Public schools get failing grade on mathematics

Curriculum changes haven’t worked, Tara Houle writes.

While standing in line last week, another mother started chatting with me about her daughter’s schooling. The topic she brought up: math. As how most of these math stories go, her daughter had been struggling with the convoluted methods of arithmetic she was taught in Grade 3, and was floundering desperately. After receiving no support from the school, the family decided to enrol her in a private school, and they never looked back. The child was now in Grade 9, and was enrolling in Math 10 over the summer. So it seems the problem wasn’t the child, rather it was how arithmetic was being taught that sent these parents elsewhere — another casualty of the public education system.

Our advocacy has brought us in touch with hundreds of hardworking parents, teachers and other concerned citizens across the province. Our initiative is straightforward: provide meaningful support for our kids and front-line teachers to improve math education. I have received thousands of emails from frustrated teachers and concerned parents and grandparents on this topic. What I have heard, over and over again, is that kids’ math skills today are weak, and the methods being pushed onto teachers in development workshops and by school administrators aren’t working.

So it is rather disheartening to have our initiative so publicly misunderstood by the president of the teachers’ union. Glen Hansman’s repeated efforts to misinterpret our message, and quiet the discontent of thousands of voices across B.C. and the rest of this country, is not what anyone would expect from the leader of 40,000-plus teachers in this province. Multiple attempts to invite Mr. Hansman and other education leaders to listen to our concerns have gone unanswered. Our approved B.C. Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils math resolution has also been ignored, even though letters were issued to both the Ministry of Education and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation three years ago.

What we are asking for isn’t difficult to implement, and it wouldn’t have any additional costs to taxpayers. But the benefits would be enormous: ensuring all kids have a fundamental mastery of arithmetic which would aid them in learning mathematics at the high school level and beyond, something that is sorely lacking in today’s university classrooms and workforce.

But the most insulting piece is the continued lack of acknowledgment of our two-tier system of education in this province, which was created by our education leaders. It is estimated that up to 50 per cent of children now receive some form of math tutoring outside the classroom just to learn their times tables — at home, with a private tutor or at a learning centre. Those who can’t afford tutoring or receive the same support at home fall even further behind, increasing the gap even further. Every time the issue of tutoring is raised, it quickly gets swept under the carpet or ignored altogether. Some tutoring companies have reported more than a 30 per cent increase in the last six years, but requests for evaluating this recent trend continue to go unanswered.

The response of our public schools isn’t much better. Some parents are told that if their children are floundering, perhaps the school isn’t right for them, or that the parent needs to spend more time working with their child in the evening. And into the private system the child goes, one less funding allotment for public union coffers.

I believe in public education, but what I have learned is that without heavy parental involvement, it will fail our kids. This is not what a healthy education system looks like. Parents are not teachers and should not be spending their grocery money on math tutors, or spend hours every night teaching them basic arithmetic. Bureaucrats have spent millions, if not billions, on rewriting curricula, yet a quick review has shown that learning standards have definitely fallen with each revision. The BCTF’s initial objection to the BCEd plan has now been silenced — their leadership fully supports it. So what changed?

The same methods that are hugely successful at tutoring centres are the same methods that are being frowned upon at elementary schools. And the failing results support why so many parents are now turning to tutoring centres to fill the void.

With the recent election still fresh in many people’s minds, it would go a long way for any of our political leaders to at least acknowledge there is a problem. And invite us to the table to discuss it, rather than consistently ignore our requests. Our children are worth it.