School WAS NOT Meant To Be Fun But Recess...

"Rubber Rooms" Have Been Integrated Into The 3Rs...

...how does the system work in your area schools?

Opinions


Teachers who don’t deserve union protection

What Right Do Students Have To Protest....

Oakwood students blindsided by Africentric school proposal


2011/03/27 18:11:52

Oakwood’s school council said it is a “disgrace” that parents, students and teachers were not consulted before the TDSB made the recommendation. (3)

Oakwood Collegiate proposed for Africentric high school 

Metro - Oakwood students blindsided by Africentric school proposal

Student Suspended For Expressing Himself BUT,,,

...the leftwing has a protected environment and you and I pay for it.

Jonathan Kay: The Jenny Peto scandal shows that it’s time to clean house at OISE


By now, many people have heard of Jenny Peto — the 29-year-old anti-Israel fanatic who managed to get a Master’s Degree at OISE for a navel-gazing essay that claimed holocaust education was a tool of the Zionist war machine. Peto’s project was so offensive that she actually was rebuked in the Ontario legislature. We also know that the paper is littered with unsupported claims — thanks to this fine article by Robyn Urback.

But Peto is a small fish. The bigger problem here is OISE — the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, AKA UToronto’s teacher’s college — itself. For years, I’ve been hearing tales of political correctness gone amok at OISE, including radical anti-Israeli events. But it took the Peto case to really get me probing around to see what else is going on at OISE.

Someone else who’s been doing his homework is Werner Cohn, a former UBC sociology prof now living in New York. Below, reproduced with his permission, is his analysis of the 36 internet-available master’s theses that have been conducted under the auspices of OISE’s Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education department. They read like a satire of 1990s-era political correctness.

Surely, the higher-ups at UToronto know about this sort of thing. Will the Peto scandal give them the excuse they need to clean house? Read More »

Cuting Provincial Defecit...

...eliminate the government department supposedly in charge of education. The reality is that teacher's unions have been and still are in charge.

New report cards are a failure: Editorial


Just when parents want more clarity, more accountability about what their children are learning, the Liberal government has once again caved in to teachers to come up with a “progress report.”

Indoctrination Opportunties...

2040 Alumni of Ontario Early Education 2010 Class

How Ontario can become a world education leader

By David Crombie, and Margaret McCain

Sat Nov 13 2010

Early education is good for the province and politically popular, too.

Indocrination is not education and relieving parents of their responsibilities by providing baby sitting during the formative years creates an atmosphere for indocrination...government can do no harm.

Who Does The Minister Of Education Report To...

* Teacher Unions

* Leftwing Social In-Activists

* Dulltoon McGoonty

Should Read: Parents And Culture Have Something To Teach...

...and it extends beyond Asians to most cultures and particularly the first generation.

Tasha Kheiriddin: Asian students have something to teach

Recently, two articles focusing on students of Asian background , one in the Toronto Star, the other in Maclean’s magazine, have caused controversy among academic and social circles alike.

The reports discussed the fact that these students are academically outperforming their non-Asian peers and gaining greater representation in Canadian universities. The Chinese Canadian Council slammed the pieces for “fear mongering” and stoking an “us versus them” mentality, because they cited concerns some students and university administrators had about this trend. Read More »

There Doesn't Seem To Be Any Joy In Going Back To School...

...and couple that with the reality of our education system and things won't get better.

Do They Still Teach Civics...

Civics

I believe Civics is a mandatory course in high school in this country, but apparently the curriculum in this class doesn't teach children about basic respect for the institutions of this country...

When Jeremy Dyer was selected to represent his province because of his human rights art, he had no idea he'd find himself in line to shake Prime Minister Stephen Harper's hand.
The notion was an affront to Dyer, an activist who vehemently disagrees with many of Harper's policies.
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were both in attendance, as the Queen unveiled a cornerstone to the museum.
Then, standing in front of cameras alongside his peers, Dyer heard rumblings the prime minister was en route.
“I didn't know until literally minutes before,” said the Memorial University student. “I was pretty outraged that he was going to be there... I told them I would politely decline to shake his hand if he attempted.”

However one feels about the man, one should at very least respect the Office.
Of course, this failure of basic manners can only be in part from the influence of the socialist school system.  The main failure belongs with this boy's parents.

Wonder Woman on July 10, 2010

Follow Up On Teacher's Union Goons....

