We hit another brick wall this week and have pretty well decided to just stop trying to take on the public school system. The event that started it all was a school project requiring the creation of a poster on a selected disease. If nothing else, graduates of our school system will be highly-qualified poster makers.
The project completed on time by our son and a small group of students. However, the deadline was extended several times over many weeks, and the teacher would not accept any of the completed projects. This group of students then asked another teacher if they could store the posters in another classroom, which was allowed, but these posters were subsequently thrown in the garbage. Some said they saw the teacher throw them out, while the teacher said the janitor did it. It doesn’t really matter.
The teacher who assigned the project then told these students (the ones who had actually completed the project on time) that they would still have to do the project but would be given more time. Some of the students, like our son, had done the project at home and had a back-up electronic copy. Those who did the work on school computers did not have a copy.
The event created a bit of an uproar in our house. It reinforced my understanding that at school, doing the work and jumping through hoops is more important than learning. Confirmation of learning did not require another poster. I should add another important fact – all of the students did the identical project last year, and we even have last year’s poster filed away in a closet as proof.
This was not a very demanding project for the Grade 7 level and I question its validity. Pick a disease, look it up on the Net and create a poster that explains four aspects of the disease. Make sure the poster looks pretty so that it can add to the classroom decor. No discussion of how to use online resources, how to determine if a source is reliable or how to conduct research in general. In fact, these students have never in seven years of schooling been shown any process to do research – online or offline. This is what we concentrate on at home, on our own time.
We decided to just redo the poster and submit it without a fuss. We know from experience that if we complain, each family will be told to take it up with the individual teacher. We have made similar complaints over the past several years and have been assured by the administration that our concerns will be addressed (This is not a complaint that our boys are not getting good marks, as they both have consistently had +90% averages). We were told last year that projects would not be repeated from one year to the next for no reason.
We have realised that we cannot change the dictatorship of the classroom; the fact that the students are completely disempowered; an irrelevant curriculum; or that parents’ input is ignored by these “professional” teachers. I’ve noticed how the term professionalism gets thrown about a fair bit when school reform is discussed around here, especially by the teachers’ union. Let me again quote David Shaffer’s definition, from How computer games help children learn:
A professional is anyone who does work that cannot be standardized easily and who continuously welcomes challenges at the cutting edge of his or her expertise.
I agree with this definition. What I am seeing in the public school system are teachers who do not welcome challenges at the cutting edge of their expertise and whose output is becoming more and more standardized.
I am beginning to believe that demographics play a significant in this. Given that In 1999/2000, 34% of [Canadian] teachers were aged 50 or over, there is an obvious generation gap. For example, many teachers, the vast majority that we have encountered, have avoided any use of information and communication technologies to support their teaching. Given their age, it is common to hear that they don’t want or need to learn any new stuff before their eventual retirement.
As a result, the real digital divide seems to be between baby-boomer teachers and the Net generation. The examples given in class bear no resemblance to reality outside of class. The wonderful opportunities to link students to other learners around the world are lost. Even tools as simple as class blogs to post the homework assignments are not used. If the average age of our teachers was closer to 30 than 55, I feel that the situation might be different. When I was in school in the 1960’s and ’70’s we had many keen, young and energetic teachers. Perhaps the current situation will rectify itself in time.
Demographics or not, our mounting frustrations include arbitrary evaluations, irrelevant projects, a system that stonewalls any attempts at real conversation, and schools with little connection to the realities of the Internet Age. Therefore, we have decided that soon we will be unschooling in our own home.
I cannot see any other option, as the problems are evident, the system will not change, and staying in the school system only gives it undeserved credibility. In September, we will be submitting our letter to New Brunswick’s Minister of Education:
The Minister shall, on application of the parent of a child, exempt in writing the child from attending school where the Minister is satisfied that the child is under effective instruction elsewhere.
As a parent, those poster projects drive me insane. Not the posters themselves (who knows, Harold, maybe there will be big demand for qualified poster-makers in the future!), but as you say, the lack of guidance in HOW and WHY to research.
My Grade 6er has a fine English/Science teacher this year who does address these issues. The difference in my son’s work –and his approach to work — is telling. I can see that he is grasping the ‘shape’ of creating knowledge. Plus he seems more engaged in his work than usual.
