Submitted on 2010/01/25 at 10:58am from Leanne Regan

I really like what you have to say in this article. I have been the PAC chair at our children’s school for 1.5 yrs now. The more I learn about the education system, the more flawed I see it is and wonder what parents can do about it. I still know little about the system but it seems to me there’s a number of frustrated people about how the school system works. Correct me if I’m wrong, but are there a lot of teachers as well as parents who view the system as flawed or do most teachers see it all as a good system?

We have one child in grade 5 that has been struggling in school since grade 1. I fear for her future. We have done so much to help her and it still doesn’t seem to be enough.

Keep writing your articles, they’re wonderul!

We can give our children a rich, varied and joyful education — we must. The future of our society, our economy and our democracy depend on this.

This culture of stinginess and negativity personified by Jerry Clarksons’ post above will get us nowhere.

Public education is a perfect idea. As it stands, there is much we can do to improve the system. But the idea itself, the idea that every child, no mattter what their background, income or situation, would receive a high-quality, rounded education that will prepare them to live a joyful and healthy life as an adult — now that is a perfect idea.

1. Student learning must be the primary filter for every single decision within public education. Nonsense: The first priority is to get clear about what it is we want students to learn. The current smorgasbord approach provides no direction and the range of choices is confusing.
2. Stop expecting public institutions to improve from within without substantial guidance and oversight from the public. Nonsense: Unless there is agreement on what students should learn, words like “improve,” “guidance,” and “oversight” are meaningless. Given the pluralistic nature of our society, we should not expect agreement on aims in education. Better for the government to get out of the education business altogether.
3. Replace the factory model, adversarial bargaining system we use to settle public education union contracts. Nonsense: Been there, done that—doesn’t work.
4. Make public education, particularly public education spending, very transparent. Nonsense: Once spending becomes very transparent, disagreements will become more entrenched because the various parties will see exactly what it is they don’t like and why they don’t like it.
5. Quickly implement the findings of education research. Most nonsensical of all? Empirical educational research is bogus—like psych research in general, it is based on pseudo science. You might as well to back to astrology, alchemy, and magic to solve the problems of education.
6. By the end of grade four, 95 per cent of students should have basic reading, writing and math skills. Now here is something that is worth considering—However, is this a proposal to get rid of all that fuzzy thinking about self-esteem and multiculturalism in favour of actually teaching something?
7. All students should have individual education plans and differentiated learning should be standard classroom practice. Nonsense: Try doing the arithmetic to calculate the time required to test-retest-evaluate-plan for one student. Multiply that by the number of students in a classroom.
8. Reform public education governance and school district boundaries. Both are relics of the past and there are more responsive and effective models of governance, which include a larger role for parents and the community. Nonsense: The problem is we have an educational institution founded during the industrial revolution—it is the system, not its boundaries that should be disbanded.
9. 21st Century education is life-long-learning and therefore we must broaden our view of what public education looks like, how it is delivered and who delivers it. Nonsense: The problem is that our view of education has been broadened too much—it now attempts to provide custodial care, implement government social policy, and provide psychotherapy. The view should be narrowed.
10. British Columbia is part of a global community and therefore should be actively supporting access to education around the world. Nonsense. Education, like charity begins at home.

Transition rates are not explained….are they kids who fail and repeat thereby not making the transiton, or are they kids who drop out? Still the high degree of transition (90%) doesn’t seem to explain it.