their reality of the world. And we wonder why, the young adults do not vote?

Another 2 items that reared its ugly head, is bureaucratic rules and math curriculum.

The former one, I was informed that software and hardware that the school buys on their own, will not be repaired by the board. The school is on the hook for repairs and other related expenses. Turned down again for a request to have a solid computer program for the essentials of the english language. Such things as grammar, spelling rules, paragraph summaries, note taking, and pretty well the things that have been neglected in my child’s education, as well as a good portion for her peers.

The latter one, is the math curriculum, or the lack of one. There is no text book, but a work book, created by an educator in the province, who is profiting to the tune of $22 a book. However, the grade 10 and 11 math students received photo-copies of only the math exercises in the book. My LD child is the only one with a workbook, because of her LD status. If the other students want a copy of the workbook, they can buy a copy. From my research, I have found no reviews of the math curriculum, except on the site of the creator of the math workbook. I had brought it up, and received the same reasons, almost identical to two previous responses, when I went looking for answers. I am steamed, and my grey-blue eyes have turned into icy blue eyes, after that interview. As Paul has stated, “No, they are not listening, and they are not educating. Not as a primary goal. Any absorption of the classical basics by the children is only incidental and secondary, and serves as a guise so as not to rouse parents to notice the true, primary agenda, which is constant indoctrination. Turning the children into so-called ‘socially aware activists’: a new breed of mini-footsoldiers who will go forth and multiply…”  And I shall add, nor do they want to answered the questions posed by parents.

Perhaps, I just may reconsidered my threat I made just a week ago, to protest by removing my child out of the high school. until my questions are answered.  It worked last week, and perhaps it might work again at the board level, but than again as Paul has stated, ” They will nod and smile and then go back to doing EXACTLY what they were doing before, which is advancing the Great Socialist Project. (The TDSB uses the code word ‘Social Justice’ and even has a ‘Social Justice Action Plan’).”

Wow, Nancy, it is almost eerie how the conversations in our household have paralleled yours. I truly sympathize. As you would know, my writings above are borne out my own experiences and frustrations. I, like many, was reluctant to face facts: that the situation is far worse than people realize. It is only when, as a parent, you actively confront and engage edu-people, that you get glimpses of how bad it truly is.

It’s like a cottage, rotten to the core with termites, but the rot has not quite reached the surface. If you poke here and there, there are even still some firm spots. So you can get fooled by appearances. But in all too many places, one push, and your hand goes through the wall.

As extreme as it sounds, of course it is like that. They are not listening! So now I have more or less given up with direct engagement, after my last few pointless encounters. I give up not out of apathy; but I didn’t go to parent-teacher night because—even if it sounds cynical, it’s not—I know they will not listen to me, just as you found. THEY KNOW BETTER!

Yes, they purposely do not teach history or supply context to the children: it helps keep them malleable and confused—ready for more indoctrination!

It’s on PURPOSE! They are not trying to create understanding, they are sowing confusion, fear, and worry. Which is why, in the first few days of my older daughter’s grade 9 class, they show a film on Hiroshima (completely irrelevant to the class, I might add) made by uber-leftist John Pilger. A film FULL of lies! And, although they purport to teach ‘critical thinking’ (they bleat on about this all the time), they do not show an opposing view, an essential element to inducing critical thought in people.

No, it is clear to see they do not develop understanding and confidence and skill to survive in the real world. They are not aimed at that—helping children understand, survive, and compete amongst the all-too-real pressures and challenges of the real world, as we as adults encounter it.

Instead, they see their mission, a much more important one, as developing a cadre of activists—think of it as “Let a Thousand Craig Kielburgers Bloom” ...!

Until masses and masses of parents and edu-reform groups identify this socialism as their core target, the festering mental illness from which all this other madness springs, and name that enemy and chase it out, I don’t believe much headway will ever be made. Alas.

I been busy doing a bit of research on the math workbook. Tracked down the school that the educator is teaching in, and it is considered one of the best public high school in my province, which also has the IB program. The author also has won numerous awards, including a national award, the Prime Minster’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Apparently, it is a best seller - “Became bestselling author by creating workbooks to help students succeed on their own time.”

Best seller may be questionable, since I found nothing so far on the Net that would indicate best seller status. Back in 2008, it is listed that 20,000 workbooks have been sold. If 20,000 workbooks is a best seller,  based on how it is published by not being associated with any printing house or publisher, than it must be profitable making the workbook costs of producing it, no better than what I have done at home, purchasing the materials at the local Walmart.

It is the latter half of the best selling quote that really gets to me. In black and white it is stated as a help book for students to succeed in their own time. Yet, when I questioned the workbook on the basis that the workbook appears to be simply a help book, and for extra practice, and not a book to be used as the main book, in the classroom setting, of course it was denied that this was the case. In all three times, they had the same reasons, that the book is following each and ever outcome of the grade 10 math course. I also check the outcomes for grade 10, and no it does not appear to be the same as the work book. I have lots of questions for the author of the math workbook, and his claims working with students who have math problems.

On top of all that, I learned tonight that my child, along with her peers, will not have math text books either for grade 11 or grade 12. They will be given math workbooks made by the same author. I am not against the workbooks, and I can see that the workbook can be helpful to a student doing homework, because the examples are clear, well-done using the step by step method, but for a parent, it will be difficult to help their children. At least it will be difficult for myself, if I do need to refresh myself on algebra concepts that I have not looked at for years. What I requested, was a recommendation of a text book that I could purchased for home use, to start up the home tutoring for my child.  The response was that there will be no need, since the teacher will be starting tutorial once a week, and completely ignoring my request to recommend a math textbook for home use. I walked out of that parent-teacher interview feeling that parents concerns of wanting to help their own children does not include actually helping them with their homework, or working with the child’s weak areas in math at home.

Is the new thing coming up, keeping parents as confused as their children are? Or is it designed for parents who asked a lot of nosy questions, to get them as confused as the parents who do not asked nosy questions?  I can well imagine my father if he was alive, and what he would have done. But that was back in the days, when there was still some common sense in the curriculum. As a result, it was a rare sight for my father to walk into a school, to talk to a teacher.  Even than, he felt the math curriculum could be better, and he felt more so, when he took a peek of the primary math course, for his first grandchild. He turned around to me, and said, make sure she knows her basic math facts, because she will not get them in school.  If he was alive, he would have said,  it went from so-so, to bad to worse between the oldest grandchild to the youngest grandchild.