You raise a key question about whether these policies actually fix the problem. In Ottawa, the government’s own numbers suggest they might have already "won" the fight they are still fighting. The Public Service Commission recently reported that visible minorities hold about 26% of federal jobs. That is significantly higher than their share of the available private workforce. We see a system that hit its target years ago but refuses to turn off the machine.
"policies designed with the very best of intentions often become law despite the fact that no one bothered to anticipate and prepare for the unintended consequences".
You're correct on both accounts. Although, in my defense, I spelled it without the "u" because I was referring to American lawyers - it felt weird describing them using Canadian spelling... :)
I would add destreaming grade 9 science, English and math courses in Ontario to this list of areas where policies were changed on the basis good intentions without first gathering the proper data, or considering alternative measures and unintended outcomes.
Destreaming means that all grade 9 students take those same core courses, without regard to ability, interest, or ambition.
In the past, students intending to go to post-secondary took academic or advanced courses, and so on. The general argument was students from some racial minorities were unfairly streamed into general or basic level courses, which hindered their future job prospects.
Good intentions, but teachers were utterly unprepared for what they got.
My youngest ended up in grade 9 courses where teachers had clearly lost control of their classrooms. Some students spent the classes making Tik Toks and talking to friends. “Good” kids were encouraged to sit at the front and keep their heads down. This was just after the pandemic, by the way.
My deepest wish is for that someone is keeping data on this experiment and in (what’s reasonable here?) 10 years will be able to show how destreaming did or didn’t help communities. But I know this is wishful thinking.
Complex systems are hard. And the needed data is ridiculously sparse in this realm. I might hypothesize that the multiple unrelated variables could amount to what could be describd as systemic racism.
That wouldn't in any way diminish the argument that the subject solutions have not demonstrated value, and could be net negative. Just what occurs to as i read this.
Complex systems are hard. And the needed data is ridiculously sparse in this realm. I might hypothesize that the multiple unrelated variables could amount to what could be describd as systemic racism.
That wouldn't in any way diminish the argument that the subject solutions have not demonstrated value, and could be net negative. Just what occurs to me as i read this.
You raise a key question about whether these policies actually fix the problem. In Ottawa, the government’s own numbers suggest they might have already "won" the fight they are still fighting. The Public Service Commission recently reported that visible minorities hold about 26% of federal jobs. That is significantly higher than their share of the available private workforce. We see a system that hit its target years ago but refuses to turn off the machine.
"policies designed with the very best of intentions often become law despite the fact that no one bothered to anticipate and prepare for the unintended consequences".
Also known as "the Justin Trudeau years".
Oh, I'd expect they're just getting warmed up.
I'm trying to be more of an optimist but I suspect you may be right.
Just a nitpick; there is no such thing as reverse discrimination. Just discrimination. Period. And labour has a "u". Good article otherwise. Thanks.
You're correct on both accounts. Although, in my defense, I spelled it without the "u" because I was referring to American lawyers - it felt weird describing them using Canadian spelling... :)
I would add destreaming grade 9 science, English and math courses in Ontario to this list of areas where policies were changed on the basis good intentions without first gathering the proper data, or considering alternative measures and unintended outcomes.
Destreaming means that all grade 9 students take those same core courses, without regard to ability, interest, or ambition.
In the past, students intending to go to post-secondary took academic or advanced courses, and so on. The general argument was students from some racial minorities were unfairly streamed into general or basic level courses, which hindered their future job prospects.
Good intentions, but teachers were utterly unprepared for what they got.
My youngest ended up in grade 9 courses where teachers had clearly lost control of their classrooms. Some students spent the classes making Tik Toks and talking to friends. “Good” kids were encouraged to sit at the front and keep their heads down. This was just after the pandemic, by the way.
My deepest wish is for that someone is keeping data on this experiment and in (what’s reasonable here?) 10 years will be able to show how destreaming did or didn’t help communities. But I know this is wishful thinking.
Excellent example. In fact, I've written about some of the influences driving curriculum policy changes in Ontario before:
https://www.theaudit.ca/p/understanding-education-policy-in
Complex systems are hard. And the needed data is ridiculously sparse in this realm. I might hypothesize that the multiple unrelated variables could amount to what could be describd as systemic racism.
That wouldn't in any way diminish the argument that the subject solutions have not demonstrated value, and could be net negative. Just what occurs to as i read this.
Complex systems are hard. And the needed data is ridiculously sparse in this realm. I might hypothesize that the multiple unrelated variables could amount to what could be describd as systemic racism.
That wouldn't in any way diminish the argument that the subject solutions have not demonstrated value, and could be net negative. Just what occurs to me as i read this.
Bold to assume the results were “unintended consequences”
Like the destruction of the entire academic scientific research establishment, FFS?