A Guide to Education (in Ontario)

What is Education?

According to the Education Act of Ontario: “The purpose of education is to provide students with the opportunity to realize their potential and develop into highly skilled, knowledgeable, caring citizens who contribute to their society.” I would argue that this defines schooling. Education is so much more.

Education happens all the time, all around us, particularly with children. Education is a lifelong process whereby we learn. From the first words to the last task on our bucket list, we are being educated. We are educated by parents, teachers, storekeepers, police, older siblings, friends, relatives, and a myriad of other people whom we meet. We are also educated by situations and observations. Descartes said that we are thinking beings. We are also learning beings. We can't help it. We are always learning.

What is School?

School is a formal institution which teaches a given curriculum. This can be academic, skill building, career training, etc. Just as your health and your doctor are not the same, education and school are not the same. A school is a part of education but only a part.

What is a Good Education?

This has been debated for years and will continue to be debated because we all want different things from life and for our children. It is up to each parent or guardian to decide what makes up a good education for the child. But it is up to our society as a whole to decide what role our public school system should play in providing that education.

Many Goals : One System

How can you achieve many different goals under one standard system? This is the problem that the Ontario Public Education System has struggled with for many years. And it is a problem which cannot be solved within the structure of the current system. As many have explained before, the public school system is based on a manufacturing model. (Sir Ken Robinson – Changing Education Paradigms) Given the raw material, the goal is to turn out the finished product with the most efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Thus we apply theories of best practices and maximizing resources. Works with lumber, oil, cars. Not with children. It is like trying to produce a lovely wooden dining room table at a car factory. It comes out all wrong.

Children may be raw material, in some sense, but none of them are the same. So why do we keep on feeding them into the same system? Because we are shackled to this system. It is the one that failed us. It is the one that is failing our children. But it is familiar. It is time to do away with the familiar and embrace something different. In order to do that we need to change the very way in which we look at education.

Remember the characteristics of school: 1) children sorted by grade (age); 2) one teacher for each group of 30 or so children; 3) teachers deliver the material and assign the work; 4) students are to do what they are told and be respectful. That is the ideal situation, for the traditional school. And it works for some, if the goal is a child who can listen well, follow instructions, and attain outside goals for outside rewards (grades or diplomas). Listening well is a good trait as is following instruction. But I have an issue with attaining goals for outside rewards. This means that the child is not learning for himself but for others. That kind of learning does not develop the individual that he is or could be. That learning produces the end product that the society thinks it wants. What it usually does not produce is a happy child.

To get back to characteristics of school, there are some other things which seem to be constant: 1) boredom, leading to 'zoning out'; 2) confusion, leading to 'zoning out'; 3) pressure to conform, not just from peers but from the system itself which rewards certain types of learning (oral and visual) and discourages other types (tactile and kinesthetic); 4) disengagement of students because they are not interested in the subject matter or are not ready for it. All of these characteristics lead to a great deal of time and effort being spent with the net result that little learning is going on. I heard a great quote about how sitting a child in a classroom and claiming that you are teaching her is like throwing marshmallows at a child and claiming that you are feeding her. In order to learn, children must be engaged. That is so blatantly obvious. And so is the fact that children are only engaged with subjects that interest them. I don't mean teaching mathematics by using skate boards as your example or teaching writing by texting on smart phones. Children are not that dumb. They can easily spy the lesson amidst the surface paraphernalia. I mean let the children learn. What they want, how they want and when they want.

In today's schools children learn to blindly obey, without being allowed to question why. They learn to do the minimum amount of work to achieve a goal, since being punctual with assignments or doing more than asked is seldom if ever rewarded. They learn to wait while others catch up or until someone can explain in a different way what was just taught. They learn that being different is bad, being subservient to adults is good, that you can only be creative within the boundaries laid out. They do not learn to take responsibility for their work. They do not learn self-discipline. They do not learn to always do their best. They do not learn how to be happy. They do not learn to love learning. School is a necessary trial to get through. How sad.

Let's start with a whole new model. Keep the school buildings. They are institutional and bland but they are already there so we might as well use them. Ideally we could use any structure or even location. Keep the teachers. They have been trained to deal with large groups of children, a skill that many parents lack. They also have a broad understanding of the many different ways that children can learn. They are also a wonderful resource as guides for safe and purposeful education. Keep the resources. The books are another wonderful resource. The computers can be very useful as tools for exploration and information. So the physical structure remains intact. What needs to change is the imposed structure within the school day. Since it is an impossible challenge to produce many different goals with one system, let's get rid of the system. Who knows best what a child wants to learn? The child. Who knows best what a child should learn? The parent, in consultation with teachers who may have broader experience on how to achieve specific goals.

