As with much of the now bankrupt and culturally Marxist captured welfare leviathan state, the prospects of top-down political reform are all but delusional and of which, the education establishment is an integral part. My naturally unpopular solution is to abandon it and go to a laissez-faire bottom up replacement. This would range from community-based volunteerism to creation of market-based varieties of schools and online programs catering to the divergent cultures and partisan tastes and budgets of society. The only potential and reluctantly recommended role of the state would be to offer vouchers without any strings attached to parents through perhaps a five year transition period. I have had some experience in setting up an alternative private junior high school in a small community with some success. As for the value of good teachers, I became a friend of a successful logging equipment entrepreneur who had a saying that "in every large organization you could be paid twice or one half of what you are worth with no way of correcting the situation".
Public Education is a foundational structure of democracy. Best to read some history. There are things that need improvement, sure, but our public education systems have been one of the pillars of economic growth and a strong middle class. Even Adam Smith lauded it. Check it out.
Speaking of reading history, I'm currently in the middle of William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Public education was certainly a "foundational structure" of the National Socialists and a little earlier in history Vladimir Lenin said, "Give us a child for eight years and it will be a Bolshevik forever", another proponent no doubt, of public education. While our Canadian public education in the past hasn't been anywhere near as "captured" as those examples, the trend is now obvious. Green theocracy has replaced democracy in Canada for all but perhaps one major political party and public education has played a significant role in that transition.
You are grossly mistaking state education for public education. This is a common mistake for those who confuse autocratic (fascist or communist) governments with any government at all. Democracies are messy and often clumsy but they are not the autocracies you describe. This confusion can be dangerous.
My late mother-in-law who taught much of her life always discussed the latest and greatest in pedagogy. Her approach was that whatever the latest and greatest was, she would say something approximating, "Well, did that very thing X years ago and called it Y; then it was superseded by A and we called it B; ....; this too will change to whatever the next thing is and I will know that one too."
The last two mornings The Current on CBC Radio One has featured some excellent interviews about education issues. Tuesday was the phonics debate and a great interview with at the Ed. School at Mount Alison. She strongly advocates for a return to phonics in teaching kids how to read. It works!
As with much of the now bankrupt and culturally Marxist captured welfare leviathan state, the prospects of top-down political reform are all but delusional and of which, the education establishment is an integral part. My naturally unpopular solution is to abandon it and go to a laissez-faire bottom up replacement. This would range from community-based volunteerism to creation of market-based varieties of schools and online programs catering to the divergent cultures and partisan tastes and budgets of society. The only potential and reluctantly recommended role of the state would be to offer vouchers without any strings attached to parents through perhaps a five year transition period. I have had some experience in setting up an alternative private junior high school in a small community with some success. As for the value of good teachers, I became a friend of a successful logging equipment entrepreneur who had a saying that "in every large organization you could be paid twice or one half of what you are worth with no way of correcting the situation".
Public Education is a foundational structure of democracy. Best to read some history. There are things that need improvement, sure, but our public education systems have been one of the pillars of economic growth and a strong middle class. Even Adam Smith lauded it. Check it out.
Speaking of reading history, I'm currently in the middle of William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Public education was certainly a "foundational structure" of the National Socialists and a little earlier in history Vladimir Lenin said, "Give us a child for eight years and it will be a Bolshevik forever", another proponent no doubt, of public education. While our Canadian public education in the past hasn't been anywhere near as "captured" as those examples, the trend is now obvious. Green theocracy has replaced democracy in Canada for all but perhaps one major political party and public education has played a significant role in that transition.
You are grossly mistaking state education for public education. This is a common mistake for those who confuse autocratic (fascist or communist) governments with any government at all. Democracies are messy and often clumsy but they are not the autocracies you describe. This confusion can be dangerous.
Wow! Clear eyed and terrifying!
My late mother-in-law who taught much of her life always discussed the latest and greatest in pedagogy. Her approach was that whatever the latest and greatest was, she would say something approximating, "Well, did that very thing X years ago and called it Y; then it was superseded by A and we called it B; ....; this too will change to whatever the next thing is and I will know that one too."
Wise woman, my mother-in-law.
The last two mornings The Current on CBC Radio One has featured some excellent interviews about education issues. Tuesday was the phonics debate and a great interview with at the Ed. School at Mount Alison. She strongly advocates for a return to phonics in teaching kids how to read. It works!