Korean Job Discussion Forums

[grainger]

This is why I am seriously debating on not returning to teaching in Canada.

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/223488

[cosmicgirlie]

This is one of the most frustrating pieces of legislation as part of the Educational Act in Ontario. It's also one of many reasons why I left my sweet as* paying gig with a large school board. All the benefits and money couldn't keep me working for the school board.

I wasn't a teacher with the board either, I was a school counsellor and it drove me bonkers that kids in the classrooms I was assigned to were not being held accountable for their failures. Especially since they were given a lot of support via myself, 1 on 1 EA's and modifications in their education via IEP.

I worked in a self contained behavioural classroom where the main focus of our educational goals was to work on the social, emotional and behavioural aspect of schools. I know and understand that educating someone who is not behaviourally, emotionally or socially ready to learn is difficult but passing them on without any sort of measuable means of achievement sets them up for a false sense of responsibility.

Some of the kids I worked with I would treat with a palative approach in that there is no way in hell they would ever amount to much other than minimal achievement. Why they were enrolled in a 'regular' school setting is beyond me. A self contained behavioural classroom inside a regular school is extremely dangerous to the school moral when the majority of the kids in the classrooms are mental health and not behavioural. While I am mental health treatment trained these kids should be receiving other means of education and not reading, writing and maths. The 'behavioural' kids are now being placed in LD classrooms. It's a sad state of affairs with respect to this piece of legislation and the make up of the education system in Ontario.

The other reasons for leaving a sweet paying gig: no matter how much I make and no matter how much I recieve in the way of benefits, no amount of money is worth being told everyday by some snot nosed 7th grader who's parents have no way of controlling them except through bribes and treats, that you are a bit*c, cow, or sl*t, or worse having desks tossed at you, attacked for removing stimulus items or being threatened with weapons, without being able to have some action--ie restraints--that result in deep investigations which turn out for the most part to be 'your fault' for not defusing the situation. I can tell you from past work experience in mental health situations most of those actions would result in restraint and intense debriefing sessions where child, worker and doctors work on ways of preventing it from happening in the future! However, because unlicensed parents(I think parents should have training before having a child) have unruly children us folks who work in the 'helping' industry are seen as the 'bad' guys by the outside world for even suggesting that a child need to be hospitalized or removed from the family.

Before folks get up in arms about the last statement, understand this, I am a big supporter of rights of kids, and my dream job would be to work for UNICEF or some other human rights org or international org for kids but when it comes to education in Ontario I get pis*ed off at the stupid rules the gov't has come up with. The Right to Pass is one of the most stupid laws with respect to children. We fail both the parents, children and future generations when we don't hold people accountable.....screw a PC world. Tell it like it is. If your kids is a spoiled rotten bratt then those parents need a swift kick in the as*!

[Alyallen]

[twg]

What the hell?

You don't do the work, you don't get a pass.

I mean, I accept it from hagwons, they're not really about education. But this is dumb.

[ddeubel]

My own comments would be that there is both good and bad in the article's logic and this "right to pass".

Bad, as so pointedly mentioned; no standards, a lower bar, the further expansion of the "ease" factor in society.

Good. It might be the beginings of a real debate about "standards" and what education truly is. I have taught a number of years in Ontario, many different grades and I would say that one thing that is shocking is that we assume to know what "intelligence" is and we give a mark for it. There is not much discussion about this other than in the realm of those outside the "paradigm" or system, like homeschoolers or open education.

Sounds revolutionary to NOT mark. But without detailing the arguement, think about it. Does it have any relevance anymore?

DD

[manlyboy]

A triumph for the equality and civil rights of blacks, I say! From now on EVERYBODY will be infantilized and held to lower standards.

[Alyallen]

[RACETRAITOR]

[manlyboy]

[grainger]

[ddeubel]

[poet13]

Wow, and to think in 1979, in Ontario (Private school system - "The Little Four" if you know about them), I repeated grade 9 for getting an overall 67%. 70% was a pass. 69.9999% was a fail.

manlyboy. I think you made an interesting point. It bears discussion, though I think it might degenerate into people just hating on each other. You said "insidious...racism". It's a kind of racism trap that's easy to fall into. I did. I'll explain. I spent some time in South Africa staying at a friends house. They are white. They had a few people working for them. A cook/cleaner/laundress, a driver and close-in personal security professional, and a gardener/ handyman. They treated them well. We (my ex and I), met their white friends too. They also had black people working for them. They treated them well too. I thought, "wow, isn't this great, black and white people gettting along!". After several weeks, I started to pick up things in conversations. I started to realize that my white friends essentially treated the black people like children. Overly polite, giving small gifts and liberties, stuff like that. Late one evening, as the ten or so of us were nearing the end of a case of single malt, I asked straight out. The answer was almost unanimous. "These poor kaffirs (blacks) can't do for themselves, so we have to take care of them." Wow . In my numbed stated, I actually had no verbal reaction. But damn did I have plenty to think about.

[pkang0202]

I believe there has to be standards. In Virginia, there was a LOT of controversy concerning their SOL(Standards of Learning) tests. You had to pass those tests in order to graduate.

People were complaining that the classroom went from teaching to just preparing for the test. However, the content in the test was something every child SHOULD know.

The reading/math/comprehension/history/science level being tested was that of a middle school level. Despite that, there were high school students who simply did not have the basic knowledge that is required.

It also exposed a lot of schools. Some schools were shutdown because their so called honor students couldn't pass any of the SOL tests.

The SOL's are a benchmark. Universities in the US are getting REALLY tired of getting these students who can't write, can't do math, or don't have any grasp of sciences.

Its ridiculous to have to teach University students Algebra and how to write a 5 sentence paragraph correctly.

[twg]

[grainger]