Raise the Hammer

There are, I believe, over 70 school boards in Ontario. There is also the Ministry, the Ontario College of Teachers, QECO, EQAO, ETFO, trustees, consultants… and on and on. I would estimate that for every classroom teacher in the province there is a highly paid “educator,” who never sees a child.

The HWDSB, despite declining enrolment, just built a 50 million dollar palace for 400 administrative staff, who refused to be in Hamilton’s neediest community. Their cushy lifestyle, glitzy new digs, and generous compensation comes at the expense of the neediest and most vulnerable children in the system.

A woman I know, who is a classroom teacher, told me she wants to get a job at the board office because, “There is nothing to do.”

By their actions, the HWDSB has said to its students, loudly and clearly, “I don’t give a crap about you. Me first.” What has happened to Canadians, when those who’ve positioned themselves to forge the next generation expect to be well paid to do nothing? What are they teaching at that costly board office?

To my mind, however, the most cynical, corrupt, caustic action in public education, recently, has been the imposition of Discovery Math on our unsuspecting population. (It is called Common Core in the US). We spend billions on B.S. textbooks, manipulatives, and “experts,” like “Dr.” Marian Small. A school board in Seattle went to court to fight the state’s imposition of Common Core Math. The judge ruled with the city, declaring Discovery Math “capricious and confusing.” A Math professor in Manitoba called Discovery Math “academic child abuse.”

En masse, parents are paying for private tutors, so their kids learn basic Math. Again, what happens to the less fortunate, who have no alternative to the nonsense? Everyone in Ontario should take a good look at “Discovery Math” and demand their child’s teacher, administrator, school board, minister, premier … abandon it immediately.

Not that they’ll listen.