Newsletter of
the Organization for Quality Education, December 2001 Issue
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Why We Teach
History
(a thought-provoking
discussion of the impact this subject can have) |
Page 4 |
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Teacher
Co-operatives
(a radical proposal for
placing highly-qualified teachers in front of students) |
Page 5 |
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But We Do Teach
Phonics!
(important research on the
characteristics of the best phonics programs) |
Page 6 |
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(a curmudgeonly dismissal
of the need for programs like consumer education) |
Page 8 |
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Profitable
Universities
(a lesson on the
importance of students’ tuition fees) |
Page 9
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Bargain Basement
(a shopping list of
reasons why home-schooling is a good idea) |
Page 10 |
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Drill and Skill
(an iconoclastic
explanation of how rote learning makes creativity possible) |
Page 11 |
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Vouching for
Vouchers
(little-known information
about school vouchers in Maine and Vermont) |
Page 12
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Latent Learners
(a spoof of ‘learning
styles’ by the author of ‘Whole Language takes on Golf’) |
Page 13
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Learning
Mythabilities
(revelations about the
bogus nature of learning disabilities) |
Page 14
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School Council
Quick Check-Up
(a one-minute audit of
your school council’s effectiveness) |
Page 15
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Looking for Answers(OQE’s annual ranking of Ontario school boards by their EQAO test results) |
Page 16
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Whole Language on Trial(a fascinating report on what
may turn out to be the education trial of the century) |
Page 17
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And
lots more - Publications of Interest, What’s New?, Member Survey Report,
Letters to the Editor, How to Start an Independent School, etc. |
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From the President
Progress? Wasted
Time and a Terrific AGM
This past spring, OQE celebrated its 10th
anniversary. In those ten years, some things have improved, some have just
changed, and other things.… well, let’s just say that Rome wasn’t rebuilt in a
decade.
In 1991:
·
Ontario had an
elementary curriculum that was mush and report cards that parents couldn’t
decipher;
·
Ontario schools were
struggling to make their $12,000-a-pop ICON computers work (Apple and IBM PC’s
just weren’t good enough for Ontario students);
·
The “not invented here”
syndrome held firm sway at school board offices as well as at the ministry;
·
The International
Baccalaureate (IB) program was offered in just one public school in Ontario (at
that time, at least five schools offered the program in Winnipeg alone);
·
Ontario’s education
establishment was still hanging on to grade 13 — despite an earlier
government’s attempt to abolish it and regardless of widespread agreement among
university and college presidents that grade 13 was a deplorable waste of
student time and public money;
·
Ontario had no
provincial testing and had just secretly withdrawn from the National Indicators
testing program (the resulting backlash led to the appointment of a new minister
of education who opted Ontario back in to the testing);
·
There were few school
councils, and parental involvement in schools was limited to fundraising;
·
Ministry of Education
staff members worked to modify or completely reverse the direction of reforms
suggested by any minister who had the temerity to think outside of the Mowat
Building box; and
·
Faculties of education
were not grounding their teaching candidates in effective instructional
methods.
In 2001:
·
Ontario has an
elementary curriculum that, despite its constructivist bent, is light years
ahead of ten years ago;
·
Parents can get useful
information from report cards;
Continued on the next page…