Interesting few hours exploring the links and material to discovered how well protected and over flowing pocketbooks are for the educrats who peddled the snake oil in the 21st Century schools.

One such link, should raise a few eyebrows where most if not all, started work as a teacher. Quite a few Canadians peddling their own brand of snake oil under such categories such as brain compatible, or equity and diversity.
http://www.corwinpressspeakers.com/BrowsebyName.aspx?letter=M

As I explored the above site, it brought up in my mind the previous SQE post titled, Joy For Jump on April 21. As I remembered reading, there was a follow-up article to answer many of the comments and questions on Jump Math.

Jump Math and its methods in instruction, are far more truer to how students think cognitively, which leads to higher achievement, than any of the snake oil being peddled by the educrats.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/teaching-math-advanced-discussion/

Jump Math and its methods does not categorized and separate learners, as does the current direction and methods of the educrats who see students through the lens of what they cannot do, thus labeling students first. Instruction is done through the filter of labels, and causes the wide disparity of learning methods.

I have lost track of the many times I was told that my child was incapable of doing such advance work in math in many different ways by the educrats. In the educrat’s world, and the snake oil being peddled, a child like mine is met with low expectations because the snake oil being peddled has lower expectations for LD children.

>>The latest crisis in Canadian classrooms is the very wide disparity of learning abilities within a single classroom.<<

First of all in such a situation even a very good teacher - in the sense most of us writing here on this blog understand good teaching - can do next to nothing in such a situation. Unless you have a sense of martirdom you would not put yourself in such a helpless situation day after day.
I think it is one of the reasons some of the older and in my opinion more able teachers are leaving in droves as soon as they can.

So the people who remain teaching in such circumstances mostly self-select in such a way that they either do not care or they are incompetent enough - due to the fact that their own education was similar and due to the training they get in the teachers’ college - that they consider such a situation normal and therefore they even consider that they are doing an adequate job.

I’ve heard quite a few times that all elementary teachers prefer to teach the lowest grades preferably grade 1. Now I know why: the gap is probably smaller, the children are still eager to some degree, there is little accountability and there are no hormones involved.

Secondly, if the gap is so big and the curriculum so loose, why are we even worried about split classes? What difference does it make if there is no uniform set of expectations that applies to all the students in the first place?

I miss TDSBNW’s posts.

The disparity in the learning levels of students, are often cause by incorrect reading, writing and numeracy instruction. The gap continues to widen after primary grades, because few students received the correct remediation for their learning weakness in the foundations of reading, writing and numeracy. As I have observed, and experienced the public education is designed to label children rather than striving to correct the weaknesses, through the use of good effective instruction and curriculum based on the science and the research.

As my child improve her foundation in reading, writing and numeracy tutoring at home, her achievement rise steadily. Direct instruction, systematic, lots of practice has been shown to be the most effective for all children.  What really got to me, was the low expectations the school had for my child, and as I have observed with other children.

Europe, if teachers really think like that - than why are they not demanding more effective training and curriculum?  They has to be lots of children like mine who are the best examples to used that reading, writing and numeracy instruction is not the correct one, and it is timed to dropped whole language and progressive methods which is causing the low achievement, the various levels of students, and low expectations of students.

Nancy, I do agree with you that the root causes of our children not learning are incorrect methods of instruction in reading, writing and basic math.

Asking rhethorical questions as to why teachers are not demanding more effective training and curriculum does not lead to solutions.

TDSBNW has spelled it for us: teaching using the methods prescribed by your employer - MOE and the school -  is part of your employment contract. Personally I think it is reasonable that the for employer that pays you to set the rules.
If your values and the rules are not a match you leave for another employer or they fire you.
And employers with rules or goals that do not work change or go out of business.

If we the parents could choose schools with our own tax money then schools that parent believe don’t work will change or go out of business.

If the teachers had a choice of schools to work for they would choose the ones where the rules and goals make sense for them.
As it is right now if you are a good teacher the way SQE defines good teaching your only alternatives are:
- put up with it, shut up and do the best that you can in a very constrained and bad situation
- disobey the stupid rules, do what you think it’s right and get fired in the long run
- resign.

Where would you go and what would you do as a teacher if you don’t agree with the rules of MOE?

If you have other marketable skills and you are relatively young you change professions.
If you don’t have other skills you stay.
If you are middle age .. I don’t know.
If your love is teaching then you have the hardest choice and you are effectively trapped since there are not many employers of teachers.

So Nancy, ... let’s not ask about teachers to be superhumans. I don’t know what kind of work you do and what kind of employer you work for but put yourself in other people’s shoes.