tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78441670152243688822024-02-20T15:04:31.138-08:00Parenting is PoliticalStepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-17374540827400692112018-03-12T12:36:00.002-07:002018-03-12T18:50:06.794-07:00School's Out Forever"The trouble with normal is it always gets worse."<br />
<br />
— Bruce Cockburn<br />
<br />
<br />
It's been a while since I've posted in this space, and for good reason: my kids graduated from high school last June, which means that our lives are no longer enmeshed in an education system whose flaws were the catalyst for many of my posts over the years. And although my daughters are by no means launched—one is in first-year university and the other is taking a gap year—I've been trying to pull back on the hands-on "parenting," as much for my sanity as for theirs. I've also been preoccupied with other things for the last year and half, things like working (or thinking about working) and sponsoring a Syrian refugee family. At the moment, I'm toying with starting a new, non-parenting blog (because, who says blogging is dead?), but before wrapping this one up, I wanted to offer some final thoughts on the end—and the ends—of high school.<br />
<br />
<b>Prom</b><br />
<br />
The whole pre-and post-prom season was horrific, and I say that as a relatively uninvolved observer. It was worse than horrific for my daughters, both of whom participated reluctantly and afterwards wished that they'd taken me up on my offer to take them to Paris for prom week. From my perspective as a parent who skipped her own prom—called "the formal" back then, before the Americanization of every lower-key Canadian event—it was confirmation of my suspicion that everything or almost everything associated with education is getting worse, not better.<br />
<br />
Worse, for instance, is the hype surrounding prom, and its sheer conventionality—how the girls stress (far more than I remember my girlfriends stressing about the "formal," and far more than the boys) about the outfit and the hair and the makeup and the promposals or lack thereof (although boys sometimes receive or fret about not receiving promprosals too—progress!). And how both boys and girls stress about the pre-prom parties and the pre-pre-prom parties, and how drunk they can or cannot get before prom, and how they're going to survive without being drunk, and which after-prom party they're going to attend and how they can ditch the date they wish they hadn't agreed to go with, without hurting his or her feelings. Worse also is how parents get conscripted into the madness by means of pre-prom events held by parents for the prom-goers and their parents. (What? When did this become a thing? Why?)<br />
<br />
What bothered me most about the whole prom phenomenon is how conventional North American high schools (still!) are when it comes to thinking about ways to mark transitions such as the end of secondary school. Compare "prom" to the Norwegian tradition of <i>russefeiring,</i> a term that means "russ celebration," <i>russ</i> being the Norwegian word for the graduating class. Rather than staging nostalgic performances of 'fifties debutant balls, complete with strictly defined and still mostly enforced gender roles, Norwegian kids decorate buses and hold events and parties in and around them every night and weekend for nearly a month. While I can imagine that for introverted or non-partying types, this travelling carnival might induce its own anxieties, at least it is inclusive* and not predicated on tired, constricting gender norms. In fact, <i>russefeiring</i> allows and even encourages graduates to test and flout of all manner of societal norms, which seems like a healthier way to mark the transition to adulthood than a backward-looking dance that reinforces social conformity.<br />
<br />
Nonetheless, in the end, the backward-looking dance that was my daughters' prom lasted only one night; my girls survived and were happy to have put it behind them. Mostly they were happy that it signalled that the four-year-long horror show of high school was also behind them.<br />
<br />
<b>Grad</b><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Almost</i> behind them. Because there was one final event that was also worse than I remember it being: graduation. Grad day managed, in the space of a few boring hours, to crystallize everything that is wrong with high school. Like high school in general, grad serves as a sorting mechanism for students, clearly marking out the winners and losers by means of the awards and honours bestowed, or very conspicuously not bestowed. The interesting thing is that although there were a few purely academic honours, a majority of the awards rewarded either sports excellence or "character" or both. Kids were singled out for having displayed "spirit," and though the term was never defined, it became clear from the comments of the teachers and administrators that "spirit" or "character" more or less equalled conformity to the school culture of competition, hard work (i.e., the ability to withstand the ridiculous pressures of contemporary high school), and—somewhat contradictorily—"teamwork."<br />
<br />
In fact, the whole ceremony created a fog of cognitive dissonance that thickened and peaked during the valedictorian's speech. The teacher who introduced the valedictorian remarked that the first thing he noticed about her when she entered his classroom in Grade 9 was her competitiveness, which he clearly saw as her greatest virtue. In her speech, though, the valedictorian told an animal fable about cooperation and teamwork, which she analogized to her time in high school. The message, while sweet, was a little surprising given the context in which it was being delivered: a ceremony honouring a graduating class that had just finished tearing its collective hair out in a frenzied attempt to make the grades needed to ensure admittance to competitive universities. But what also struck me about the speech—and in this it mirrored the earlier speeches of the teachers and officials—was how apolitical it was (this in a year during which Donald Trump became president of the United States) and how unmoored from the reality of most kids' experience of high school. I don't know what I was expecting, and I'm not at all blaming the valedictorian: the truth is, she showed herself to be an exemplary product of the current secondary education system, equipped with precisely the kind of mindset regarding hard work, perseverance, and "teamwork" that for her, because she comes from the right school and the right socio-economic class, will yield the results regularly claimed for it. The problem for me was that in her speech, and in the doling out of award after similar award, the school's hidden curriculum—of conformity, hoop-jumping, and ranking—seemed to be clanging quite jarringly against the surface curriculum—of "critical thinking," hard work, and personal achievement. By the time it was over, I felt as if my head was going to explode.<br />
<br />
The ceremony had a similar effect on my daughters. At one point, one of them whispered that to save time, they should have given one humongous spirit award to one prototypical kid, since the awards all seemed to reward the same traits. I do think, though, that my daughters were less surprised than I was by the banality and hypocrisy of grad. After all, they had been forced to sit through myriad similar speeches and ceremonies during their four years at the school. Afterwards, during the snapping of photos with friends and parents, they seemed dazed and detached, as if the reality of what had just happened had not yet sunk in. It was only in the car on the way home that they both finally expressed a sense of release and freedom. High school was over.<br />
<br />
<br />
*Options that are less heavy on the partying are typically available to religious kids, or kids who don't drink, etc.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-51210175167634769382016-09-06T11:44:00.000-07:002018-02-05T19:31:24.507-08:00The Current on HomeworkThis morning I was a guest on the CBC Radio show <i>The Current</i> with Anna Maria Tremonti. The topic was homework, about which I apparently never lack for things to say. Tremonti is a great interviewer, and I was happy to be able to share my family's homework "story." But there's much more I wish I could have said. For instance, I wish I'd mentioned the recent CAMH <a href="http://www.camh.ca/en/hospital/about_camh/newsroom/news_releases_media_advisories_and_backgrounders/current_year/Pages/One-third-of-Ontario-students-report-elevated-psychological-distress.aspx">study</a> showing disturbingly high levels of psychological distress among Ontario high school students; I would have liked to wonder out loud why there's been so little interest in figuring out the root causes of teen stress. But maybe I didn't raise that question because I know the answer: It's much easier to implicitly blame kids for their own troubles and individualize the problem of stress (by offering coping mechanisms and time management guidance) than it is to acknowledge one's complicity in perpetuating a school culture of overwork that harms kids. So once again there's an elephant in the room of the debates about teen mental health. (<i>Spoiler</i>: its name is homework.)<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/popup/audio/listen.html?autoPlay=true&clipIds=&mediaIds=2694591948&contentarea=radio&subsection1=radio1&subsection2=currentaffairs&subsection3=the_current&contenttype=audio">Here</a>'s the link to the interview.StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-25380129910035663342016-03-03T13:38:00.001-08:002016-03-03T13:40:31.250-08:00Elephants and PuppiesFrom the Toronto District School Board's Mental Health and Well-Being <a href="http://www.tdsb.on.ca/Portals/0/Elementary/docs/SupportingYou/MHWB%20Newsletter%20February%202016.pdf">newsletter</a>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Some of the activities that wellness groups have done in schools
in the TDSB include: yoga before exams, mindful minutes on the announcements, speed friending, mindfulness bubbles, mentoring new
students, teacher thank you cards, puppy rooms, and more! </blockquote>
<br />
