Re: Editorial Learning For Life
Teachers, ready to relax and recover after the school year end, received a mean-spirited slap in the face, followed by several kicks to sensitive bits of metaphorical anatomy, from Neil Godbout's editorial.
Education professionals talk. Sometimes they share the frustrations of their efforts to help young people develop to become contributing members of society. Yes, they do try, and sometimes they even succeed.
Schooling is not just one thing, or one subject, with only one aim. Educators are continually discussing what should be in the curriculum, debating the best methods and how best to evaluate learning. The educational field is simply too big. There are different styles of learning, different motivations and attitudes, different family and cultural backgrounds, different economic backgrounds, varying emotional needs, varying learning disabilities, ad infinitum.
Teachers do make huge efforts to impart how to learn and how to process information, as one important aspect of their job. Mr Godbout states that high-school courses are "divorced from their connection to life," and that "teachers don't teach anyone the important subjects that dominate our lives," then perambulates about, rambling about various better ways to create the ideal human being. The thing he doesn't seem to realize is that many of the ideas he is advocating are regularly and commonly done in classrooms across the province and country. When was the last time Mr. Godbout spent time observing in a classroom?
He does not mention that B.C. classrooms are dealing with fewer resources and services due to continuing cutbacks. Does your child's school have a learning assistance program or a full time librarian? If so, you are among the lucky few. If you are going to have larger classes you will automatically have less individualized instruction, meaning less opportunity to follow areas of interest, leading to, yes, "moving the students along the assembly line." The Fraser Institute seems to favour this approach. If you want the kind of discourse Mr. Godbout advocates, you need smaller classes so that teachers can get to know their students' needs, you need access to excellent resources, including well-funded professional development so that teachers can keep up with a rapidly changing world, and you need to dump standardized testing. Look up the Finland educational model.
The last statement is simply a gross insult to all teachers. "It's time for a new course called How To Teach." Sigh. In the fall, Mr Godbout, go visit some classrooms. Start with kindergarten and work your way up.
Elizabeth Eakin
Prince George
