A Very Exciting Time

A Very Exciting Time

The last few days, as I have been reading about all the challenges that are confronting the business of Education in the days and weeks and months ahead of me, I have thought back to the early days of using computers in the classroom especially in the elementary schools.,  As I struggled to master the skills of using computers somehow in my classroom in a rooms where desks were configured in rows and there was hardly any space along the walls for anything approaching a desktop, I very quickly realized that classrooms would have to change to adapt to the technology, not the other way around. I worked with a principal who was chosen to open up the first new school being built after computers began to be used widely and she took me, among others on a tour of the shell of the building. I remember very clearly commenting on the fact that absolutely NO allowances had been made for any computers in any of the classrooms. We were on the verge of creating a board wide Wide Area Network and were already using Local Area Networks in every school, run by servers in each school.  Yet, there had been absolutely no plan in the design for computers and in fact, the plugs for the rooms were all under the chalk boards which would mean the desktops would be subjected to all that chalk dust.  Nothing was thought through and it hasn't changed much since then.  There were other administrators in other school districts who were already designing schools for the computer age.  We actually went on a tour of one in Toronto and it was miles ahead of most other schools I knew. But, from the beginning, we knew computers would only come into their own as tools of learning when we grasped how they would change our business. Now, as schools  are thinking about the fall and what it will mean to be safe in the age of Covid-19, the list of accommodations goes on and on.  However, for myself, what I find myself thinking about is how exciting it would be to be involved in that future planning.  Everything I know to be required for those teachers and their classrooms at home and at school will need to be taught and so many educators will need to be coached on how to implement those changes. Michael Fullan, at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education has made a career out of writing about the change process in education, in schools and school boards specifically and he has known and advocated all along that the changes will require much forethought and planning and phases of implementation. Not many listened to his words of caution and now I am sure there are many who wish they had.  The pandemic has been the springboard for much that has already begun to happen but fifty years from now, it will be the subject of much study on  what its unintended consequences were and I guarantee, one of those consequences will be the transformation of the business of education.  I would love to be studying and documenting that change.

Public Education in the U. S.

Public Education in the U. S.

The issue of public education and its quality never occurred to me at all until I became a consultant.  Till the happened, I only needed to pay attention to my job and and little else. I never thought about issues like funding, or educational quality or effective schools, or another of the other issues that percolated below the surface in those halcyon days.  However, as soon as I became a consultant I began to be caught up in academic issues that mattered to everyone, not just myself. I was always a dedicated professional and so, in my job as a consultant, I started to read everything I could get my hands on that had to do with being an effective professional helping others along the way.  Even during those years, I was not that academically driven that I read any journals or books dealing with the BIG issues in education.  Working towards my PhD, my Doctorate in Education made all the difference.  I got to go to conferences where I listened to the problems others were confronting in their school districts or in their states or even in the countries.  I enjoyed going to those conferences immensely and the participation in them opened my eyes to why there was always such a difference between what I was experiencing in Ontario, Canada and what others were experiencing, especially in the U. S..  It was only there where there were such wide discrepancies between one state and another, between one university and another, between one city and another.  Dwelling on these issues, as I often did, I realized that what we had in Ontario was superior to most of what was happening in the States. I was not at all amused by the actions of the Harris government to eliminate half the boards and thrust us into a maelstrom of curricular reform  but, looking back, I can suggest that maybe the end justified the means.  A student can go anywhere in Ontario and be governed by the same educational standards and the same curriculum. Every teacher in Ontario has to adhere to the same Standards of Practice set by the Ontario College of Teachers.  There is a system of evaluations of Colleges of Education and Boards of Education that standardize education across the province and it is a big province, bigger than most of the states in the union to our south.  As the various jurisdictions deal with the effects of the shutdown due to the pandemic and the implementation of online learning to overcome social distancing, the huge chasm between what we have here and what they have south of us is only becoming more apparent.  Every day there are articles I glance over that deal with the lack of preparedness for change, the inability to meet the demands of the 21st century, the lack of standards.  Today, if a student moves from Colorado to Utah, he or she might as well be moving to a different country.   If a student lives in Niagara Falls, NY, he or she will be confronted by a huge number of disadvantages relative to if he or she lived in Kenmore, which is a part of Buffalo.  If a student goes to a charter school or a private school and not a public school, the quality of education, the funding of that education and the standards of that education can be hugely different. It is no wonder the Americans are finding it difficult to deal with racial injustices. They are often at root caused by poorer educational institutions, lack of attention to the needs of the poorer schools, and so forth.  In Niagara Falls, ON, there are huge pockets of poverty, but the teachers in the schools and the monies given to the schools and the services put into those schools are the same regardless.  It makes a huge difference in educational outcomes. Until such a time as these differences caused by political structure disappear, no progress will be made. The U. S. is bound as a country to fall further and further behind those countries who possess the institutional structure to bring about and control change.  

Public Versus Private Education

Public Versus Private Education

At some point in the last few days, the Secretary of Education in the U. S., Betsy Devos, divulged that it was her plan to make sure private elementary and secondary schools got as much as public elementary and secondary schools in the divvying up of monies being given to schools across America to deal with the pandemic.  When I saw that, I was irate because I know thatt while schools that are private are often very good and have problems of their own dealing with financial pressures, it is the public school system that has brought societies to gather.  There is very convincing research to suggest the role the public education system plays in the culture of a society.  They may be imperfect, but they have as a goal to make sure everyone gets the same basic education, regardless of race of creed or socio-economic status.  The private schools whatever their nature, are meant to only ensure quality education for a small segment of that same population.  Now we have an assassination, which is what it really was, in the U. S. and the streets have exploded and I've made the point elsewhere that one of t he major problems with American society is that there are no unifying forces to bring everyone onto the same page. Today, the lawyer for George Floyd spoke eloquently about the  constitution of the United States and what it says about the American people and how they are supposed to be respected as one.  In the last century public schools arose that had as their primary curriculum goal, or one of  them, to ensure literacy and good citizenship for ALL.  Everyone was supposed to be part of one society.  Now, when they fund those separate schools, they tear away at the fabric of the unified society and make it such that the public system is denigrated, its standards are lowered and its funding is not guaranteed.  So the vast majority of American blacks do not ever get the same kind of education as the whites in their segregated and protected separate schools. It is no wonder that there are inequities and social disruptions.  If there is to be change in America, it has to begin with a solid educational system where everyone is encouraged to learn the basics, learn about proper citizenship, be given equality of opportunity and provided with opportunities to develop their social and emotional intelligence.  Until such time as everyone is treated equally, kids will continue to grow up feeling disadvantaged and hard done by. The social media and movies and podcasts and online news bulletins only show the black people how poorly they are treated and only adds to their sense of dissatisfaction, never mind the  sense on the part of the students educated without any blacks or immigrants or Latinos in their schools that they become ignorant of what life is like for them and cannot understand why they are reeling the way they are. Until their is a return to the quality of public education, there can be NO change.