Conspicuous by its absence: encouraging principals and teachers to adhere to the TDSB <a href="http://www2.tdsb.on.ca/ppf/uploads/files/live/102/199.pdf">homework policy</a> and reduce homework loads to reasonable levels. Because why confront the elephant in the room when you can just bring in puppies?<br />
<br />StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-86692054966940507552015-10-13T10:30:00.000-07:002015-10-13T10:31:12.436-07:00Hazardous High School?<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%;">Not
long ago, while walking down Yonge Street, I overheard two girls talking. One
stopped for a moment and grabbed her friend’s arm: “So grade 11, fuck! I’m
actually going to have to work. Every. Single. Thing. Counts.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;">My twin daughters have started Grade 11
this fall, so I’m familiar with the anxiety underlying this snippet of
conversation. My daughters worked hard in Grade 9 and 10, but they, too, are
feeling the extra anxiety of this year’s marks “counting” for their university
applications.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;">As I look back to my own Grade 11 year—a
year in which I worked, but not too hard, and managed to find time to read for
pleasure and explore my own interests—I can’t help but feel sad for kids entering
Grades 11 and 12 in 2015. The workload, the homework, the near-mandatory,
resume-fluffing extracurriculars, the anxiety-inducing university application
process—all of it is symptomatic of the kind of “rat race” we used to deplore
for adults, and now accept as a normal part of modern (middle class)
adolescence. The question I find myself asking is this: Do the benefits of the
education my kids are receiving outweigh the costs to their mental health and well-being?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 18pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 18pt;">A pair of American studies that caught my
eye a couple of years ago, and which I recently stumbled on again, suggest that
the answer to this question may be “no.” The first is entitled “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 18pt;"><a href="http://people.hofstra.edu/Esther_Fusco/ENC204view.pdf#page=55"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="EN-US">Hazardous Homework? The Relationship
Between Home<span lang="EN-US">work, Goal Orientation, and Well-Being in
Adolescence</span></span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 18pt;">,”
by Mollie K. Galloway and Denise Pope, from Lewis and Clark College and
Stanford University, respectively. The second study, by the same research
group, is called “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 18pt;"><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00220973.2012.745469"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="EN-US">Nonacademic Effects of Homework in
Privileged, High-Performing High Schools</span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 18pt;">.” Both are empirical studies consisting
of large-scale surveys of kids’ attitudes towards and experience of homework.
The authors claim that their research aims to redress a perceived lack of
student voice on an issue that affects students directly. Though the studies
have slightly different emphases and scopes, their findings are similar and can
be summed up by the following points:</span></div>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Students
in middle and upper-middle class high schools have too much homework—an
average of 3 hours a night, with many doing 7 hours per night or more.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Homework
adversely affects teenagers’ physical and mental well-being; effects
include insomnia, headaches, weight gain or loss, exhaustion, performance
anxiety and excessive worrying.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Students
in Grade 11 have the most homework and report the most distress from their
homework load, possibly because (in the US) it is the year of SATs and
ACTs.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time spent
on homework is positively correlated with higher grades, since homework is
often graded, but not with “learning” or “enjoyment.”<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A
significant majority of students surveyed said that they had dropped an
extracurricular activity that they enjoyed, due to too much homework.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 18pt;">The researchers draw a variety of
conclusions from their work—including the insight that the collected data belie
the commonplace notion that “homework is inherently good”— and call for more
research into the relationship between homework load and student well-being.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;">For me, the first question the studies
raise is, do the American data reflect the Canadian experience? It’s difficult
to answer this question with any accuracy because comparable Canadian studies
do not exist. The closest is an Ontario-focussed 2008 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;"><a href="http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/oise/UserFiles/File/cameron_bartel_report.pdf"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="EN-US">study</span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;"> out of OISE that surveyed parents’
views on the issue of homework, but did not consult students directly. The
results of this survey suggest that parents in the demographic most heavily
represented in the study—middle class parents with incomes between $100,000 and
$200,000 per year—believe their kids have too much homework; according to the
data collected from parents in the OISE study, students in Grade 12 have the
most homework, followed by students in Grade 11. At all grades, parents report,
conflicts arising from homework negatively affect home life. A </span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;"><a href="http://www.tdsb.on.ca/Portals/0/AboutUs/Research/2011-12CensusFactSheet2EmotWellbeingPart1.pdf"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="EN-US">census</span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;"> conducted by the Toronto District School
Board in 2011 also uncovered high levels of student anxiety over school work,
but questions were worded in such a way that homework worries could not easily
be isolated from general worries about school and life.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;">“Harder” statistics on homework in this
country are few and far between and can be confusing to parents. For instance,
an </span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;"><a href="http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/download/5jxrhqhtx2xt.pdf?expires=1442511768&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=C99C74C23895878D8C75DA5E2B671FAB"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="EN-US">OECD report</span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;">, drawing on data from the 2012 PISA
results, states that Canadian 10<sup>th</sup> graders spend an average of 5.5
hours on homework per week, a statistic that does not jibe with what I have
experienced as a parent of high-schoolers who average two or more hours of
homework per night. My experience, and that of other parents I know, is more in
line with the results of the OISE study, which documented the ways in which
heavy homework loads place undue stress on kids and families.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;">An explanation of the discrepancy between
the OISE study and the OECD statistics can be found in the OECD report itself,
whose purpose is to answer the question posed in its title, “Does homework
perpetuate inequities in education?” The report shows that in every participating
country, advantaged students spend more time on homework than disadvantaged
students—in countries, like Canada and the US, significantly more time. So the
Canadian average of 5.5 hours per week does not capture the reality of students
attending schools in advantaged communities (whether the students themselves
come from socio-economically privileged homes or not). The authors of the OECD
report argue that time spent on homework is positively correlated with results
on international tests like PISA; they conclude therefore that measures should
be taken to reduce the disparities in homework loads. However, many homework
researchers—Alfie Kohn, for instance—have pointed out that the correlations between
homework and achievement are weak, that they hold only for older students, mostly
for math homework, and only when the homework is not too burdensome. Even the
OECD report notes that “evidence from PISA 2009 suggests that after around four
hours of homework per week, the additional time invested in homework has a
negligible impact on performance.”</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;">Which leads me to a second question that
the studies on homework stress raise: given the consensus among both detractors
and advocates of homework that more is <i>not</i>
better, and given the mounting evidence—explicit in the US studies and implicit
in Canadian research—of the deleterious effects of heavy homework loads, why does
excessive homework still seem to be the default at middle-class and
upper-middle-class North American high schools? Why is it that homework policies
(such as the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;"><a href="http://www2.tdsb.on.ca/ppf/uploads/files/live/102/199.pdf"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="EN-US">Toronto District School Board</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="EN-US">’</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="EN-US">s</span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;">) designed to rein in homework are
routinely violated or simply ignored? A charitable answer might be that, while
research on homework and achievement is abundant, research on the link between
homework and student well-being is relatively new and, in Canada, difficult to
find. The less charitable but more plausible answer is that school boards and
administrators are aware of the studies on the harmful effects of homework but
have chosen to ignore them. For, despite the lip service paid in recent years
to issues of student mental health, there has been a conspicuous unwillingness
on the part of ministries and school boards to confront the source of much
