We hit another brick wall this week and have pretty well decided to just stop trying to take on the public school system. The event that started it all was a school project requiring the creation of a poster on a selected disease. If nothing else, graduates of our school system will be highly-qualified poster makers.
The project completed on time by our son and a small group of students. However, the deadline was extended several times over many weeks, and the teacher would not accept any of the completed projects. This group of students then asked another teacher if they could store the posters in another classroom, which was allowed, but these posters were subsequently thrown in the garbage. Some said they saw the teacher throw them out, while the teacher said the janitor did it. It doesn’t really matter.
The teacher who assigned the project then told these students (the ones who had actually completed the project on time) that they would still have to do the project but would be given more time. Some of the students, like our son, had done the project at home and had a back-up electronic copy. Those who did the work on school computers did not have a copy.
The event created a bit of an uproar in our house. It reinforced my understanding that at school, doing the work and jumping through hoops is more important than learning. Confirmation of learning did not require another poster. I should add another important fact – all of the students did the identical project last year, and we even have last year’s poster filed away in a closet as proof.
This was not a very demanding project for the Grade 7 level and I question its validity. Pick a disease, look it up on the Net and create a poster that explains four aspects of the disease. Make sure the poster looks pretty so that it can add to the classroom decor. No discussion of how to use online resources, how to determine if a source is reliable or how to conduct research in general. In fact, these students have never in seven years of schooling been shown any process to do research – online or offline. This is what we concentrate on at home, on our own time.
We decided to just redo the poster and submit it without a fuss. We know from experience that if we complain, each family will be told to take it up with the individual teacher. We have made similar complaints over the past several years and have been assured by the administration that our concerns will be addressed (This is not a complaint that our boys are not getting good marks, as they both have consistently had +90% averages). We were told last year that projects would not be repeated from one year to the next for no reason.
We have realised that we cannot change the dictatorship of the classroom; the fact that the students are completely disempowered; an irrelevant curriculum; or that parents’ input is ignored by these “professional” teachers. I’ve noticed how the term professionalism gets thrown about a fair bit when school reform is discussed around here, especially by the teachers’ union. Let me again quote David Shaffer’s definition, from How computer games help children learn:
A professional is anyone who does work that cannot be standardized easily and who continuously welcomes challenges at the cutting edge of his or her expertise.
I agree with this definition. What I am seeing in the public school system are teachers who do not welcome challenges at the cutting edge of their expertise and whose output is becoming more and more standardized.
I am beginning to believe that demographics play a significant in this. Given that In 1999/2000, 34% of [Canadian] teachers were aged 50 or over, there is an obvious generation gap. For example, many teachers, the vast majority that we have encountered, have avoided any use of information and communication technologies to support their teaching. Given their age, it is common to hear that they don’t want or need to learn any new stuff before their eventual retirement.
As a result, the real digital divide seems to be between baby-boomer teachers and the Net generation. The examples given in class bear no resemblance to reality outside of class. The wonderful opportunities to link students to other learners around the world are lost. Even tools as simple as class blogs to post the homework assignments are not used. If the average age of our teachers was closer to 30 than 55, I feel that the situation might be different. When I was in school in the 1960’s and ’70’s we had many keen, young and energetic teachers. Perhaps the current situation will rectify itself in time.
Demographics or not, our mounting frustrations include arbitrary evaluations, irrelevant projects, a system that stonewalls any attempts at real conversation, and schools with little connection to the realities of the Internet Age. Therefore, we have decided that soon we will be unschooling in our own home.
I cannot see any other option, as the problems are evident, the system will not change, and staying in the school system only gives it undeserved credibility. In September, we will be submitting our letter to New Brunswick’s Minister of Education:
The Minister shall, on application of the parent of a child, exempt in writing the child from attending school where the Minister is satisfied that the child is under effective instruction elsewhere.
