The public doesn’t realize/believe that teaching methods and curricula are very poor.  Our media has failed to point out the flaws, or at best are only beginning to realize this and therefore write about it.  The more these failures in NA’s educational systems are brought to Joe Public’s attention, the better chance of improving curricula and teaching methods.

I agree totally agree with Bev.
Also the public has not realized that the majority of today’s teachers are way less knowlegeable and have less subject matter expertise than the teachers from let’s say 30 or 40 years ago.

Also teachers get very good - consciously or unconsciously, I don’t know - at a “divide and conquer technique” where they talk to parents making them believe that is only their child that has a problem or pointing out children that do very well.
They conveniently forget to mention - or they are not even aware of it themselves thinking that their own teaching has produced the rsults -  that the children that do very well have tutoring either in the house by parent or by paid professional tutors.

Teaching methods vary given who is infront of the class.  Some are exemplary, some are passable, and then of course there is the toxic two percent…...  Parents and students need to start behaving as consumers of a critical product and give feedback to their principal and superindendent.  Good teachers are regularly side lined from critical curriculum by passable teachers who are excellent coaches.  The only way to stop this silly is to have parents speak up.  The most powerful email in education is the one that a parent sends in support of a good teacher.  You want change?  Support the good teachers on the gound.  Request them for your kids as ” a year in the life of a child” is worth a few pointed notes to the admin.

Curriculum is set by the ministry and politicians.  I have been at this for a long while and the last curricular blast is the most distressing.  There are overlaps from year to year that simply waste everyones time.  The entire enterprise is no longer linear but more like a buffet.  I encourage anyone on this blog to read the preamble for any secondary science curriculum the wiggle room in a discipline that should be vigorous should give everyone pause.

Look, good teachers forced to teach a bad curriculum doesn’t get us very far!

I agree with you that the curriculum is particularly bad. If we, the parents, try to say anything about curriculum we are talked down because we don’t have the “expertise”. On the other hand teachers tell us that there’s nothing they can do, because that’s what they have to teach as part of their employment contract and compliance is enforced.
So basically, yes we are professionals, but don’t blame it on us because there’s nothing we can do!
There is a gag order that prevents us from speaking out.

Being an employee myself I can definitely see the catch22 the good teachers are in. It is my belief this is one of the reasons the teaching tends to not attract people with solid knowledge.

There must be a way for teachers to also speak out about the curriculum!

Mirka, look at past posts by teachers on this blog.
Basically whenever there is discussion about curriculum or teaching methods the teachers tell us that we can’t possibly know what we are talking about since we are not “professionals” or they get mad since they feel threatened so that they take their toys and walk away.

That is teachers simply stop posting on this blog since, in their minds, there’s no use to talk to somebody as dumb as a parent who has the preposterous opinion that should have a say in the way his child gets educated!

Europe,

You are ignoring the outright insults as well as the double standard on this blog that leave teachers exasperated and cause them to quit.  From my vantage point, you seem to have joined the likes of Chuck, Bev and Mad the Impaler who find it easier to score cheap shots rather than engaging in informed debate.

Nancy was impolite and that caused one teacher to quit.

However Mr.Hurley simply couldn’t accept other people’s opinions.

I have two general comments about most teacher’s posts.
First, all of them are very condescending and a lot of times insulting. You are talking down to people without even being aware of it and you think you have a right to tell the parents how they should think.
Somehow that’s all right because it comes from a teacher.

Secondly, something else that has been surprising to me is the average to low quality of the writing in lot of the teacher’s posts. I’m not sure if it reflects the same condescending attitude or it is simply the way these teachers usually approach things.
To me, it was downright scary that educated adults whose job is to communicate and to teach people lack either basic civility or the skills to write in a clear and decent manner.

This may be my european background talking and after having lived here so many years I am aware that North America is a lot more laid back however to me the quality of writing in the teacher’s post was disconcerting.

If you consider any of Bev’s post cheap shots ... sorry .. your emotions are getting the better of you.