Any school implementing this curriculum would be my dream school.

I have previously read books about the Core Knowledge curriculum and this is the type of school I think we, as taxpayers and parents, we need in order to have educated citizens and children who are capable to make good decisions for the society and earn a good living.

It is interesting to note that in the US, a draft of common national standards for English and math has just been released by the National Governors Association, the US version of the Council of Ministers of Education.
http://www.corestandards.org/

Do yo think that our Ont. ministry will adopt this curriculum?

There are two Core Knowledge schools in Ontario: Richland Academy (http://www.richlandacademy.ca) and Fieldstone School (http://www.fieldstonedayschool.org)....

I am not particularly opposed to this overall direction. There is a strong critique, however, that accuses CK of too much memorization of trivia, and a lack of democratic and multicultural input. Who gets to decide what is to be included?

Yes Malkin, I knew about Fieldstone.
One of the few private schools where the academic standards seem to be higher.

See ... and that’s my bigest beef with the current system ...by not allowing choice, the systems sets the expectations very, very low for everybody.

All that an independent school needs to do is to be slightly better than the public school. To be a bit more organized, a bit more disciplined but not necesarilly be very good.

If we had real choice and real competition all the schools would gradually get better.

Democratic and multicultural input?
Yes, I think the only fair solution in the long run in Ontario is to allow enough choice so that everybody - both students and teachers - can go to a school that fits their background and expectations reasonably well.
Both the students and the teachers will perform better because they will be commited to the school that they have chosen.

In all fairness, I would hate to impose my ideas about an ideal school on somebody else and I have met parents that as long as their child seems “to have fun” seem to care much less than I do about how much their child learns and knows.
There are other parents that care very much about music or religion or sports.

In addition, I think most teachers have a teaching style and have preferences about which subjects they like to teach and they are good at teaching. Some of them would welcome a chance to find a good fit for their preferences.

As long as a school can prove by results that their student meet the minimum standards that we as a society decide upon - let that school do what the parents and teachers want it to do in any which way they choose!
It is a choice that they should be able to make.

With exit exams and choice the system would be fairer and more motivating for both students and teachers.

This just about rounds out my complete home school lesson plan K-8. With this I can concentrate on the job of teaching. About the only thing I’m still missing is French.
Although I support school choice I now believe that an informed and motivated parent, with these tools, may be the best teacher a child will ever have.

Thank you once again SQE.
You’ve given our children back their right to a quality education.

Wow all of these free and proven programs would save the government a bundle in bureaucrats and “experts” wouldn’t it? 

And to think no wheels to reinvent just solid proven methods and no excuses.

How refreshing!

Could you help?  I went to the core knowledge link you provided but couldn’t see any free sequence.  Can you direct me?

Hi Kerry, it’s here in this section:
http://books.coreknowledge.org/home.php?cat=314

You can dream about competition and choice Europe but the nations that are kicking Americas butt right now are investing heavily in their public school systems, teacher education, class size, ECE and so on. The American left likes to experiment with fuzzy minded Kumbaya schools, the right wants to experiment with choice, privatiztion and testing, all on both sides are failures.

Look at Japan, Finland, Korea, and all the up and coming states that are leaving the USA behind. The OECD just told the US that they are tied with Latvis but don’t worry, they re still ahead of Turkey but not by much.

Excellence is far more important than choice. High National standards, are the key. Mississippi and Louisiana and Arkansas need to be told you education system must be run at the Massachusetts-Minnesota level.

You are wrong about Japan, Mr. Little.  Their public schools excell because they have many private schools with which to compete.  Competition raises the bar for everyone.