To determine how a day should go, look at most kindergarten classrooms. There are areas for different activities. The book area for quiet time. The block area for constructive play. The house area for imaginative play. And others. So design a school on the same idea. Each teacher creates a space filled with his or her passions. These would include not only the curriculum topics but any interest that any individual teacher might have, be it butterflies, hockey, fishing, stamp collecting, or zombies. But the key point is that these are the passions of the teachers, not constructed for the interests of the students. Children can spot a fake very easily. They will know quickly whether or not the teacher is sincere. It is amazing how quickly students will be drawn to a real passion, even opera. (Here I speak from personal experience with a class of Grade 7 and 8 students.) Allow students to wander as they will as long as they are in a classroom under supervision. Teachers don't teach, guide. Just stand there and answer any questions or help with solutions to problems which may arise, or talk about butterflies to anyone interested.

Total chaos is the result. I would agree. But there is nothing wrong with chaos. We seem to think that children left to their own devices will be destructive. Maybe we all were influenced too much by “Lord of the Flies”. Truthfully, children left unfettered by adult restrictions quickly work out rules of conduct. Children have a very strong sense of fairness. We are told that children need a quiet studious atmosphere in which to learn. Actually they learn a lot more when interacting with others and playing with objects. And there is always the quiet book corner to which those overwhelmed by the chaos can retreat. You will sometimes find me there because another passion is books.

Next challenge I hear coming from the doubters: my child will spend the whole day playing a video game. Which is okay, as long as they are achieving the set goals. Oh, goals, you say! That's better! But who sets those goals? Why, the child, of course, in consultation with parents and teachers. The more children control their education the more they are invested in it. They set the goals which are meaningful to them and then they are motivated to reach them. Obviously the younger the child, the more input from adults. But children as young as eight can understand the value of learning to read or understand numbers. They set the goals, they set the plan to reach the goals, they provide evidence which can be assessed to demonstrate that they have achieved the goals.

Children learn. They can't help it. Every minute they are learning. But when they are sitting in a class, being taught a subject they have no interest in, they are not learning what we think they are. They are learning how to entertain themselves without getting caught (texting each other, throwing spitballs, doodling, etc.) I remember writing many Star Trek fan fiction stories while I was supposedly learning history or literature. All of us can recall how we spent our time in class. Seldom was it being engaged in the subject matter. Yes, there are exceptional teachers who can inspire many students but there would be much more learning if the students actually chose to be there.

If you want evidence that this is so, you can look at programs in the United States like The Agile Learning Centers or Compass Centre for Self-Directed Learning right here in Ottawa. Or, better yet, talk with people who homeschool. There are thousands of them and their children are all happy and learning like crazy. Learning can be fun. Therefore, school can be fun.

Pipe Dream?

I think that we have two choices. We can continue with the existing system which provides well paying jobs for many and is familiar and has left several generations now with a dislike for school and education. Or we can take a chance and work out a system which will still provide those jobs but which will also better serve our children. Why are we so convinced that something must be hard and dreary to have value? Why do we continue to send our children to schools that aren't fun? Why do we think it is a silly dream to have fun while working and learning? Are we really so fated to be miserable? A resounding NO!

I have my own experience teaching for over a quarter of a century. Comments from past students: “Thank you for showing me that school can be fun.”(Grade 7) “I have never worked so hard in my life, or had so much fun.”(Grade 9) “Thank you for allowing me to blossom.” (Grade 9) “The best teacher that I ever had (Mrs. Holzscherer) allowed me to be me – as silly as I am.” (Grade 8) I have never worked within the public system, despite having a Masters of Education. I could not reconcile my own experiences with the way that children learn and the way that teachers are expected to teach. My own children only attended the public system for a few years.

Creating a system which treats each child as an individual and allows them to explore the world as and when they see fit is not a pipe dream. It can happen simply because we live in a democracy. The government has no incentive to change the system. The boards of education are doing their bit to keep everyone within financial guidelines and accountable. Teachers need to do what they are told to keep their jobs. The only source of change is the mass of parents who know that the child they send to school is not like any other child and should not be treated as raw material in need of molding into a finished product which will blindly do what it is told. How much are you willing to do for the happiness of your child? Learn about other systems. Learn about other options. Join groups like OPERI in Ottawa. Watch the videos of Sir Ken Robinson. Talk with other parents. The more you learn the more you will see how the Public School system in Ontario cannot work. Tell your local MPP that you want to see significant change. Not the bandages of the last twenty years.