I am reading “Understanding by Design” (McTighe and Wiggins) right now, which rejects such “poster projects” as an activity-oriented design. In other words, activity for its own sake, and new information for its own sake, but not tied to any larger questions or ideas.
Jennifer, it’s this kind of informed conversation that I would truly love to have with teachers, but the system prevents it.
If you haven’t done so already, you’ll enjoy perusing the following websites:
These websites are the best out there for finding all kinds of information and discussion about unschooling.
I don’t think the urls showed up.
The sites are:
sandradodd
and
joyfullyrejoycing
and both end in the usual dot com.
First, I just gotta say, poster projects teach design skills. Next, it’s unfortunate the situation you and your kid are in, especially since it’s my understanding that NB has one of the most progressive education systems in Canada. If you are going to actually switch to unschooling, just be sure to take into account all the repercussions this could have for your child, from the socializing aspect of schools to the college and job opportunities of the future. There’s a lot to take into account, and be sure that your kid is certain that he actually wants to do it as well.
Pam, thanks for these links: http://joyfullyrejoycing.com/
and
http://sandradodd.com/
Paul: Yes we understand the repercussions, but my research over several years balances your misgivings. First of all, we are involved in many community (socialization) activities such as Scouts, Tai Kwan Do & Swimming. I have also established several apprenticeship opportunities, such as working with an electrician. BTW, there are universities that give preferential status to home-schooled applicants.
I would not say the NB has one of the most progressive education systems in Canada, by whatever objective measure one would use. I would be interested in seeing any data that indicates this.
Disturbing (tho not as disturbing as these NYC teacher’s stories).
I’m not sure about your “age-demographic” point: what you have described is poor teaching, period, it has little or nothing to do with age, and little or nothing to do with being able to use new technologies. In fact, it kinda goes to show that using new information technologies (or at least computers) does not per se automatically generate good teaching and learning.
As for your disenchantment with schools, I think Gatto has pretty well summed it up in the Underground History of American Education: the problem is that of a mass, compulsory education system. It is incorrigible, born of the wedding of utopian dreams by such as Rockefeller and Carnegie, and the tools of scientific social management.
I really wish you all the best with your plans to home “unschool” your kids, Harold. I have considered this route myself many times, but the reasons I have opted not to go this route are:
sport – you and I have had conversations about this before, and I know we differ. I really want my kids to have the opportunity to participate in competitive team sports
money – our immigration to the UK set us back several years in economic terms, and we can ill afford to lose my income if we are to meet our commitments
but most importantly…
my shortcomings – I am a talented teacher (if I say so myself) but I really suck at it with my own kids. With them I am impatient and intolerant. I so want them to shine at everything that am incapable of allowing them the space to fail.
I also have to agree with Marco Polo’s comment when he says that “using new information technologies (or at least computers) does not per se automatically generate good teaching and learning”. Good teachers are good teachers with or without technology and poor teaching is not improved by the introduction of technology – your son’s poster project is a case in point (and I have some experience of this poster obsession myself, all the way across the pond, here)
Thanks, Karyn. I agree with you about technology, and my “rant” was more about the systemic issues, using access to the Net as an example. I think that a lack of curiosity or a willingness to experiment and improve one’s teaching is more the issue.
We have two boys, and our eldest still wants to remain in the school system, even though he is bored. As for competitive sports, we have more opportunities outside the school system than inside. All activities require extra money anyway, so it makes no difference. Lucas swims competitively, but the program is not affiliated with the school.
I guess that we are lucky in that we can offer our sons an option. In a small town, with a state-owned monopoly on public education, there are no options for most people. We can’t go to another school and the nearest private school (if we could afford it) is 200 KM from here.
One advantage of a small town is that we know many talented people. In addition to apprenticeship to an electrician, Lucas has options for boat-building and multimedia design from other willing tutors.
Afternoon.
You make some compelling arguments, and the links you provided offer some additional insights. My oldest, who is in French immersion came home with an odd assignment. Simply, the instruction was to “Write a page on cometsâ€.
We found all kinds of information on the web, and then went through the process of translating it to French for her submission.