Harris laments union’s ‘bully tactics’ against student teachers

Wed Jun 09 2010

Former premier Mike Harris is decrying the “bully tactics” of the Ontario Teachers Federation, which is threatening student teachers from Nipissing.

We Hold Elections For School Board Members Who Are Supposed To Manage Schools BUT...

Mike Harris' honourary degree could halt student placements

By Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles, QMI Agency

Ontario teachers' associations say they won't hire student teachers from Nipissing University if the school gives former Ontario premier an honourary degree on Friday.

...we have union goons usurping the duties and authority of those boards.

COMMENTS

Schools need to quit status quo: MacDonald

By MOIRA MACDONALD, Toronto Sun

The Toronto District School Board’s recent “Achievement Gap Task Force Draft Report” confirms what Toronto educators have known for decades. 

Comment

No Child Will Be Left Behind...

...consequently the number of semi-literates is growing.

Self-esteem over skills

By MINDELLE JACOBS, QMI Agency

Three upstart Canadian academics have dared to suggest what many parents already suspect — that North American public education has been so dumbed down that students are being seriously short-changed.

Educational Scoreboard...

University ‘innovation’ funding fails the grade 

 

...I can understand why we lose manufacturing jobs, higher wages and higher costs, but why do we need to call Pakistan, et al, to find out how to fix our computer or order printer ribbons, etc.  

Here We Go Again...

Reading and writing: the golden ticket

But the problem of poor literacy skills is a scandal in plain view. May 14, 2010 

...leftists on school boards diminished the value of the three Rs by refusing to fail students, by changing the role of teachers to student's friends, by promoting the introduction of Jane Has Two Mothers into the reading list and other cultural items that should be left to the families.

This A Little Scary Especially...

...when we have a 16 year old in serious condition in hospital after suffering an injury while playing Rugby and it appear like no one took the time to check to see whether he was medically able to be involved in school sports and of course the Ministry is playing the blame game.

Big Brother is watching (and Big Principal, Big Homeroom Teacher, even Big Bus Driver)

Posted: May 03, 2010, 3:02 PM by Lorne Gunter

Last June, the Ontario Legislature passed Bill 157, an amendment to the Education Act innocuously subtitled the Keeping Our Kids Safe at School act. The chances that this legislation -- which came into effect on February 1 of this year -- will make Ontario students safer is minimal. But it will keep teachers, adminstrators, custodians and even school bus drivers busy filling out forms and counselling students and parents about the evils of anti-social behaviour. Under the new law, all staff at Ontario schools are required to report every incident of "inappropriate, disrespectful behavior among students." Every one. They must fill out an incident report and file it with the school principal. He or she is then required to inform the parents of all students involved -- perpetrators, victims and witnesses -- and report to the school board what action he or she took to correct the behaviour. Sure, some of the behaviours listed in the act are serious and should be addressed, No one wants weapons and drugs in schools, for instance. But the Ontario education ministry is telling school employees that they must now report every threat of violence and incidence of homophobia or discrimination. A school employee recently wrote me after he had completed his Bill 157 training to say he was told that if he overhead students calling one another "retards," he was to file an incident report. He had heard a student tell a boy from her class that she was going to kill him later in, what he described as the playful, giggling tone that teens use when they want to express their "like" for a schoolmate but can't bring themselves to come right out and say it. When asked if he had to report an incident like that, the bureaucrats conducting his training said absolutely. That's the problem with such zero-tolerance policies, the remove all context, reason and discretion. They are unthinking. They lump the good in with the bad, the jocular in with the truly threatening. In making no distinction among behaviours, these laws and policies insult the good judgment of professional educators, but more importantly, they distract principals and school officials with busywork while real threats to student safety go unnoticed. You may recall how three years ago a gunman entered C. W. Jeffreys Collegiate, a high school in NW Toronto, and shot to death 15-year-old Jordan Manners. The city was scandalized. How could this happen? Community leaders met with police and city officials; even federal and provincial representatives were present. They wanted to make sure the incident was never repeated. Bills such as 157 come out of incidents like that. But the problem is they can't stop the real baddies, like the ones who shot Jordan Manners (whoever they are; a mistrial was declared earlier this spring in the trial of the two accused killers). All such legislation succeeds in doing is giving records to good kids using typical teen language and behaviours. This law makes it look as if something is being done while the real violent behaviour is too tough to deal with and so gets ignored.