We all have different expectations for our children. We all want them to learn different things in different ways. But I think that we can all agree on one thing. We want our children to be happy. So ask yourself this one question: Is your child happy at school?

Links:

Sir Ken Robinson http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms

OPERI – Public on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/1416370692001490/

Compass Centre for Self-Directed Learning http://www.compassteens.org/

The Agile Learning Center NY http://nyc.agilelearningcenters.org/

Honour the Parents

All parents know that moment when they realize just how fragile and vulnerable their little new baby is. At that moment they want to do everything to protect the child. We spend an enormous amount of time and energy keeping our babies and children safe. But it is more than this. We also want them to be happy and to avoid the growing pains that we went through ourselves.

But we also have to acknowledge the reality - that, if we want them to thrive in this less than perfect world, we cannot completely shelter them. No matter how much we wish to. Our job as parents, and as teachers, and as role models, is to teach them how to deal with the real world. It is no good to prepare them for an utopia that not only doesn't, but also in all likelihood can't, exist.

No matter when a child is first introduced to the larger society - daycare, playgroup, kindergarten, camp - the parent brings one critically important factor to the experience: the knowledge of the child. No one knows a child better than his parent. To anyone working with that child, that knowledge is priceless. The first insight into the makeup of the child comes from the parent. I have always felt that the first parent-teacher interview of the year should involve the teacher asking questions and the parents revealing their intimate knowledge of the students. Any teacher would benefit from this viewpoint.

Parents are always partners with the other people who help their children learn and grow. Parents should be respected for this and their role acknowledged. Just like we no longer just take the pill that the doctor gives us and stay ignorant about our own health, neither should we completely turn control of our child's education over to teachers and administrators. Yes, they know what is best for the average child, but your child is never average. In fact, the average child does not exist. It is a manifestation created from large amounts of data to provide a program that will suit most children most of the time. I would argue that that is not good enough, nor is it the way to run an education system.

Given the training and experience that good teachers have, they should be able to individually work with the parents for each child. Whenever I carefully express this opinion in the presence of teachers they always reply that there are too many children to do this. And yet, each teacher at the elementary level is only responsible for 30 children. This does not mean that the teacher needs to teach each child individually but that they first learn each child from the parent and from their own testing methods. Then they group the children for each skill at the appropriate level. They supply the tasks and the tools and let the children work it out in their own best way at their own time. With properly expressed expectations and responsibilities, this is not chaos but engaged learning - the only kind of learning that is meaningful.

Ask yourself this question: what lessons do you remember from high school? Why do you remember them? How much do you now consider useless? The curriculum has been put together by professionals who realize all the skills and knowledge that children should have to succeed in the real world. The fact that some of that you found useless is not the fault of the curriculum itself but the manner of the delivery. An unengaged student may learn enough to pass the test but will not learn what they will need to go forward in life. Many of us had to relearn what we were taught because we did not learn it the first time.

I can hear some of you now saying, "But I never needed to know the date of Confederation! I never used trigonometry!" But that is not what you were supposed to learn. Canadian history is not about the date of Confederation but an appreciation of where our country came from and how that affects decisions that are made today. Without this awareness we have no hope of understanding the factors behind the issues of today's politics - Aboriginal claims, French rights, social services, health care. And trigonometry is not about triangles and angles but about precision and multi-step procedures that require intense focus and accuracy. These are valuable skills and are the underlying reason for the curriculum.

So I repeat in conclusion that students must be engaged to learn. Teachers must know their students in order to engage them. And parents are the best source for this information. If teachers wonder why so many parents are not involved in their children's education, the system does not respect the knowledge and value of the parents. Embrace any teacher who does. They are the ones who will best teach your precious child the skills needed to thrive in this world of opportunity. 

The Best School Year Ever

Next week million of children once again go to school.  For some it is an exciting time.  Time to see your friends, make new ones, learn new skills.  For others it is just the same old same old.  They are marking time until they can be free!  And for some it is a dreaded nightmare.  A place of bullying, judgement, and fear.  Sometimes we, as a society, just say it is all part of growing up.  That's what they used to say about getting drunk at a party and jamming kids into a car for a wild ride.  We don't call that part of growing up anymore.  An education which instills fear, dislike, or boredom should not be part of growing up either.  Education should give our children skills, knowledge, and above all, a love of learning.  If this isn't happening for your child, there are things that you can do.