With some degree of frustration I found myself wondering what the purpose of the exercise was. Was it for a French class in order to look up new vocabulary, and the scientific aspects were of secondary concern. Or was it for a Science class and detailed knowledge of the mechanics and facts of the comets were of primary interest, with the translation to French of a lesser concern.
Eventually we completed the assignment, and hated every moment of it due to the frustration of the event. As opposed to discovery of new facts we were trapped in this mundane exercise with no visible value.
I get your frustrations, I agree with your points and I’ll no doubt look into unschooling further.
But two things stand out in my mind in the readings. Yes a number of them point out a select list of innovators and geniuses who were of benefit to society, but who were marginalized by the schooling system in North America. While Einstein may be a prime example of this, how many more leaders, scientists and inventors were produced by the system you lament?
Secondly, having a look at you ‘about’ page. I cant help but notice your background:
• Master of Education (Adult Education), University of New Brunswick
(Thesis: Learning in the New Brunswick Information Technology Workplace)
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours History) Royal Military College of Canada
Isn’t the vision of the education you propose based on the very education you received in a system you say is a “dictatorship†where “students are completely disempowered†and based on an “irrelevant curriculum�
What my dad said is true. It was a very unforntunate event.
What Paul said about unschooling may be true but it will not prevent me to trying it out. I have a couply of friends, but they are all a grade older then me. They will be moving on to a new schol this year.
I can’t wait to be homeschooled and I know that my dad will make it interessting! :-)
Thanks for taking the time to comment, Jeremy. We have experienced many projects similar to the one you describe and our boys are in French immersion too. I could also go on at length about the poor quality of French (written & spoken) in our schools. My wife and I are bilingual but we are one of few families who notice the grammatical errors that are consistently taught as fact in the class – infinitives used as past participles, etc. I worry that we will graduate a generation of “bi-illiterates”.
Yes, I am a product of the industrial school system and yes I am a baby boomer. I can’t change that but I can read the writing on the wall and do what I believe is best for our children today. Our actions are the result of many bad experiences and much research, most of it conducted informally over the past five years.
I must say that I remember very little of the academics I was taught at RMC. All I wanted was to be an officer and the school stuff was of little interest. I have often said that the major benefit of my four years of college was that I had time to grow up a bit before I was allowed to command soldiers.
As for my Master’s degree, I took it to improve my chances for getting a job. I also took the thesis option so that I could be in control of my learning. I only had six actual courses. My graduate studies, though in a related field, have had little relevance to my work in the field. The only time that a degree is necessary is when responding to a government RFP, because you usually get extra points for formal education. The majority of my clients are more interested in my specific experience and how it relates to their challenges.
So yes, I jumped through the hoops, but I’ve learned that education and schooling are separate things. I can say that most of the curriculum that was fed to me in public school and university was irrelevant. I got two degrees because society valued them. Today, when I hire or engage people for work, I give very little credence to their degrees. I’d rather see a portfolio.
In the end, we have to make our decisions based on what we feel is best. Our decision was made in light of educational research, societal trends, our specific circumstances and the wishes of our son.
Last Wednesday evening, from 3:30-5:30, I met with the English HS department to revise old and create new curriculum. You will be proud to know our lessons and units centered on Quadrant D – higher-level thinking and performing goals for kids. I am honored as teacher-librarian to be included in this group and have been asked to assist in writing a NEW popular fiction course. Afterwards, from 5:30-6:30, I taught two HS science teachers how to create and use a blog and a wiki. These activities were unpaid time on the clock; yet if we are going to offer our students 21st century learning activities, we must take the time to collaborate, prepare, and prepare ourselves. Learning to use the read / write tools available in today’s technological world requires us to become pioneers, get moving, and begin to explore! We have just stepped into a new era of thinking and delivering in the classroom!