student distress: school itself. Rather than considering the ways in which overstuffed
curricula and ingrained pedagogies can overburden students with the sheer
quantity of work, while often leaving them under-challenged intellectually
(qualitatively), many policy makers and administrators have jumped on band-aid
bandwagons such as mindfulness, thereby restricting the discussion to
individual, versus systemic or institutional, problems and solutions.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;">But the American studies also lead me to
believe that there is more to the endurance of the homework status quo than
simple laziness or head-in-the-sand avoidance on the part of educators. Galloway,
Conner and Pope explain their focus on “privileged, high-performing” high
schools by observing that it is in these educational communities that the “accepted
value of homework appears to be entrenched.” This observation reflects and to
some extent explains the OECD statistics on class-based disparities in homework
loads. But while the OECD report implies that such disparities are an
unfortunate side effect of our socio-economic and education systems, the
American researchers offer a deeper, more troubling explanation. In their
analysis, unequal homework is not merely an epiphenomenon of socio-economic inequity,
but one of its key drivers. They note that homework is itself a socio-economic
sorting mechanism: since it is primarily in privileged homes that there are
supports available to allow students to survive excessive homework, heavy
workloads act as a leg up to the advantaged, while further disadvantaging the
disadvantaged. In other words, students who can handle the homework are going
to do better in school than those who, for reasons beyond their control,
cannot. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;">Beyond the immediate context of high school, the authors argue that
training in the ability to spend long hours on work of dubious inherent value
constitutes another advantage for students seeking to “advance in a
competitive, achievement-focused society.” So if, as the authors imply, and as the
OECD statistics confirm, homework loads are significantly lighter in less
privileged communities, then students in those communities are being denied the
competitive advantages that experience with heavy loads confers. The authors
suggest that it is privileged parents’ tacit understanding of the ways in which
homework advantages their children that renders many of them complicit in
maintaining the homework status-quo, despite its cost to student well-being.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36pt;">But what about the parent who thinks the
costs of excessive homework are too high, the parent who would rather that
homework not be used as a means of reproducing privilege, even if that
privilege is his or her own? What is such a parent to do? For my part, I plan
to talk to my kids about the research on the links between homework and well-being,
including the fact that Grades 11 and 12 are particularly “hazardous” years in
this regard. I will suggest that they do as much homework as seems reasonable
to them, and I will advise them not to worry excessively about getting into the
“right” university or about losing out on vaguely envisioned longer-term
advantages. Such advantages may or may not devolve to them as members of a
relatively privileged community. The advantages of less stress and more
enjoyment in the here and now are much more tangible.</span><br />
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StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-38223775234820243152015-04-28T09:31:00.001-07:002015-04-29T07:35:52.489-07:00Too Much Homework, Part 3<div class="tr_bq">
It's "summative" season at my kids' school—the period between March break and final exams when teachers assign labour-intensive final projects that count for a substantial chunk of the final grade. These projects are all due around the same time—because we wouldn't want kids to enjoy the warmer weather <i>too</i> much! A perfect time, then, for me to resume the sorry saga of my family's fight against excessive homework. </div>
<br />
Sadly, there's not much to report in the way of progress since I posted <a href="http://www.northtomom.blogspot.ca/2015/02/the-facts-too-much-fing-homework-part-2.html">Part 2</a>. The vice-principal with whom we had the "heated" telephone meeting about homework (see <a href="http://www.northtomom.blogspot.ca/2015/01/theres-too-much-fucking-homework-part-1.html">Part 1</a>) has left the school—not because of us, we've been reassured! We were disappointed to lose our one contact person within the administration—unlike the principal and guidance counsellors, he actually answered our emails—but the truth is, his departure had little effect on our ongoing battle against homework. Well before we learned of his transfer, we had concluded that pursuing the matter further with him would be futile. Over the course of several meetings, starting with an initial in-person meeting during our kids' first term at the school, we'd come to the realization that although the VP would often make the right noises about the need to educate teachers about the homework policy and rein in those who continued to ignore it, the reassuring noises did not—and likely would never—translate into action. Change was not going to come from him nor, it seemed, from anyone in the administration. <br />
<br />
So we decided to take a different tack. We wrote to our newly elected school trustee and explained our situation, outlining the steps we had taken thus far to address the problem of the school's non-compliance with the homework policy. Specifically, we asked her if she could help us get answers to the following questions:<br />
<blockquote>
1. Does the TDSB have a homework working group that is tasked with evaluating and revisiting both the issue of homework and its own policy? </blockquote>
<blockquote>
2. Does the TDSB have a mechanism in place to verify that its homework policy is in fact being adhered to at individual schools?</blockquote>
<blockquote>
3. What recourse do students and parents have when they believe (or indeed have evidence) that the homework policy is not being adhered to at a specific school. </blockquote>
The trustee responded quickly. She seemed interested in the issue and promised to try to get answers to our questions. Since she was a rookie trustee, she forwarded our questions to the area superintendent who, she hoped, would be better informed than she, and able to answer our questions. Not long afterwards, our trustee forwarded the superintendent's response.<br />
<br />
To the first question, regarding whether the TDSB has a working group or committee looking at homework and its own policy, the answer was a depressingly simple no. We were disappointed by this answer but not surprised: since 2008, when the new policy came into effect, homework seems to have fallen off the board's radar. It's as if the thinking is that the problem of homework was solved in 2008, and there's no need to revisit the issue. Of course a policy is only as good as its implementation and enforcement, but individual schools' non-adherence does not seem to worry the board, as the superintendent's response to our second question makes clear:<br />
<blockquote>
We do not have one mechanism to verify that the policy is being adhered to. But we rather we have a multi-pronged approach. Important policies are noted on Principal checklist that is available to principals for the year (Homework is one of them) of which we recommend they review themselves and with staff. . . . <i>One of the things that very clearly came out of community consultation in 2008 was the feeling from parents that although the Homework Policy is important that it is also important for local school needs to be considered and that communication and collaboration between principal, teachers and parents was an important component of successful implementation</i>. I do receive calls (approximately 5-6 a year) with concerns about the policy not being followed in a particular school. My recommendation is always to speak with teacher, if concerns continue speak with principal... [emphasis added]</blockquote>
What's interesting about this response is the implication (in the sentence I've italicized) that the policy is flexible, and that "local school needs" may affect its implementation or mitigate its effects. The reason I find this interesting is that five years ago, when I wrote a long <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2011/04/this-review-of-2008-tdsb-homework.html">post</a> about the TDSB homework policy for Sara Bennett's homework site, I interviewed our superintendent and trustee at the time, as well as the principal at our kids' elementary school. It was made clear to me then that the policy, while not exactly binding in any legal sense, was not optional either. The point of the policy was to reduce homework loads to manageable, developmentally appropriate levels across all grades.<br />
<br />
Also somewhat disappointing is the superintendent's answer to my (third) question regarding the recourse available to students and parents who believe that the homework policy is not being adhered to. He wrote:<br />
<blockquote>
Follow up with school. Would recommend teacher first. Depending on age of student they could begin by advocating for themselves, then parent to teacher and principal as needed in order to support student wellness and student learning needs. </blockquote>
But my letter to the trustee (which she had forwarded to the superintendent) made it clear that we had already followed up with the school, to no avail. I wrote back to the trustee clarifying our question number 3: "What we meant to ask was what recourse is available to parents and students <i>after</i> it has been determined that the school is both not adhering to the homework policy and not responding satisfactorily to parents' and students' concerns about excessive homework." We received no response to this email.<br />
<br />
To be fair, mere hours after we sent that final letter, all hell broke loose at the TDSB—the damning <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/new/2015/TDSBReview2015.pdf">report</a> by Margaret Wilson was released, and the board entered into crisis mode. I suppose the next step would have been to contact the superintendent directly, but we chose not to attempt further communication until the crisis at the TDSB blew over. Instead, we decided to try yet another tack.<br />