The first question that all parents, and older students, need to ask themselves is : What is the purpose of education?  This is neither easy nor obvious and there are many different answers.  Some say that education is to prepare them for life.  What does that mean?  Teaching them accounting skills, how to get a job, time management, practical skills?  Or does it mean teaching them cooperation, teamwork, problem solving, people skills?  Or critical thinking, rational deduction, communication skills?  There are a lot of options.  Perhaps education is to show them how to follow their passion.  To develop that passion into a marketable skill.  Or perhaps the end goal is to learn how to learn so that education is a lifelong experience.  My point here is that there are many different purposes and they are all right.  You have to decide which one is right for your child.

After you have sorted out that, you need to figure out what the school's purpose is.  Do they have the same goal in mind that you do?  You need to know if you are both journeying to the same destination.  If you are not, then you need to supplement your child's education with the pieces that the local school does not offer.  One example which comes up all the time is in high school.  Parents have decided that they want their child to go to university.  They assume that somehow the school knows this.  They think that the school advisors will counsel their child into the best courses for going to university.  However the school counsellors actually have a different goal.  Their goal is to have all the students complete high school.  Therefore they may select courses which suit their goal and not yours.

First and foremost you must be an advocate for your child.  You must work with the school to achieve the end that you want.  Do not assume that they know what that is or, if they do, that they can accommodate you.  After all, they have thousands of students, each with their own goals.  It is essential that you work with the school, the administrators, and the teachers.  An antagonistic relationship will never work.  Your child will lose respect for the school and for education in general.  If you absolutely cannot work with a particular school or system then, for the sake of your child, you must change to another one.  How can you teach your child to respect teachers if you do not? 

This is one important step to helping your child have the best school year ever.  School should be a place of excitement and passion for learning.  And it can be.  If you are interested in more personal advice for your particular situation, send me a comment and I will respond privately.

Happy Schooling!



Education through Art!

Education Through Art

Education Through Art

Education through Art, sounds impressive but what does it mean? What is Art? Painting, dancing, music. These are the Arts. But what is Art? Art is creativity, imagination, something from nothing, of no practical value - these are many other definitions. But more than all of these, Art is the passion. Art is the soul of the machine.

Long ago Western man decided to understand things by taking them apart. If you could grasp the function of each of the pieces then you would understand the whole. Body became separated from Mind. Physical from Mental. Reason from Faith. Practical from Artistic. For generations in sciences, philosophy, and education, we have analyzed and struggled to understand what makes us work, as individuals, as societies, and as a species. The problem lies in that only some parts are reducible to components. So we studied those parts, the body, the physical world, reasoning patterns, practical applications. And we learned how to pass these on to our children. Through formal education.

For the rest, the intangible, the soul, spirit, or whatever term you choose, we left that to the spiritual leaders, to traditions, to culture. And as a species we have been doing okay. Except recently. Now we have a breakdown of these support networks. Most families no longer have a spiritual counselor. Many have left traditions and family networks far behind in our global wanderings. So we look to our source of learning. We look to our scientists and our educators. And we ask them to take care of our children. To find the best practices for teaching. And they do their best. They use the system that they have always used. They emphasize the practical, the applicable, the concrete. Our children learn to use machines. They explore the world through their fingertips and electronic impulses which bring everything they need to them. The world is on the screen before them and they are all knowing.

No, they aren't. They don't know this information; they merely have access to it. In order to learn children must have the skills to learn. They must know how to think and use their minds in multitudinous ways. To see things from different perspectives. To imagine that which they cannot see or access. To stretch themselves. But teachers cannot help them to do that if they do not want to learn. We call them "reluctant learners" and they are a growing epidemic.

But all children learn all the time. They can't help it. It is basic instinct founded on survival skills. Knowledge keeps you alive and allows you to flourish. So what are they reluctant to learn? The very things that the scientists and educators keep telling them they need to know. They are reluctant because they are not engaged. There is no passion in their learning.

What is Art? Art is passion. Art is the realm of engagement. When you educate through art you inspire the spirit to crave the knowledge. A chemical reaction becomes a dance. A math theory becomes a thing of structure and beauty. A history lesson comes alive through the full experience of empathy. The children dream of gladiators. They wince at slavery as they read, write, draw, perform. They engage with the information and then they know it. Their passions are ignited and they are inspired and they learn.

Education Through Art.

