Thoughts on Education
This is not intended to be a comprehensive treatise on education but some thoughts on certain aspects of the education system. It is written within the context of the Ontario education system but it’s ideas are intended to be universal.
Education should not be political but in reality some of the policies governing our education system will have to be political decisions, hopefully based on expert advice.
The first political education decision I would make is to have one single education system that teaches Canadian values. I would go beyond just one secular publicly funded education system and establish one system overall, no religious or private schools, nor home schooling at the elementary and secondary level. Students should not be segregated by religion or wealth in school and home schooling is often just a means for parents to teach their own particular version of bigotry or hate to their children free of a counterbalance of Canadian values from the school system.
School boards are perhaps the most obvious political factor in the education system but what purpose do they serve as education is a province wide system governed by province wide standards with policies such as curriculum, class sizes, etc. set provincially and teacher and education worker salaries and benefits being negotiated on a provincial basis.
The one thing local school boards seem to get most involved in is school boundaries and school closure decisions. These are decisions that should be based on the facts of the situation and not politics and that is how they usually start out with reports provided by the experts. Then the community activists/lobbyists get involved, perhaps not a bad thing, but the result is usually in favour of the best organized who more often than not are the most affluent communities.
Though some school board members are indeed concerned with education many run for school board to gain political experience and campaign experience in order to run for what they are really interested in, municipal politics.
It is time to leave education to the experts and leave politics out of it as much as possible.
The most important education system decisions are curriculum decisions, which of necessity at the highest level are going to require political decisions. These are decisions such as: which courses should be offered provincially, the decision to stop streaming students into non-university and university levels courses at grade nine, and the decision to stop making Latin a compulsory high school course. The content of courses should be left to the experts, however they should reflect Canadian values.
Canadian values are the perceived commonly shared ethical and human values of Canadians.[3] The majority of Canadians believe they share specific values,[4][5] with a plurality identifying human rights, respect for the law and gender equality as collective principles.[6][7] Canadians generally exhibit pride in equality before the law, fairness, social justice, freedom, and respect for others;[8] while often making personal decisions based on self-interests rather than a collective Canadian identity.[9] Tolerance and sensitivity hold significant importance in Canada's multicultural society, as does politeness.[9][7] (Source: Wikipedia)
As far curriculum is concerned let’s start with teaching religion. The school system should not teach religion, but because religion is an important cultural and historical factor in the world schools should teach about religion, but should do it the same way we were taught about Greek, Roman and Norse gods, as cultural mythology.
Continuing the discussion of curriculum, I believe one way to engage students is to include room in the provincial curriculum for localized units in all subjects. This will provide students with local information they can relate to as well as an opportunity to do research using locally available original sources, like local newspaper archives, as well as an opportunity for field trips to local historical sites or distinctive local geographic and natural features.
The first and most obvious use of this is to learn about the first indigenous inhabitants of the area their school is located in, but it could also include the history of early local settlements. There will of course be localized study opportunities for all subjects, but particularly the social and natural sciences, as well studying local authors and writers in literature and other fields should also be included.
Beyond curriculum, there is a trend to an increased emphasis on testing and exams. I was lucky enough to start secondary school just after the province ended departmental exams, which were exams set and marked in Toronto so every student in Ontario wrote the same exam. There is an argument being made now to increase reliance on exams partly because AIs cannot write exams like they can papers. However, increased reliance on exams can lead to teaching that which can easily be tested by exams and marked by machines. Exam-based teaching can quickly become teaching students to pass tests rather than to understand the subject matter. I always learned more by writing papers than by trying to memorize facts. I would personally eliminate or make exams \optional as we did at Laurentian University for a few years in the 1970s.
I have not written about the hot button issues of sex education, or accepting students sexual orientation and gender identities because enough has been written about those issues and, as I wrote, this was not intended to be a comprehensive treatise on education policy.
