Glad I Am Retired

Glad I Am Retired

Two separate events happened this week that, upon reflection, I find myself realizing I am losing my skills when it comes to teaching. First off, last Sunday  I worked with some of the mothers in the Hebrew School of the synagogue to arrange for a morning of baking Hamantaschen for Purim.  I got all the ingredients and the mothers organized the actual baking but I did a fair bit up front to ensure that all was in order so they could come in and get right to it. I didn't mind the prep work and I was thrilled to be in a position to watch the kids as they made the dough with their hands and rolled it out and then cut out the shapes for filling.  My wife Marlene made the filling but the kids under the watchful eyes of their mothers put the filling in and closed the shapes and then they all went into the oven  While the baking was actually going on, the kids were more than a little wired and so I was asked if I would read them all a story.  I didn't mind but it was hard to get down on the floor with the kids like I always used to......it was actually quite painful.  Then when I tried so summarize the story a bit at first, about Purim, I got some of the details wrong and was corrected by the oldest boy in the group who had actually been listening in Hebrew School.  The story itself went really well and the end product, the hamantaschen worked out really well. The other event was today when I got a lesson on Twitter.  I am not used to being the learner, taught by someone much younger.  I also noticed I am losing my grasp of the way in which some of the technology works and words that I want to use don't come to me right away, like they used to.  The old grey mare just ain't what it used to be!

An All-Ontario Day of Protest

An All-Ontario Day of Protest

Anyone who has been following the news about the negotiations with the teachers of Ontario and the Provincial Government know that issues are coming to a head.  For those that don't know the history of relations between the federations and Ontario , you need to know that the last time things got this tense, this bad, was when Mike Harris became premier and he set out to make minced meat of the teachers of the province. He believed, like many of his party and ilk believed at the time, that the problems in education in our province began and ended with the teachers federations.  He was convinced we were nothing more than money grabbing, lazy employees who had nothing but power on their minds.  His first act was to throw down the gauntlet and bring into law new curriculum documents without so much as a moment to in-service the teachers or money to implement.  The curriculum documents were in the works anyways but no one anticipated the government thumbing its nose at us like that. This was followed by tough nosed bargaining in which we were denied almost everything being asked for.  So, we all walked out......went on strike.....all the federations, elementary, secondary, public and private, English and French.  We walked the picket lines and I remember those days clearly.  That was almost 25 years ago.  Now it is Doug Ford and his minions who again, are convinced that they can draw the line in the sand with teachers.  They are releasing all kinds of memos attempting to paint the picture as all about money.  That won't work.  The public knows precisely what is at stake and actually, events south of the board reinforce the idea that the quality of public education is what is at stake.  It will be interesting to follow the negotiations.  A part of me wants to walk the picket lines with them.  I suppose I should...... 

The Role of Public Education

The Role of Public Education

I am probably going to be preaching to the choir with this post, but I feel everyone has to speak up in defence of a public system of education.  I understand that there are many who feel that their children ought to benefit from something somewhat better than a public school. We live in an age of entitlement and no one does that better today than young parents. They want only the best for their children.  However, there are many who cannot get anything better than the public schools because they are not particularly well off. So they put their kids in public schools that are receiving a dwindling number of resources and therefore continue to grow the gap between what charter or private schools can provide and what their children get.  However, what most in society refuse to acknowledge is the role the public education system played in making societies better.  As schools became better at performing their role and providing a baseline education for their charges, the society as a whole benefitted.  If you are not sure of this, look at most of the developing countries around the world and see that they have put huge amounts of money, money that they can ill afford, into schools for their children.  Literacy rates around the world have gone through the ceiling everywhere.  That is because of the public school system.  More people have been lifted from poverty as a result of increased literacy and numeracy skills.  Now, in the wealthiest country of them all, the U. S. of A., public schools are being deprived of the chance to get even better. The result is that there is a huge underclass of people educated in poorly equipped schools and therefore unable to keep up with the kids born to wealth and privilege.  Ironically, the kids of the latter environment take what they have for granted and many don't even try to excel.  The end result will be that the society that was once the magnet for the rest of the world will be surpassed and put to shame by those hungry enough to want to raise themselves and derive the benefits of their public education.  Look at Canada...in my own province of Ontario, the most powerful tech companies in the world are investing in places like Kitchener, Toronto and Hamilton because the quality of the work force is precisely what they need to feed their industrial growth.  It will be very interesting, in another ten years, to see where the U. S. stands relative to other countries when it comes to the educational attainments of their young people.  It is a sure bet that they will have been overtaken, unless folks reverse the funding trends put in place today by the Republicans in power.

Interactions Between Students and Teachers Count

Interactions Between Students and Teachers Count

Several times a week, when I go to Brock to swim or walk around the pool, there is one swim team or another practicing.  I go early in the day when the teams usually practice for an hour or 90 minutes.  There are varsity teams and high school teams and each level has its own coach there along side the pool yelling instructions to the kids in the water.  Just this week, I couldn't help but notice the difference in approach between the two coaches. One never even says hello to me and lurks at the water's edge watching the swimmers, occasionally uttering a word or two to one  or two of the swimmers but invariably looking annoyed or unhappy, at the very least.  He's been coaching as long as I have been swimming there and it is approaching a quarter century since I started first to swim there.  The other coach probably isn't much older than the same quarter century, married because I see the wedding band on him, but so completely different in his demeanour and poolside style.  He's ebullient and friendly.  He's even said hello to me from time to time but always interacts with the kids in the pool.  I've found myself comparing the style of the two coaches to two very different styles of teachers.  The former, older and senior coach seems to be very demanding and doesn't convey support of any kind to his swimmers.  The other is supportive and encouraging. I know there is a lot of research on what makes an ideal teacher out there.  No one will convince me, after a lifetime in the classroom, that the style of the latter coach is more likely to get better results from his proteges  than the former.  I learned the hard way that students respond to friendliness and encouragement much better than demands and punishments.  Sometimes, you have to force a child to work to attain goals set high, for sure, but words of praise and support go a lot further in getting the best out of a student, regardless of the nature of the class.