Please don’t talk the age thing; I tip the higher end of the scale. It’s not an age thing. The possibilities of Web 2.0 are quite new to everyone–no matter of age. Schools and society, as a whole, need to take a look at these new tools of communication. The Internet is the textbook and the vehicle to reach others. The assignments need to be refreshing and thought-provoking that discourage cutting and pasting but instead allow for student originality, creative and critical thinking. The presentation materials need to move beyond the posters, colored markers, and notebook / computer paper…move to blogs, wikis, and oral discussions with others. Do you think students are prepared to say…”Here is what I know, here is what I think and suggest. Now, what are your questions and thoughts for me to address?” Would our students come into this assessment process, a bit more prepared? Would they go forth remembering what they learned and be inspired to continue learning more about the topic or lesson shared? That’s how we really need to teach…teaching students to be self-motivational learners?
…Just the two-cents worth from a 55+ teacher’s outlook on education!
Carol; it’s too bad that you’re not in our school district. Your students are lucky to have you. Thanks for balancing the conversation.
Harold, as I know you are a wonderful but lubberly chap relative to boats.
may I recommend that your worthy home -schooled son read Francis Herreshoff’s Common Sense of Yacht Design before you and he put hand to plane.
I got into this discussion a little late, but it’s all relevant for me as my daughter was one of the kids in Lucas’ class whose project was finished on time and lost, and I’ve spent a lot of time lately questioning the public education system.
Regarding this kind of project: I have been doing research for over 20 years now, and I still compose posters multiple times a year. So, for some careers (notably science) the art of creating a poster may not be a useless one. BUT, they aren’t being taught HOW to compose a decent one, how to lay it out in a way that leads the reader through the material, or is pleasing to the eye, they aren’t taught how to do good research and present their work well. In many ways, I think a well executed (please emphasize well executed!) poster project can teach many skills including language arts, graphic arts, the topic subject (say health or science or social studies), application of available technologies, research skills… So often though, I see what I consider shoddy attempts rewarded with great marks because everything gets a great mark these days. Also, the teachers get the kids to do so many of these things that they generate quantity rather than quality.
Regarding the lost aspect of the projects. Come on, teachers. Get it together! My daughter didn’t think the teacher threw out the projects, but a simple conversation between the teachers:”Those 5 groups left their projects in my class and they have disappeared, perhaps they can be exempt” would suffice. This is a silly waste of the kids time, repeating the work.
Regarding schooling, unschooling, homeschooling, not schooling… I have considered many possibilities myself for my kids. Unschooling makes me nervous because I actually think that there should be a curriculum followed. I think that there are certain things a person ought to learn, or at least be exposed to before leaving the school system/home. I am not confident that the NB public system is going to provide the education I would like my kids to get. How to get around this I haven’t figured out yet. Combination or school and home enrichment? I don’t know. Always thinking on it.
Regarding older teachers. I couldn’t disagree more! Sackville has suffered as our older teachers have become increasingly pissed off by the system, the principal, the students… and have left the system early. I have been unimpressed by the recent graduates I have seen first hand. Some of the older teachers aren’t great, but a lot are. I also think that their use of technology is not what I judge them by, but on how they are able to spark my child’s interest and help them produce good work or gain new understanding. High tech or low, no matter.
Regarding Paul in comment #5: Are we talking about the same NB???? While I have witnessed some good aspects of the the system, overall I come away unimpressed to say the least. At the university level, our NB high school grads are struggling and ill educated.
“Please don’t talk the age thing; I tip the higher end of the scale. It’s not an age thing.” Well said Carol VH!
As I often relate – I worked as an IT tutor in a college outreach centre for two years and my two top students were a 69 year old man and a 74 year old woman. It’s more about attitude that it is about age, but sadly, many, many people hide behind their age – using that as an excuse to cover any of a myriad real reasons: fear, laziness, whatever.
Like Harold, I wish my kids had access to someone like you. The librarians in my sons’ school have inspired so little confidence that my older son recently identified them as the one “commodity” the world would be better without. I was mortified, since my Gran was a librarian and the hub of her community.
An interesting conversation. My feelings on education, and public education in particular, run very deeply indeed – I promise to try and avoid a “soapbox moment” :).
By way of background, I taught at a public middle school here in the US for 2 years then at a church-sponsored high school in the country of Tonga for 3 years. By the time my kids were old enough to “go to school” I had become familiar enough with the system (from within the system)to be convinced that it wasn’t what I wanted for my kids. They have never attended a “school”. We started “homeschooling” in Tonga – mostly since there was really no other option – and haven’t found a compelling reason to stop. Some observations:
1) Age is a flimsy, anectodal, criteria for teacher quality – at best. I would cite the teacher’s dedication to their students and ability to work within the system waaaaay before their age. Far harder to gather data on but more accurate, IMO.
