Province is forgetting the purpose of education
Re Holding the line, Jan. 20
In its desire to cut teachers, gut contracts and reduce secondary education to job training, the Ford government betrays a lack of understanding of what the purpose of education is, the developmental psychology of adolescents and the role that interpersonal relationships with teachers and peers play in the maturation of our youth into contributing members of society. An increasing number of online courses with the possibility of outsourcing their entire education sells short especially our most vulnerable students in possibly tragic ways. Teachers, guidance counsellors and administrators are the first line of defence for students who require support in cases of educational support, career planning, abuse, psychosocial issues, bullying and mental health. The presence of social workers, youth care workers and psychologists is absolutely essential in ever increasing numbers. If our image of the learner is that of a self-directed, self-motivated problem solver, they cannot achieve that in a simplistic, stripped down, cost-saving computer-driven approach to education.
Maureen Mahony, Waterloo
I am retired high school teacher with the District School Board of Niagara. Doug Ford, like former premier Mike Harris, is adamant to cut funding to education. Harris proposed that teachers teach one extra class a day for one semester. Fewer teachers would be required under this arrangement. However, this tied teachers up to the point where there were no staff to cover cafeteria lunch duty, hall duty and absent staff. Well, that didn’t fly, so this time around, the Conservatives decided to raise class sizes and put students on the internet to take classes, both proposals to cut funding. Fewer teachers would be required.
Ultimately, the conservatives would like to push through an agenda of private schools, something that is huge money in the U.S. Corporations are waiting to jump on board. Just like private medicine. Underfund both and presto, introduce the private sector to fix things. Teaching today is a difficult profession. Many quit after the first year. The culture of parents, students, politics and the board are much different. I’ve had classes as big as 38 in the past. At any one time, four to five students would be absent, three to four were late and two to three would need to leave early. It’s a very difficult job trying to teach a meaningful class.
Vince Cristelli, Niagara Falls