…why Dick and Jane aren’t numerate. Margaret “Privileged” Wente:
Too many teachers can’t do math, let alone teach it
…
Unfortunately, the people who educate the educators sound like the wacky wing of the NDP. Here’s Fern Snart, the dean of education at the University of Alberta: “To educate students beyond the superficial,” she writes, “we must engage them in transformational processes and deep thinking such that they understand the Western position of privilege that is often reflected in issues of diversity, power, and justice, and that they move to an internalization of responsibility related to this privilege.”
No wonder little Emma doesn’t know her times tables. She’s way too busy learning how her Western position of privilege entrenches gender relations. Or something like that…
More on modern, er, educators:
Rhizomatic?
Not everyone is cut out to be a teacher. Since the teaching profession keeps raising the education requirements of starting teachers, those who have invested so much time are determined to teach. Sadly, many of them should move on to something else but continue because they have invested so much time and teaching is so lucrative.
I always preferred the teacher who formerly worked in his/her field and was able to pass on real world experience. Some think that a professional teacher can teach anything. .. No they can’t.
Teaching should not be a career on its own, especially in the higher grades, it should be a brief stint for those of accomplishment to pass on their knowledge to the next generation.
‘”OISE” = Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.’ This is the crew that invited unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers in to speak and he was refused entry into Canada.
A close personal friend of the Americans President, he regrets only he didn’t do more violence on behalf of his hard left ideology.
Newsflash. The people who make teachers teach this garbage are your own elected officials and the ministries they oversee. If I (as one of those evil teachers) do not follow the curriculum I may be fired. How about people start to make education as important an issue as taxes and speak up? Parents, YOU are the weakest link in the education of your children. I agree, the modern educational system is horrible. Know what is worse? The collective apathy of do-nothing parents (yes, many conservative parents can also be included)who expect teachers to solve all the problems. You think we have much say in what is tought? Not likely. Complaining is ok but it does nothing. Get up and DO SOMETHING! I know it’s hard, but hey, if your kids can put effort into learning all that leftist junk the least you could do is get up off your collective arses.
Teacher Ric wrote:
“The collective apathy of do-nothing parents (yes, many conservative parents can also be included)who expect teachers to solve all the problems.”
I have relatives who have said the same thing.
Teacher Ric said: “Get up and DO SOMETHING!”
Did. If you read my comment above, you’ll discover I got turned down for starting a computer programming club or class for the school.
Even though there’s a library full of PCs and the software is a free download off the web. (GCC, they give it away.)
Even though the parents will pay for the tutor.
Even though all the school needs to provide is a warm body to sit in the back and watch.
Nope. Not even willing to have a go at it. Pass the buck.
But the local CHURCH, which I hasten to point out is -not- a taxpayer funded educational institution, is all over it like white on rice. Very gung-ho to get the thing going, happy to use their facilities to do so, volunteers ready to pitch in.
This is because unlike the school they
A) can organize a two man rush on a three hole out house without involving ten layers of bureaucracy and twenty seven lawyers, and
B) recognize the screamingly obvious need for computer (and mathematics!) literacy in children and are willing to shift their butts to provide it. Or at a bare minimum get out of the way and let somebody else do it.
I believe that is a little glimpse of the future of education in Canada. We are going to be going private or home schooling the kids with church help in ever increasing numbers, and public schools will be closing their doors for lack of trade. By necessity, not by choice, because the schools are not getting the job done.
I’d take up welding if I were you. Job security.
This from my sister whom is a high school teacher in Mississauga.
Director of Education Tony Pontes (The HEAD GUY!!)…read it and PUKE!
Dear Colleagues,
As I mentioned at Starting Point, the Co-Accountable Model is a key priority for the Peel board and also one of my highest priorities as director of education. As an organization, we need to see that the work to make all staff feel welcomed and included starts with, and goes beyond hiring.
Together, we need to really listen to diverse voices to hear what we need to do differently in terms of hiring for diversity. As part of this focus, I invite you to join our Co-Accountable staff advisory groups by registering for our new online discussion forums on the Peel board’s Speechbobble site. We want to hear your ideas and thoughts on how we can make the Peel board more inclusive.
There are separate discussion forums set up for each of the five Co-Accountable staff advisory groups, as listed below. The forums are secure, private online discussions only accessible to the advisory group co-chairs and Peel staff who register to participate. To register, send an email to the corresponding email address for the group you are interested in participating in. You will then receive an invitation from the co-chair to join the group and, once you’ve confirmed your invitation, you’re ready to join the discussion. You may choose to join more than one group.