2) Speaking of the system… It’s the system, not the teacher. Posters projects are a great example. Assuming your class loads are anything like what I experienced, that teacher is dealing with 170-200 individuals every day, broken into a 1 vs. ~25 chunk for 1 hour at a time. How is that teacher supposed to give a meaningful learning experience to an individual in 2-3 minutes a day – assuming little Tommy is happy with his 2-3 minutes and doesn’t create a disturbance that takes part of some one elses’ time? Simply, the teacher CAN’T… So they try to even the odds by creating “team units” – now it’s 1 vs. 5 for an hour.
Still, what the teacher needs is some standardized “product” that they can review to compare to the other “products” to either (a) put students on a continuum of competence or (b)have the students demonstrate their “understanding”. Either way, the teacher needs something they can use to reduce their load in assigning grades since individual assessment is impossible. That’s even assuming there aren’t school/distric mandated “standards” that the teacher has to coax the students to perform to. It’s ironic that we all recognize that every learner is different – especially if we want a high quality learning experience – then force a system that makes it IMPOSSIBLE to actually do that.
3) I find it interesting that when people talk about the danger of alternatives (home/un schooling) they still talk about “socialization” and “sports”. It would be shocking to hear someone say “what about the academics their going to miss out on?”.
Could you imagine anything sillier than if project teams at work or business partnerships or everyone assigned to your corporate department were identified simply by the neighborhood they lived in and the year in which they were born?
Most if not all districts that I’ve interacted with are able (if not always willing) to accomodate a partial enrollment schedule for band/sports. Particularly if your child is already any good ;) As you point out, Harold, many parents are already involving their kids in activities like these well outside the confines of the local school house.
I’m getting soap boxy now so I’ll step down.
My daughter is in the same class. I spoke to the teacher who gave out the assignment. Her explanation was that the health class was held in the computer lab right before lunch and that some of the students didn’t want to walk all the way upstairs at the end of the period to return the posters to her classroom. They made arrangements with the homeroom teacher to store their assignments there, and they disappeared from that point. I haven’t received an explanation as to how they disappeared. It seems unlikely that the teacher would throw them out, but it seems equally unlikely that a custodian would come across a group of posters that were being appropriately stored and decide that they were garbage, at least without checking with the teacher first.
The other clarification that I received from the health teacher was about the length of the project. It was done over a 7-week span, but it was only 4 class periods. It was supposed to be an in-class assignment, and one of those classes was cancelled because of a storm, another because of other circumstances at the school which caused major disruptions to the day’s schedule, and another was taken up with a lesson which I think was related to those circumstances. That’s fair enough — an in-class assignment shouldn’t be done at home anyway in my opinion.
I explained to the teacher our frustrations with the situation. First of all, my daughter was home sick the day the posters were “relocated”, so she herself has no firsthand knowledge of the circumstances of their relocation. Second, because it was an in-class assignment, she did all her work in class with her partner, using school computers. She did not know if she had any work saved and was unable to check because she was not allowed access to the school computers. I explained to the teacher that our position was that our daughter was simply not going to redo the work she had already done. The teacher was actually very sympathetic. She told me that she had been monitoring the progress of the class, that she knew that the students had already completed the majority of their “learning”, and that was more important to her than having an actual poster, under the circumstances. The students involved are all good students, which the teacher acknowledged. She said that when she spoke to the students on Thursday, when the projects were missed, they told her that they could just redo the projects as they had done a lot of the work at home and had saved all their material on their home computers. She felt, therefore, that it would not be a hardship for them to simply reprint their material in a week. This was not the case for my daughter; presumably she felt she would be able to access her information on the school computers. The teacher agreed that redoing the work was not a reasonable option. She said that it was not her intention to make the kids do the work again, but that the students had indicated it was simply a matter of reprinting.