<br />
Our daughters' school had recently convened a "Mental Health Team" in accordance with the TDSB's <a href="http://www.tdsb.on.ca/AboutUs/DirectorofEducation/YearsofAction.aspx">Years of Action, 2013–2017 Plan</a>. According to the information sheet available on the school's website, the team, composed of "students, parents, teachers, community partners and the principal," is responsible for "facilitating student mental health and well-being" at the school. A lofty aim, my husband and I thought, and when we learned that the team was meeting monthly, we asked the vice-principal (just before he left the school) to put us in touch with the parents on the team. Our intention was to bring the issue of homework to the attention of the mental health team; our hope was that we could convince the team's members that one relatively straightforward way to reduce student stress would be to reduce homework to levels consistent with the TDSB homework policy. The VP informed us that the parent representative on the mental health team was one of the co-chairs of the school council. He gave us the appropriate email, and we wrote a letter asking whether the issue of homework fell within the mental health committee's mandate, or if it did not, whether we could attend a meeting to discuss ways to incorporate it into the discussion. The response to this email to date: crickets.<br />
<br />
I'm surprised that the school council co-chairs thought it acceptable to ignore a letter from a fellow parent. But I'm not surprised that the mental health team might not be receptive to our proposed input. Homework is clearly the elephant in the room of recent initiatives concerning student mental health. It's far easier, from the school's perspective, to individualize stress and other mental health difficulties than to regard them as systemic problems tied to a school culture of overwork.<br />
<br />
I've written a follow-up note to the school council member, reiterating my questions and asking to be put in touch with someone willing to answer them. But, frankly, my expectations for a response are low, and I confess that my energy for the homework battle is flagging. At this point in the year, during "summative season," my goal is simply to help my kids get through the year with their mental health intact. "Getting through school" has become my daughters' goal as well, which says something about what stress and overwork can do to kids' motivation and attitudes towards learning. What it says is not good.<br />
<br />StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-39434836133638582332015-03-01T11:08:00.001-08:002015-05-06T10:00:00.901-07:00Un-Sex-EdI've heard talk of the "pearl-clutchers" who object to the sex-ed portion of the new <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/health1to8.pdf">Ontario Health and Physical Education curriculum</a>, but I've never met any. My suspicion is that, apart from a handful of people belonging to fringe religious groups (such as the small group that gathered to protest at Queen's Park on last Tuesday), no one really objects to this update. Why? Maybe because contrary to what many of the media stories on the new curriculum would have us believe, this is an extremely tame sex-ed program. In fact it's not about sex at all.<br />
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As I tweeted on the day the curriculum was released:<br />
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New K-8 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/onted?src=hash">#onted</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sexed?src=hash">#sexed</a> curriculum not particularly "sex-positive": word "orgasm" occurs 0 times--same # of times as in '98 and 2010 docs.<br />
— StepfordTO (@stepfordTO) <a href="https://twitter.com/stepfordTO/status/569964216628740097">February 23, 2015</a></blockquote>
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OTOH mentions of STIs in all docs too many to count. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ONsexed?src=hash">#ONsexed</a> (not a bad thing but...balance?) <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/onted?src=hash">#onted</a><br />
— StepfordTO (@stepfordTO) <a href="https://twitter.com/stepfordTO/status/569964969107857410">February 23, 2015</a><br />
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It's not just orgasms that are MIA; pleasure in general gets short shrift, though at least the concept is mentioned—eight times in the 2015 release, up from five in the 2010 version. And, yes, there are those "shocking" references to wet dreams, vaginal lubrication and masturbation in Grade 6, but since these topics are mentioned (once each) in the optional teacher prompts, the likelihood of them making their way into actual classroom teaching or discussion is slim. By contrast, teaching about abstinence or delaying sexual activity (eleven mentions) is not optional: it is clearly a part of the curriculum that is expected to be taught—in fact, it is listed as one of the "key topics" for Grades 7 and 8. STIs are another key topic for these grades. There is <i>a lot</i> of information about STIs in this curriculum, as of course there should be, but as I said in my tweet, the balance between "scary" and "fun" topics may strike some as skewed.<br />
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Or rather it would be askew if this were a sex-ed curriculum: that is, a curriculum about sex and sexuality. It is not. The Human Development and Sexual Health portion of the Health and Physical Education curriculum is in fact a harm-prevention program whose aim is to educate kids about the possible dangers they may encounter as they grow into sexual beings. That is precisely how the government has framed the new curriculum in their <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/HPEgrades1to6.pdf">parent guides</a> and <a href="http://www.citynews.ca/2015/02/23/education-minister-unveils-new-sex-ed-curriculum-for-ontario/">news conferences</a>, and most of its "controversial" parts can be explained in light of this aim. Education minister Liz Sandals has pointed out, for instance, that young kids need to know the proper names of body parts so they can communicate with family members and police if they are being abused. Older kids need to be aware of anal and oral sex in the context of STIs, since rates of teen pregnancy in Ontario have dropped while STI rates have risen—the reason being, <a href="http://www.macleans.ca/society/health/liz-sandals-defends-her-governments-new-sex-ed-curriculum/">according to Sandals</a>, that teens are engaging in pregnancy-avoidant sexual behaviour, unaware that alternative acts carry other risks. The new lessons about online behaviour and sexting are safety-focussed in obvious ways, as are the anti-bullying sections, the LGBTQ sections, and the new additions about consent.<br />
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All of these new emphases are welcome, and they all make sense given the government's explicit goal of keeping kids safe and healthy. One would be hard pressed to object to a program that furthers such a goal. Which is why, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, so few people oppose the new curriculum. Progressive parents and educators, and organizations such as Planned Parenthood support it, but so too do well-known conservative pundits and columnists, such as <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/sex-education-then-and-now/article23160602/">Margaret Wente</a> and <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/26/michael-coren-why-critics-of-ontarios-new-sex-ed-curriculum-are-wrong/">Michael Coren</a>. (See also this thoughtful <a href="http://www.eganvillebaptist.org/follower/sex-ed">post</a> by a Baptist pastor from Eganville, Ontario. )<br />
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I'm happy that there is wide support for this curriculum and that it will finally be implemented in September of 2015. Kids need sexual harm-prevention education. But they also need sex education. As I said in my <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/06/the-new-k-8-ontario-sex-ed-curriculm.html?showComment=1425096768356">post</a> on the 2010 version of the curriculum,<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<span style="color: #4c4c4c; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, Palatino Linotype, Palatino, serif;"><span style="background-color: #fff8f2; font-size: 15.3999996185303px; line-height: 21.5599994659424px;">We live in a culture in which there exists, for adults and kids alike, a parallel, free and nearly universally available alternative to sex ed: namely, pornography. A progressive sex education must be at least as interesting as its pornographic rival.</span></span></blockquote>
The pornographic rival has not gone away. And progressive <i>sex</i> education for Ontario kids is still lacking.<br />
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<br />StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-50495631014942068142015-02-01T20:47:00.001-08:002015-02-01T20:48:54.258-08:00Too Much F***ing Homework, Part 2Four days after our unsatisfactory telephone meeting with the vice-principal, we received an email from him. He had spoken to the history teachers as well as the head of the history department, and he wanted to enlighten us as to the "facts" of the multi-step project to which we had objected. Clearly he felt that our daughters had given us misinformation rather than facts. The facts, he informed us, were straightforward: the project was assigned on December 12—well before the Christmas break (although the last day of school was December 19); the kids were given three sessions in the library to work on it (two before the break and one after); and the librarian had told the students during the first library session that the notes were due the week after Christmas break (something both daughters, who are in different history classes, refute). The underlying message of the email seemed to be that our daughters were liars or slackers or both, and that any reasonable child would have been able to complete the project (over the holidays?) without undue stress.<br />
