Be wary of private schools
A word of caution about local autonomy and of politics that erode universal, publicly funded, quality education
The subject of standardized testing is an important part of the discussion of what we want as educations’ systems evolve and change. Children have always reached to learn the ways of their world. It is natural to them and they must, as I did, find a meaningful education, outside the school building.
My old textbooks taught literature, chemistry, geometry trigonometry lessons that deadened the mind and gave little value to our futures. We had one set of provincial tests in June of Grade 12 that were the one and only measure of success.
Students, teachers, and administrators now face international standardized tests that are becoming the be all and end all report of success. Teachers are not anti-testing or anti-assessment but the standardized testing movement is a way to de-professionalize teachers.
The priorities of education become warped and the curriculum becomes narrowed. In the quest for higher scores critical thinking is pushed away. Standardization is the enemy of innovation and imagination and the teaching of democracy with free speech and dissent.
Selling standardized testing is a benefit to commercial enterprises but it requires the teachers give up their professionalism and turn into facilitators of classrooms of laptops and software. In the state of Michigan, teachers’ salaries dropped from $65,000 a year, to $36,000.
The Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) is infecting the Canadian system.
In British Columbia, where there has been starving of publicly funded schools and increased funding of private schools, the teachers’ salaries have gone from one of the highest in Canada to one of the lowest.
I, along with Michael Redmond, welcome real improvements made to education but remain concerned about the GERM with its absolute authority based on standardized tests that always comes with the centralization of power that was previously in local hands.
Watch now in Saskatchewan, as local trustees lose their authority while the government demands 3.5 per cent cuts to funding. What voice is given to the concerns of teachers and parents as government unveils its plans?
Here, I suggest we be wary of any party or government endorsement of private schools. Be wary of loss of local autonomy and wary of politics that erode universal, publicly funded, quality education.