I asked her what her suggestion was for my daughter and her project partner. The teacher suggested that she scale down the mark and base it on an oral presentation (which was part of the assignment). That is a reasonable solution, as long as it is acceptable to my daughter and her partner. I don’t know whether that changes anything for the other students involved; I can only intercede for my own child.
I’d like to make it clear that we are not enamoured of our school experience at this school, as Harold and some of the others who have commented here are aware (and like Harold, I’d love to see the data that suggests that NB schools are progressive — compared to what??). If anyone were to suggest that I am a champion of the teachers, the teachers would likely collapse from their hysterical laughter! However, this experience reinforces the communication issue for me. I know that many parents are just too frustrated to talk to the teachers but for some reason, I always feel that I must, at the very least, intercede on behalf of my child. This is one of very few situations where I have had a positive outcome.
I told Harold’s wife that I sometimes feel as if I am a lone voice in the wilderness. Over the past year or so, there have been many issues in this school which affect more kids than my own, but I think I have been the only parent to consistently take the school to task. It has been an excruciatingly frustrating experience. I wish it were easier for parents to work together to solve some of these problems; as long is it is only one “squeaky wheel” making the noise, it is a lot easier for the school to simply ignore the noise. However, as I have told the principal and various teachers, my first responsibility in this world is to my kids, and it isn’t one I take lightly, so I guess I’ll continue to “squeak” along.
Oh, Dodie, I can so relate to what you’re feeling. Ans the sad news is that, while you might not be the only voice in the wilderness – you don’t have a lot of company! As a past school governor, I can tell you that very few parents engage with what their kids are doing at school. For many of them, school is where their kids go during the day. They appreciate the break. Their job is to deliver the child to school every morning and fetch him/her every afternoon. It is the school’s job to educate their children. During my time as governor, I was shocked at how many parents aren’t even 100% sure what school year their kids are in. They usually know the teacher’s name and use that as a point of reference for someone better informed to remind them which school year that teacher teaches. They are very quick to kick up stink when the requirements of the school impinge on their own lives or inconvenience them in any way. And boy, will they demand action when their kids come home complaining about ill-treatment (real, fictitious or perceived) at the hands of a teacher or another child!
In the blogosphere, we naturally encounter other parents who are concerned. Those who don’t are hardly likely to bother blogging about it, but there are tragically many of them and I have spent many a sleepless night trying to figure out how to get parents to give a hoot!
In the interests of full disclosure I have to point out that the “don’t care” attitude was new to me when I arrived in the UK – it is my (probably biased) impression that South African parents are far more concerned and involved. However, I have no experience of Canadian education or the attitudes of parents to it, so the value my 2p-worth is open to question.
I’ve been reading your blog with interest for awhile now. I believe we have met – I am married to Larry Miller who taught in Revelstoke. Your reference to Revelstoke in an earlier blog and your military career make me fairly certain you are the Harold Jarche who went to school in Revelstoke in the 70’s. I came upon your blog while searching for some information on “The Metaphor” by Budge Wilson.
I went back to school 5 years ago and am now teaching English at a high school in central BC. I’ve used blogs in my class (and yes I’m in “that” demographic), would like to learn more about how to incorporate other technologies. I have discovered that students know very little about how to search for information or how to decide whether what they find is any good and have started to incorporate that into lessons. What I’d really like to know is how to get kids invovled in learning for the sake of learning. They (and most of their parents) are all focussed on grades – how much is this worth? how late can I hand it in?… to the point that any task that miht demonstrate their learning simply becomes busy work – which I think is a waste of their time as well as mine. Given that public education is not going away any time soon, and I love teaching, and not all parents are willing/able to educate their kids, how can we engage them so that they see the value of learning, not just getting the marks?
I’ve rambled on far longer than I planned. Thanks for reading.
That project sounds maddening. Unschooling is a fantastic way to live and learn!
Hey- I found this blog post by frantically googling – does New Brunswick allow unschooling? Because I’ve looked at the yearly form to be filled in, and it doesn’t look exactly easy! I mean, french instruction? I’m not bilingual myself- that won’t really be covered much via pure unschooling, unless they’re interested. Do you know others who are unschooling, and have got the form finished easily- without any problems?
No, I don’t have any up to date information, as we have no school-age children.