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Had he chosen to speak to any of the students in, for instance, my daughter E's class, he would have learned that the first library session was taken up with a lesson on "how to take notes," that during the second one, the computers were down (so the research session was cancelled), and during the third one, the computers were so slow that it was impossible to conduct research efficiently. Leaving aside for a moment the question of the many ways in which technology (for which the infrastructure is still mostly inadequate or unreliable) often renders school assignments more unwieldy and time-consuming than low-tech equivalents, such as, say, a persuasive essay about a topic discussed in class—leaving aside that important question for the moment, it is clear that this particular multi-step history project was <i>not</i> a project for which enough class or library time was allotted, nor was it designed as an in-school project, as E's teacher's admonishment that kids had better work on it over the holidays (<i>contra</i> the homework policy) makes clear. On paper, it may appear reasonable and doable (though even that is disputable), but the reality <i>for the students actually carrying out the assignment</i> is quite different; "evidence" collected solely from the teachers who designed and assigned the project cannot be expected to reflect that (student) reality.<br />
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The vice-principal's email made it clear that he was interested primarily in defending the school's practices, rather than resolving the persistent problem of teachers' collectively assigning homework that far exceeds the limits set forth in the Toronto District School Board's homework policy.<br />
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My husband and I decided, in light of the VP's follow-up email, that tackling the problem by means of reasonable—or unreasonable, expletive-laden—discussion with the school's administration was going to prove futile. After considering possible next steps, we decided to to approach our local trustee first and the school's own Mental Health and Well-Being committee second. Stay tuned.StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-14434421773102544342015-01-18T18:18:00.000-08:002015-01-25T12:25:44.995-08:00There’s Too Much F***ing Homework, Part 1It’s been a tough couple of weeks in our household. As usual, the source of the stress is school. At this time of year, when teachers are under pressure to submit grades for the second report card, stress flows abundantly and continuously from the high school into the home. The result is tears (on the kids’ part), yelling (on everybody’s part), and swearing (on a certain adult’s part). The swearing occurred during a telephone meeting involving my husband, the vice-principal of my daughters’ school, and me.<br />
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The meeting began courteously enough, with me enumerating the ways in which we thought the girls’ workload in the two weeks following Christmas break was not only unreasonable and developmentally-inappropriate, but also contrary to both the letter and the spirit of the Toronto District School Board’s homework policy. This policy, about which I've written and tweeted at length (see <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2011/04/this-review-of-2008-tdsb-homework.html">this</a> post), stipulates that “homework assignments for students in Grades 9 to 12 shall be clearly articulated and carefully planned with an estimated completion time of two hours or less.” It also states that “no homework shall be assigned on scheduled holidays as outlined in the school year calendar or on days of significance.” Elsewhere, the policy emphasizes the importance of teachers’ spacing assignments in consultation with one another. (Read the entire document <a href="http://www2.tdsb.on.ca/ppf/uploads/files/live/102/199.pdf">here</a>.) </div>
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As we explained to the vice-principal during our meeting, the girls both had multiple projects, tests and assignments due in the first two weeks after the Christmas break. (One daughter had to deliver a speech on the same day that two major projects were due.) Both girls were staying up until midnight every night, scrambling to complete the work, and both were anxious and miserable as a result. We asked the vice-principal how the bunching together of so many due dates was in compliance with the homework policy. We also questioned why teachers were allowed to assign projects in the few days before the holidays began that were due in the first or second week following the break. Was this not a violation of the homework policy’s position on holiday homework?</div>
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The vice-principal’s response to our questions was dispiriting. He argued that the clustering of due dates was okay if the kids had been given enough lead time for each assignment. And the homework wasn’t holiday homework if it had been assigned two weeks before the holidays. We pointed out that the most significant and time-consuming of the projects—a multi-step history project, with a separate due date for several pages of references and notes,* as well as a multi-media component—was assigned just six school days before the break, at a time when students were scrambling to complete all the pre-Christmas break projects. The vice-principal countered that all of the requirements of the history project were outlined in the assignment handout and in the rubric, as if the very fact that it was written down negated the possibility of its being too much work for the time allotted to it. We pointed out that kids are not expected to work on school work over the holidays, yet our daughter’s history teacher explicitly warned the students that if they wanted to do well, they would have to work on their projects over the holidays. We noted that if our daughters restricted their homework time to two hours per night and did not work over the holidays—in other words, if they followed the board’s homework policy—they would not be able to complete their projects. In general, we said, if they were to follow the homework policy, they would most likely receive grades in the 50-60% range in all of their subjects. </div>
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None of what we were saying seemed to register with the vice-principal. He kept repeating that the students were given ample time for the projects and that all the requirements were laid out in the rubrics, and when my husband said that the rubrics were irrelevant and that our daughters had <i>not</i> in fact been given ample time to complete the projects unless the holidays were counted as work time, the VP asked, “have they been ill?” At that point my husband snapped. “No! There’s too much fucking homework!” He slammed the phone down.</div>
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I immediately apologized for my husband’s outburst. I did say, however, that I thought what he (the vice-principal) had just heard was a parent’s frustration over the school’s unwillingness to entertain the possibility that there could ever be too much homework, or that homework stress might not be simply an individual student's problem—that it might be, rather, a systemic problem stemming from a persistently unreasonable workload. I wanted to get off the phone myself at this point (I actually wouldn’t have minded slamming it down, as well), so I ended by asking what our recourse was, if we felt that teachers were not adhering to the homework policy. We could talk to the teacher, he said (a course of action that he knew had already proved fruitless), or to him.</div>
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*<span style="font-size: x-small;">We enquired as to the pedagogical value of having kids hand in notes, since (as Chris Liebig noted in a tweet) the only valid criterion by which notes can be judged is the quality of the product they help produce. The vice-principal first said students were to hand in the notes so as to receive “feedback” on their research. Why were the notes being marked, then, we asked, if the purpose was merely feedback. The vice-principal told us that he thought the notes weren’t being marked, but later confirmed in an email what we already knew, that the notes were indeed being marked, and that they would not be handed back before the bulk of the project was due. So much for feedback. The lengthy and detailed notes being due several days before the rest of the assignment meant that this particular project was, in fact, two projects disguised as one. </span></div>
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StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-7257139783803360922014-10-24T22:09:00.001-07:002014-10-28T07:37:51.848-07:00The Debate about Digital Literacy: Moral Panics, Contradictions and Assumptions<i>The following is an edited version of comments I made as a participant on a "Digital Literacy" panel at the recent "Understanding Media Now" conference, hosted by the </i>Association for Media Literacy.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We’ve been encouraged to be provocative here, so to that end, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I’ll tackle the question [posed by the moderator] of the “anxieties and opportunities presented by digital literacies” by first considering the often heated rhetoric surrounding this subject. In my reading for this panel, I came across many urgent exhortations: to heed the call of the “digital revolution” in education; to accede to the “imperatives” of “knowledge-age learning technologies”; to attune ourselves to educational “combustions that are as inevitable as they are mysterious;” to prepare a “creative class” able to meet the challenges of the “Knowledge Economy” brought about by the “Knowledge Revolution.”