Co-Accountable staff advisory groups
● Aboriginal, First Nations, Metis, Inuit Coaccountable.Aboriginal@peelsb.com
● Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons Coaccountable.LGBTQ@peelsb.com
● Persons with disabilities Coaccountable.Disabilities@peelsb.com
● Visible minorities Coaccountable.Minorities@peelsb.com
● Women Coaccountable.Women@peelsb.com
As we move ahead, it is important to remember that these groups in the Co-Accountable Model are not decision-making bodies. Rather, they are a way for us to reach out and connect in a stronger, more powerful way to listen for understanding and find common ground. I know that, as we reach out and connect with staff and community, we can find mutually supportive actions that make a real difference for students, staff, parents, potential staff and the community.
Of course, while we look to find ways to remove systemic barriers, we will do so by working within and respecting our board policies, procedures and relevant legislation, while making manageable and needed improvements over time to those policies and procedures.
And it is important to remember that we will respect the staff currently in the organization and perhaps looking to promotion. We will respect all collective agreements. This process will not place limits on anyone. It is not about targets or quotas. Quite the opposite. It is about how we work and learn together as part of a truly inclusive organization. And as we do so, we set the standard for excellence in our work to support and build on diversity.
I personally believe this model has the potential to positively and dramatically affect the ways we recruit, hire, promote and work together.
Tony Pontes
tought?
“Fern Snart”
Really?
Didn’t she used to be Fester Bestertester’s secretary?
Jus askin’…
rita – Scandi teachers are the worst. Those lifeless eyes, like a doll’s eyes… 😉
rita @ 4:43 p.m.: “I knew my time was up when I participated in a survey that was designed to show that I was a “blocker” rather than a ‘progressive’.”
I’m curious to see this survey, and I suspect many others are too. Do you know where it could be found? Is it on the Internet anywhere? The entire process sounds creepy, like indoctrination rather than teaching education.
KevinB @ 4:45 p.m.: “… OISE was the one the who recommended phasing out the year-end ‘departmental’ exams, which previously every graduating senior had to write. OISE introduced the disastrous ‘whole word’ approach to teaching language, discarding phonetics in the process. OISE introduced the ‘New Math’, while discouraging drill and repetition in arithmetic.”
This fiasco is precisely why we need a free market in education, beginning with a switch to a voucher system. This trash coming out of OISE wouldn’t last six months once parents figured out it didn’t work for their kids, and they could switch to another school that used different methods. And the trash-mongers would have to find new jobs.
Public education is a cult — one that could not exist but for coercion through taxation and regulation.
Also, notice that “adult illiteracy” is supposedly a huge problem, but the columnists who wring their hands about it, like Carol Goar of the Toronto Star, never mention the elephant in the room that lies at the root of it: public education. All they ever do is call for more tax money to fight adult illiteracy — when they’re not complaining about “under-funding” of public education. But money ain’t the problem. Ideology is. And I probably don’t have to repeat that the ideology stems from Immanuel Kant and G. W. F. Hegel, through Marx, Marcuse, and all the other destroyers of civilization.
I’m in a public education certificate program in the US right now. It’s positively frightening what I see. PhD students in Curriculum and Instruction openly question the existence of “objective” reality. Note: It’s not that they’re questioning various interpretations of a given fact, but rather suggesting that physical facts just plain do not exist!
Also, students feel 100% comfortable asserting that if they can find an argument, no matter how farfetched, by which to “prove” a given statement is “racially offensive”, then the person who made the remark must be racist. In other words, individual meaning does not matter, nor do standards of definition. In the same breath they will say that prejudice is bad (where “prejudice” is defined by treating people negatively based on their group identification) and that “white males” are prone to racism/sexism/homophobia, and if they don’t admit it, they still are so unconsciously.
nv53 (I’m curious to see this survey, and I suspect many others are too. Do you know where it could be found? Is it on the Internet anywhere? The entire process sounds creepy, like indoctrination rather than teaching education.)
The survey or questionnaire was presented at a workshop as an introduction to some changes that were going to be introduced. The admin had anticipated that there would be resistance and their way of pre-empting it was to attempt to discredit those who would object–hence the separation of the blockers and progressives. You are absolutely right when you point out that it was creepy and manipulative.
I doubt I could find this survey–it was probably fashioned by the workshop leaders hired for the purpose. It resembled questionnaires which determine your personality type–actually very easy to pitch the questions to obtain the result you want.
Black Mamba – those silent, brooding types who stare out into incalculable distances. They really get to me. 😉
They’re pining for the fjords.
Black Mamba – But are their little feet nailed to the perch?
Nailed to skis.
Fern Snart is the bugger they ought to be burning in effigy on campuses, instead of the Israeli and US flags they tend toward.
j35 said: “It’s positively frightening what I see. PhD students in Curriculum and Instruction openly question the existence of “objective” reality. Note: It’s not that they’re questioning various interpretations of a given fact, but rather suggesting that physical facts just plain do not exist!”
I’ve always found grabbing the person’s nose and TWISTING to be a very effective counter argument to that “no objective reality” thing. Kicking them in the shin or stepping on their foot works too.
As to the racist! thing, I haven’t found a way to counter that in a polite setting. Hitting has its limitations, know what I mean?