Why can’t teaching be more strategic?
Some students won’t be able to do languages or maths. Testing should be targeted
The recently published EQAO results reflect the decline in our educational system
Apart from a number of potent stories in the paper and various media outlets, Ken Durkacz’s commentary in the Wednesday, Oct. 18 issue, highlights a number of factors behind this grim reality.
While his is an insider’s perspective — having previously worked for the board — mine is that of a parent.
I think we can all agree that education is more than just a bunch of information imparted by a teacher and hopefully absorbed by the students. Education is a social endeavour that helps in building self-esteem and social and life skills.
In an educational system whose primary tenet is to enhance “curiosity, creativity, and possibility,” it is important that it base its success, or failure, on whether those very principles are not being overlooked in the standardized tests it uses to measure its overall performance.
Where in the EQAO tests does HWDSB (or any school board for that matter) find out how students are faring, particularly those with special learning styles and needs? The response may very well be having an Individual Educational Plan (IEP) that targets a given student’s learning needs. True. Yet, based on my own personal experience with my son — used here as an illustration of a relatively considerable chunk of students navigating our educational system, the experience has been far from a breezy ride in a school system that contradicts its own maxims.
Upon arrival in Canada, my son was ready to immediately join school where he has been diagnosed with a language and learning disability. I won’t deny that a number of viable steps were put in place to help him in this regard. Unfortunately, they did nothing more than scratch the surface. Fortunately, I have been able to schedule my time in a way that has allowed me to help him overcome a multitude of hurdles he had to endure. Not many parents are that lucky. As such, the responsibility and role of the dominant public-school system is paramount in helping young children and their families succeed in addressing the challenges that come with a wide spectrum of cognitive and learning needs.
School boards and/or the people representing them cannot claim that they “do not have a magic wand” that can resolve all kids’ problems, nor should they be allowed to get away with exposing a young child to traumatizing, or emotionally abusive experiences. It’s true that there is only so much schools can do as they are bound by funding and policy issues that are beyond their immediate reach and control. However, there is so much that can actually be achieved within this limited space to make sure an eight or six or seven-year-old, or a kid of any other age for that matter, does not reach the point where they are so stressed out that they become emotionally drained due to being placed in distressing situations.
In a country placed on the first world’s political map and where the tax rate is 13 per cent, the educational services its citizens and residents receive should far exceed those that are being offered here. School boards and those representing them are required to be more transparent in implementing policies and strategies that meet the demands of all their learners and not merely the select few who would succeed regardless of the efforts made by policy-makers and educators alike. While adopting promising slogans may serve as a reflection of a school system’s educational philosophy, such mantras remain short of fulfilling their promises when they are not coupled with tangible steps on the ground.
A good start is to acknowledge that not all students will grow up to be engineers, doctors, or even university graduates. And, that obtaining a university degree is not the only measure of a person’s success.
Another equally important step is to realize that not all students are capable of managing more than one language.
Therefore, instead of burdening students who have been diagnosed with a language and learning disability by developmental pediatricians and school boards’ psychometric assessments with learning an extra language, such as French, they should be given the opportunity to use this valuable time in that language class to work on their pressing literacy and numeracy needs.
I am sure that school boards in general, and HWDSB in particular, have a duty to address the challenges facing them rather than hide behind a façade of parental involvement and staff attentiveness.