*</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I also came across the phrase “moral panic.” I learned that it is a term used in sociology and cultural studies to describe a public response to perceived risk, especially risk stemming from a change in values or practices from one generation to the next. For instance, in the 50s and 60s, there was a moral panic surrounding youth culture and rock and roll, and another one surrounding television; there was a lot of public handwringing about what these new phenomena were going to do to youth and by extension to the wider culture. I think it’s safe to say that in the case of technology in particular, nearly every significant advance or invention has precipitated a moral panic. It stands to reason, then, that digital technology, which has become such a salient part of our lives, and our kids’ lives, would elicit a similar response. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm not suggesting that all discourse about digital literacy is a form of “moral panic.” Certainly the conversations occurring at conferences such as this one, especially the many expressions of enthusiastic optimism regarding the educational possibilities of digital technology, are difficult to square with any notion of panic. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But it occurred to me while listening to these conversations that enthusiasm and panic may be two sides of the same coin—mirror responses to uncertainty in the face of change. I do believe that the sense of urgency pervading the debate about </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">digital literacy comes from a kind of fear: a fear that we, as teachers, parents and citizens, will be unable to get on top of the game-changing new digital technologies before they get on top of us and our kids. So maybe the concept of “moral panic” is useful, even if it is not entirely apt, in that it allows us to see the debates over media and digital literacy in the context of a history of public worrying about technology—including educational technology. (Remember all those TVs perched on metal stands in classrooms of the seventies?) A</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">s such, the notion of moral panic may be able to give us some perspective and breathing room to think through what if anything needs to be done. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What <i>is</i> to be done? It seems to me that the urgency surrounding this question is </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">compounded by a tension at the heart of the debate, a tension having to do with the term “digital natives.”</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> This metaphor has been rightly criticized for lacking explanatory power and for glossing over the diversity of children’s experience. But it is nonetheless a concept that continues to inform the debate about digital literacy and to contribute to its urgency. Article after article, position paper after position paper, tells us that our kids have been born into this new digital world, face-booking</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, snap-chatting and texting away from toddlerhood, yet we adults don’t understand it, our schools don’t reflect it, and the kids are floundering as a result. But the contradiction is that if the current generation of school-aged kids are digital natives, why would we need to </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">teach</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> them to be digitally literate? What could we teach them? Did we have to teach kids of my generation how to watch TV or talk on the phone? Or how to make televisions or phones? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hovering at the edge of these questions are two mostly unexamined premises propping up the argument in favour of integrating technology into the curriculum. One is the premise that if something is ubiquitous in our kids’ social environment, it must be brought into the classroom, either as a subject area or as a teaching tool. Why? Because it is ubiquitous in kids’ social environment. But if we were to follow that (circular) line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, we could end up with an argument in favour of, for instance, incorporating junk food into the curriculum—teaching kids to understand it and make it, perhaps in partnership with companies such as McDonalds. I’m not trying to imply that technology is comparable in its effects or potential educational value to junk food; the point is, rather, that the argument from ubiquity is not logically sound and should perhaps not be used to drive curricular or pedagogical change. Ideally, curricular decisions should be driven by what we’ve decided we want education to be: Do we want it to reflect prevailing socio-economic and cultural trends, or to offer some form of resistance?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A second, related premise of the argument in favour of teaching digital literacy can be summed up by the phrase, “resistance is futile.” Digital technological change is "the new normal,"† the thinking goes, so we’d better get used to it, in our lives and in our classrooms. This argument from inevitability is as question begging as the argument from ubiquity: technology, outside and inside the classroom, is inevitable because it’s, well, already upon us—in other words, inevitable. But this argument is even more pernicious in my opinion, since it sidesteps the inconvenient question of the democratic control of education, ceding rhetorical victory to the discourses and arguments emanating from the very industries that stand to benefit the most from our unthinking acceptance of them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The presupposition of inevitability prevents us from engaging in simple thought experiments, such as, what if we decided tomorrow that in Ontario we wanted all our K-12 schools to adopt a technology-free Waldorf approach (as at least one school in the Toronto District School Board has done), or a low-tech, Finnish-style approach? What if we decided that education is not synonymous with anxiously attempting to render our country more economically competitive? I’m not arguing in favour of (or against) any of these positions, but the very fact that they seem so absurd and far-fetched shows that the rhetoric used in discussions about these questions is more obfuscatory than clarifying, and can have the effect of forestalling true debate. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Which leads me to the question raised earlier about anxieties and opportunities surrounding digital technology and literacy. My own anxiety as a parent has to do with what the anxious rhetoric surrounding digital literacy can lead us to do. And by <i>us</i>, I mean parents and schools and governments. One thing that it has led us to do is to spend a lot of money on technology for schools, even though the research to date has failed to show a significant impact (good or bad) on learning. I’m not opposed to technology in schools, but when the provincial government announces that it will be spending 150 million dollars to put iPads in classrooms, while it’s making cuts elsewhere in education, it gives me pause. And when anxiety about digital literacy leads schools to embrace partnerships with companies like Google, which have terrible track records in terms of protecting users’ privacy—that also gives me pause. Which brings me to my final anxiety (well, I have many anxieties, but my final one for today): that the urgent focus on digital literacy—on embedding it throughout the curriculum—risks eliding the conceptual and practical distinction between education and training. As parents, I know we’re supposed to be acutely anxious that our kids may graduate from high school without possessing the so-called 21st century skills they’ll need to function in the global economy. But for one thing, digital technology is always changing, so we can’t predict what specific skills kids will need. And for another, I want my kids to be educated, not trained. I guess I'm old-fashioned enough or hopeful enough to think there can still be a difference. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Quotes from Allan Collins and Richard Halverson, <i>Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology </i>(New York: Teacher's College Press, 2009) and </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Michael Fullan, "There is Something Different about 2014," </span><a href="http://www.michaelfullan.ca/there-is-something-different-about-2014/" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">http://www.michaelfullan.ca/there-is-something-different-about-2014/</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">†See the People For Education report, </span></span><a href="http://www.peopleforeducation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/digital-learning-2014-WEB.pdf"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Digital Learning </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">in Ontario Schools: </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">The ‘new normal’</span></a>.<br />
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StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-61490909331453481852014-10-22T10:19:00.002-07:002014-10-22T10:21:57.581-07:00Digital HelicopteringI recently participated in a panel on digital literacy, as part of the “Understanding Media Now” conference, hosted by the <a href="http://www.aml.ca/">Association for Media Literacy</a>. As part of my reading for this event, I came across the following description of what parent engagement might look like in the era of digital education:<br />
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[Child's mother] is able to find a moment almost every day to check in on
class websites of both her children. Here she can see the homework that was
assigned. She can click on her son’s name (Tommy) or her daughter’s name
(Emily) and access a special parent portal where she inputs her unique
password. It gives her a timeline for outstanding homework and future homework.
She can also log in to classroom instruction to understand exactly what has
been taught so that she can better support her children’s learning from home.
She can access a log of marks to date and see for herself how each of her
children is doing. The assessment plan is available so she knows each of the
assessments completed and/or planned and also their relative importance. This
helps her to focus her kids toward aligning their time commitments appropriately.