I am a Gardener; I am an Artist

I am a Gardener.  Those who know me, know that I am not a gardener of gardens.  In fact, most plants seem to wither and die under my care.  No, I am a gardener of children.  (A Kinder Gartener!)  I take whatever young growth comes to the school and nurture it.  I give it the nutrients, water, soil, and sun that it needs to turn into whatever blossom it is going to be.  There is a video going around Facebook and YouTube about a young man named Andrew De Leon who is exactly the kind of flower which would prosper in our school garden.  He dresses like a Goth and claims to be a failure at everything and yet he has this amazing voice.  Until America's Got Talent, he was treated as a weed, someone who did not fit in the ordered, one-size-fits-all society of the masses.  Daily we see repressed, misfit children reveal hidden talents and amazing gifts.  So I am a gardener who sees a school not as a factory, which churns out productive citizens on a fixed and rigid system, but a garden where students can grow with the support and guidance to be whatever they can be.

I am an Artist.  Again, I can't draw at all, but I am a writer and I know the power of imagination.  We use the student's own imagination to gently allow them to explore, in all subjects, yes, even including mathematics, outside their box.  Out of their tiny, often fantasy, where they escape from the world,  comfort zone.  Breaking out of their shell and taking flight.  Yes, I am mixing metaphors and as an English teacher I should know better.  I do.  But the garden analogy can only be stretched so far.  Because the students may be nurtured by the concrete physical world.  We give them a safe launching pad with daily doses of mental and physical exercises.  But the final goal is to allow them to soar above the garden.  To use their imaginations, their self-confidence to pursue their passions, with firm roots in the here and now.  To dream is one thing; to realize that dream in this present world is another.  It is irresponsible not to teach them the tools they need to turn that dream into a viable, financially sound reality.  So we are a garden of flower birds. 

I am a Teacher.  I till the soil and watch them soar.  I couldn't imagine a better job.  This is my passion and I soar each day!

Food and Math

Anyone who has ever taken a math class from me knows that food will be mentioned.  I always say that this is because, even more than video games, food is central to any teen's life.  Actually it may be that I find food very helpful because it is universal.  So chocolate chip cookies teach basic arithmetic; pizza is a natural for fractions; and, fruit salad was meant for algebra.  I have also noticed that the higher the math skills the less fun the food becomes.  Am I subconsciously trying to get the kids to eat properly?  Not sure about that one.  Maybe I won't spend time here exploring my subconscious.  That could be rather scary!

So then I was thinking about how to use food to explain common denominators for fractions.  What about a camping trip?  Or just your weekly shopping list?  Maybe we'll have spaghetti one night, shepherd's pie another, chicken cacciatore on Wednesday, fish next, and pizza on Friday.  So how does one make the list?  We take the ingredients and check the supplies.  But we combine the fact that Monday and Tuesday's dinners both need ground beef.  We reduce the recipes to the common ingredients.  You have to break down the big numbers until you get the common parts.  Break 1/3 into 2/6 or 4/12 (always smaller units) until you get to a unit that can work with 3/4, or 6/8 or 9/12.  And so we have a common denominator.

But then it struck me!  I am not only finding a common denominator but also showing that you need to put like ingredients together.  Ground beef from two dinners, tomato sauce from three, etc.  So I am adding like terms.  Algebra here we come!  Math is so great because it is so simple!  And yet can be made so beautifully complex!

My other passion is language where complexity is found in the innuendos and subtle flavours of words and their juxtapositions.  Math is so magnificent in its simplicity and clarity.  There are such strict rules and no exceptions.  I find it very amusing that students think speaking and texting are so simple and math is so hard.  The opposite is true.  We all know the messes that can occur with a simple misunderstanding of the words on a message or the tone of a note.  In math there can be no misunderstanding.  What you see is what you get.  There are no interpretations, no miscommunications.  2 + 2 is always 4, regardless of your mood, the weather, how much sleep you got, and whether the source is a friend or foe.  Math is pure and consistent in a world constantly changing.  It can explore the universe and still remain the same.  Anyone can learn it because, unlike our spoken language, it is a universal language.  It is based on some very clearly laid out principles and then everything is derived from that.

So back to food.  Math should not be taught as a series of recipes to be memorized but as a list of ingredients which can be combined in certain ways to produce something so much more.  Just as understanding the properties of flour and water can produce bread, pizza dough, gravy or glue, so understanding the basics of math can lead to algebra, functions, and calculus.  The more you cook, the better you become.  The more you play with math, the easier it is.  So join me sometime in the kitchen and we will learn some algebra.

Long live chocolate chip cookies!