Organization for Quality Education: Equity through school choice

Newsletter of the Organization for Quality Education, September 2000 Issue

 

 

 

 

….For Different Folks

(….and an equally inspiring account of

another mother’s tactics)

 

 

The Pending Teacher Shortage

(the inside story on why the teachers’ unions love teacher certification requirements, even though their value is questionable)

 

 

No Excuses

(dynamite ways to get parents involved in their children’s education)

 

 

The Myth of Learning Styles

(revelations about the pointlessness of

tailoring instruction to students’ traits)

 

 

From the Frying Pan … Into the Fire

(authoritative information on validated

educational beliefs, concepts, and practices)

 

 

The 20% Solution

(a modest proposal to teach all children, even the bottom fifth, to read)

 

 

 

Gospel of Goofiness

(good comebacks to idiotic edubabble )

 

 

Le Tour de France

(a swift race through the French educational landscape)

 

 

Fahrenheit 451

(a bulletin about a little-known health

hazard)

 

 

The Secret of Success

(important news for parents and teachers who want their students to succeed)

 

 

an Explosive Equation

(the lowdown on the pending teachers’ strike in Ontario

 

 

and lots more - Publications of Interest, What’s New?, OQE activities, Letters to the Editor, etc.

From the President

Do educators

 respect democracy?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parents and others interested in the long-term health of our society want school choice for many reasons. Systematic phonics, unsemestered high school programs, respect for religious values, and strict discipline codes are just some of the things that are not readily available in our publicly-funded schools. after attending an education conference last spring, I can add another type of schooling that we need: one that respects and teaches democracy.

What I heard and saw at the conference caused me to reflect on developments over the last few years that I had personally witnessed in a number of schools or had learned of through the media. In the end, I had to reach the very sad conclusion that many of those running our schools are contemptuous of democracy.

In late May, the Education Improvement Commission hosted an excellent conference on shared decision-making in education. The presentation of one of the lunch speakers, John Wright, was particularly timely because his company, angus Reid, had just released the results of an independent poll detailing how Ontarians felt about the Harris government’s education initiatives. On every issue except mandatory extracurricular involvement (which was split 50-50), respondents had given the Tories a strong thumbs up.

as coffees were sipped and desserts nibbled, Mr. Wright walked his increasingly-attentive audience through a string of education poll results starting in the Frank Miller days of 1986 and ending with this latest survey. On issue after issue, from student testing to the power of teacher federations, he showed how the electorate had grown increasingly disenchanted with Ontario schools.

He remarked that the electorate had given the Conservative government free rein on education issues because those within our school systems and in previous Queen’s Park administrations had not taken those long-standing concerns seriously. He concluded, without endorsing the way that reforms were currently being pursued, that an aggressive education reform agenda was inevitable regardless of which government was in power.

 

Continued ...