She can also access their class schedules online with test dates included which
helps her to make sure that she steers clear of important school dates when
booking orthodontic appointments for the kids. There is even a place for two-
way communication with the teacher so that if an issue comes up the teacher can
let her know and vice versa. She can also access Tommy’s IEP online and make notes
to herself about possible input she would like to provide at the next teacher
conference.*</blockquote>
To which my response is WHAT?! So plain old analogue helicoptering is <i>a very bad thing</i> that will come between a kid and her grit, but digital helicoptering—courtesy of “Big Mamma” in this scenario—is A-ok? With advocates for digital technology like this, who needs detractors?<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*“<a href="http://www.opsba.org/files/WhatIf.pdf">What if: Technology in the 21st Century Classroom</a>,” Ontario's Public School Board's Association, p. 21.</span><br />
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StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-13787484098012426422014-08-04T11:11:00.001-07:002014-08-04T11:34:51.671-07:00"How to prepare your kids for the social pressure cooker of camp" (or why I don't send my kids to camp)I first came across the article, "<a href="http://www.postcity.com/Eat-Shop-Do/Do/June-2014/How-to-prepare-your-kids-for-the-social-pressure-cooker-of-camp/">How to prepare your kids for the social pressure cooker of camp</a>," in the June issue of the North Toronto Post. I tried to comment but wasn't able to do so without a Facebook account. (The article irritated me, but not enough to induce me to join Facebook.) After a bit of online sleuthing, I found the same article on a certain overnight camp's website: it so happens that the article's author, who is a renowned restaurant critic in Toronto, is also the director of the "certain camp" in question. The article was cross-posted by the director herself to the camp's blog, and comments were—ostensibly—welcome. So I left a comment. A mildly critical comment. And then one day, out of curiosity, I revisited the camp website, only to find that the comment had been removed. I suppose its removal is not all that surprising. After all, parents who have thrown their kids into the camp's "social pressure cooker," in some cases for weeks on end, would be the people most likely to read the comment. But would it be a terrible thing to open up a true dialogue about the way kids' camps are structured and run? Would it be a terrible thing to question why we assume that "social pressure cooker" boot camps are good for kids?<br />
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This is the comment I left:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
So why not schedule in some downtime? Why would I want to send my eight-year-old into a "hyper-stimulating," "high octane social pressure cooker"? What sane parent would? This description strikes me as encapsulating everything that is wrong with camp these days. Where is the camp for kids who want to enjoy nature, make friends, and have fun, but aren't interested in being "hyper-stimulated"?</blockquote>
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(See also <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2010/08/camp-keep-me-busy.html">Camp Keep-Me-Busy</a>)<br />
<br />StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-75495316251970519102014-07-12T18:46:00.000-07:002014-07-12T18:46:09.788-07:00The Beautiful ReligionIn honour of the World Cup Final tomorrow, my article in the <i>Toronto Star</i>: "<a href="http://www.thestar.com/life/parent/2014/06/23/if_soccer_is_a_religion_my_family_is_agnostic.html">If Soccer is a Religion, My Family is Agnostic</a>." Happy World Cup day!StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-51955764427627148252014-03-17T14:12:00.001-07:002014-03-17T14:16:41.537-07:00That Was Then, This is NowThe other day I was in a hair salon, and I got to chatting with a woman who was accompanying her elderly mother to her weekly hair appointment. The woman mentioned that she was a math teacher at a high school not far from the one my daughters attend, a school with a similar upper-middle class demographic. Since the teaching of math is an interest of mine, and the PISA results had just been released, I tried to engage her in conversation about the so-called "math wars" and the post-PISA hand-wringing about math scores in the province. She seemed oddly uninterested (for a math teacher) in any of those issues. Instead, she wanted to know where my kids went to school, who their teachers were, etc. She then proceeded to tell me an anecdote that seemed designed to let me know how lucky my kids are to be attending their particular secondary school.<br />
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She had no children of her own, she said, but her sister has two kids, now in university. After divorcing her husband, her sister wanted desperately to get her kids out of their current catchment area, and into the one which includes my daughters' school. Post-divorce, her sister could not afford to buy a house in our area, so she rented an apartment—much smaller than the house from which she'd come, the woman noted—to ensure that her children could attend my daughters' high school, X Collegiate Institute.<br />
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Why, I asked her, was her sister so keen to move into our neighbourhood, given that the high school in her old area has an excellent reputation and very high EQAO scores? The woman lowered her voice and said, conspiratorially, "My niece and nephew didn't feel comfortable there. There were too many, you know, Asians and Jews." I looked at her blankly; my mouth may have fallen open. "Mainly the Asians," she added, apparently hedging her bets. </div>
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"The <i>kids </i>were uncomfortable," I asked? "Or your sister?" </div>
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"No, the kids, definitely. So they moved into the apartment and went to X Collegiate Institute; they both ended up getting into the university of their choice, and they're doing great now."</div>
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I was trying to think of something to say, but I was tongue-tied because I was in a kind of shock at this display of racism, unexpectedly blatant even for our neighbourhood, which is perhaps the last bastion of homogeneity in Toronto (though, even it is changing—for the better). </div>
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In any case, the woman did not give me a chance; she continued with another shocker: "At first my sister was worried, because around that time, they had just enlarged the catchment area for X Collegiate Institute to include an area of public housing. So a lot of black kids and gangs started attending. But the numbers weren't enough to make a difference."</div>
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I mumbled something about how I think X Collegiate Institute needs <i>more</i> not <i>less</i> diversity, then hastily made my exit from the salon. </div>
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There is so much that troubled—and continues to trouble—me about this incident that I hardly know where to start. This woman appeared to be my age, and she lives in one of the most diverse cities in North America. And <i>she is a teacher. </i>That is perhaps the most troubling aspect. It is disturbing, to say the least, to contemplate the preconceptions about kids of colour—about any kid who is not as bleached and blue-eyed as she is—that this teacher brings into the classroom every single day. </div>
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The whole episode got me thinking about the expression of racism today, versus when I was a kid. Is it really so different now, despite all the current talk of post-racism or post-racial societies? A recent <a href="http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/pcstats.asp">study</a> shows that of 3200 books for children published in in the US in 2013, 93 were about black people. And then there are incidents like this <a href="http://www.oldschoolnewschoolmom.com/2014/02/guest-post-dont-ask-me-why-i-dont-match.html">one</a> described by my Twitter friend Sarah Carmichael (<a href="https://twitter.com/sarahcasm">@sarahcasm</a>). Sadly, the kinds of racist inferences (and interference) by strangers that Sarah describes in her post are not anomalies in the lives of bi-racial families. </div>
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A while ago, I wrote a <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2012/04/thats-so-racist-irony-kids-and-racism.html">post</a> about the ways in which racism manifests itself in my daughters' world. More recently, I wrote an <a href="http://www.mtls.ca/issue17/writings/essay/katie-lynes/">essay</a>* for an online journal, Maple Tree Literary Supplement, about the forms racism took while I was growing up. Sadly, I think that when it comes to racism then and now, the only valid conclusion one can draw is "Plus ça change . . . ."</div>
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*<span style="font-size: x-small;">I am not entirely comfortable with the title of this piece, which was suggested to me by a person who thought its very provocativeness was part of the point I was making. I'm still considering changing it, though my previous title "Do You Have Anything Else to Say?" is risibly lame.</span></div>
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StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-88725601856990240942014-01-18T09:43:00.001-08:002014-01-18T09:43:29.994-08:00What's Abstinence Got to Do With It?Too much, frankly. See my <a href="http://rabble.ca/news/2014/01/whats-abstinence-got-to-do-it">post</a> on Ontario's sex-ed curriculum over at Rabble.ca<br />
<br />StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-1832259341255388342013-11-24T11:11:00.003-08:002013-11-24T11:11:55.652-08:00Answers to Government Survey, Part 5 (Questions 6 and 7): Technology and Partnerships<div class="MsoNormal">
Here is my answer to Questions 6 and 7 of the government survey on the future of education in Ontario. (For an explanation of the survey, and the public consultation process of which it is a part, see <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/10/answers-to-government-survey-part-1.html">here</a>.)<br />
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<b>Question 6</b>: <i>How can we use technology more effectively in
teaching and learning?</i> <o:p></o:p></div>
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I think technology is a bit of a red herring in the debates
about the future of schooling. Systems that do very well internationally (such
as Finland's) are quite low-tech. I'm not anti-technology, but given the
expense of introducing new educational technologies, we should keep a close eye
on the evidence of their effectiveness. Often there is none. I'm also concerned
about the corporatization of schools that the introduction of technology makes
possible (or perhaps inevitable). After all, no one stands to gain more from
schools' wholesale adoption of technology-reliant pedagogy than huge tech companies.
The question is, what will the students gain and at what expense?</div>
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<b>Question 7: </b><i>In summary, what are the various opportunities for
partnership that can enhance the student experience, and how can they benefit
parents, educators and our partners too?</i></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>I can’t be certain, but I suspect that by “partnerships,”
the writers of this question mean corporate partnerships. If that is the
case, my position is that there should be no partnerships with
schools. Corporations are in the business of making money; schools are public
spheres where we set aside the money-making goals of the surrounding corporate
world so that our children can be <i>educated</i>,
as opposed to <i>trained</i>. (Let the corporations train their own
employees—why should taxpayers foot the bill for such training?) I think if
politicians and administrators keep in mind this essential distinction between
education and training when making curricular and other policy decisions,
education in Ontario would start to move in the right direction. The title of this
consultation project is From Great to Excellent, but nowhere is “excellence”
defined. For me, an “excellent” education system is not one that trains
excellent corporate employees, but rather one that educates future free-thinking
citizens. Maybe hoping for a truly “excellent” education system is a bit utopian, but I’d
choose utopian over Orwellian any day.</div>
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StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-85576512168078825552013-10-28T11:09:00.001-07:002013-10-30T07:49:41.731-07:00Answers to Government Survey, Part 4: Student Engagement (Question 5)<div class="MsoNormal">
Here is my answer to Question 5 of the government survey on the future of education in Ontario. (For an explanation of the survey, and the public consultation process of which it is a part, see <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/10/answers-to-government-survey-part-1.html">here</a>.)<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Question 5</b>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What more can we all do to keep students
engaged, foster their curiosity and creativity, and help them develop a love of
life-long learning?</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m not sure how we can keep students engaged, when we
haven’t actually engaged them in the first place. Part of the reason schools
fail to engage kids is that school isn’t really about kids. Kids in our current
educational system are viewed as a means to whatever social end adults in power
(within ministries of education and in the corporations that have
policy-makers’ ears) have deemed appropriate and necessary. At the moment, kids
in this country are burdened with task of learning the skills that will (we
hope) enable Canada to remain competitive in the global economy. In our anxiety
over whether the next generation is acquiring these skills—STEM skills, in
particular—we subject students to near constant measuring and testing; after all,
we need to make sure they’re keeping up their end of the social bargain to which they never consented!<br />
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True engagement cannot occur until we stop treating kids in
this instrumental way—until we stop treating childhood and adolescence as
merely preparation for a specific type of adulthood, rather than as its own
phase of life, worthy of its own goals and desires. If we were to do that
(which is a huge “if,” I realize), we would begin to see that the question
should not be “how do we engage kids” but rather “how do we provide the
conditions that would allow kids to self-engage”? <o:p></o:p></div>
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I don’t pretend to know the answer to such an admittedly
abstract question, but I do think it’s pretty clear that engagement, creativity
and a love of lifelong learning are unlikely to be fostered in an educational
system that deprives kids of all power. Coercion and engagement would seem to
me to be incompatible processes. So on a practical level, maybe we can move
towards allowing kids to self-engage by giving them some power over their own
schooling. We could begin by taking small steps towards democratizing schools:
for example, we could solicit students’ opinions and involve them in
decision-making, not only about how school is run, but also about the content
of the curriculum and the means (or necessity) of evaluation.* Only when
students are given at least partial control over their learning will they be
able to figure out their true interests, and only when they are truly
interested will they be able to self-engage.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, just as coercion is incompatible with genuine
engagement, genuine engagement on the part of kids may be incompatible with a
society’s social and economic expectations of education. And therein lies the
intractable paradox at the heart of any project of progressive education reform
(of which this Great to Excellent survey is an example): it may be that
individual traits like “creativity” or the kind of curiosity that leads to
engagement and “life-long learning” cannot be readily harnessed to serve
non-individual, socio-economic goals. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Nonetheless, it's important to at least begin the conversation about how to change school environments so as to allow for the
possibility of kids discovering their true interests and passions. The
alternative is to keep treating students as a means to an end, which will not
only continue to demoralize them (and ruin their childhoods), but is pretty much
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">guaranteed</i> not<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>to produce the adaptable twenty-first century learners and
workers that governments dream of. If you insist that kids be sheep, you will
end up with . . . adult sheep. I'm not sure how interested in lifelong learning
sheep are. I could be underestimating them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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*<span style="font-size: x-small;">Or we could turn the evaluation tables around by, for
example, making course evaluations in elementary and secondary school
mandatory.</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-74443538611654277912013-10-21T19:19:00.002-07:002013-10-22T10:55:07.605-07:00Answers To Government Survey, Part 3: Equity and Full-day Kindergarten<div class="MsoNormal">
Here are my answers to Questions 3 and 4 of the government survey on the future of education in Ontario. (For an explanation of the survey, and the public consultation process of which it is a part, see <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/10/answers-to-government-survey-part-1.html">here</a>.)</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Question 3</b>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">From your perspective, what further
opportunities exist to close gaps and increase equity to support all children
and students in reaching their full potential?</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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Homework is also part of the answer to this question. (See my <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/10/answers-to-government-survey-part-2.html">response</a> to Question 2 for more about homework.) Consider that, starting in the early grades, a child who has support at home to
help him or her navigate the vast amounts of often age-inappropriate homework
(i.e., homework that <i>requires</i> an adult's input) is at an academic
advantage. And when, with a parent's help, such a child begins to do well on assignments, he or she gains confidence, which then fuels more success. So what might start
out as a small advantage is amplified as the child progresses through the grades, by virtue of the boost to
self-confidence and cognitive development that parental support provides. For
this reason, homework is as much an equity issue as it is an issue of student well-being. A level playing field requires that kids be able to succeed in
school without a great deal of family support, for the simple reason that not all kids have
it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Another phenomenon to consider is "streaming," which
occurs in our officially non-streaming system through the back door—i.e., via
"special" programs like French Immersion and "gifted"
programs. We should keep in mind that Finland's system has managed to close achievement gaps based on economic background by focussing on supporting all students in regular classes—no "gifted" classes or special programs, but
a lot of local flexibility with respect to how schools are run and how
curricula are implemented. We could take a page out of the Finnish book on this subject.* (Oh, and Finnish kids have very little homework, even in high
school!)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Question 4</b>: <i>How
does the education system need to evolve as a result of changes to child care
and the implementation of full-day kindergarten?</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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I don't know. I’m not sure I support full-day kindergarten
for all kids because I think it can be exhausting for four- and five-year-olds
to be in school all day, even in so-called play-based kindergarten classes. If
we had an adequate, fully subsidized day care system—like Québec’s, for
instance—would we need full-day kindergarten? Why confuse education and
daycare? (And maybe consider bringing back naps in kindergarten. I remember
quite enjoying the naps.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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*There actually is a book on this subject and many other facets of the Finnish education system: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Finnish-Lessons-Educational-Change-Finland/dp/1470826151">Finnish Lessons</a>, by Pasi Sahlberg.<br />
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(See also my answers to questions 1 and 2 of the survey <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/10/answers-to-government-survey-part-1.html">here</a> and <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/10/answers-to-government-survey-part-2.html">here</a>.)<br />
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StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-64057521115126659562013-10-19T10:59:00.001-07:002013-10-21T13:20:21.849-07:00Answers To Government Survey, Part 2: Student Well-Being<div class="MsoNormal">
Here is my answer to Question 2 of the Ontario government survey on the future of education in the province. (For an explanation of the survey and the public consultation process of which it is a part, see <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/10/answers-to-government-survey-part-1.html">here</a>.)<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Question 2</b>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What does student well-being mean to you,
and what is the role of the school in supporting it? (1000 word-limit)</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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Student well-being is an important topic, given that we know
that most students do not feel "well" while at school. School felt
like prison to me, and several decades later it feels the same way—actually
worse—to my own kids. Why? Well, for one thing, schools are anti-democratic.
Still. One rarely feels good in an environment in which one has no real voice
or power. So why not give kids some actual power over how their own schools are
run? Do they want late start days? How many? How do they feel about the
physical environment of the school? I know my own kids have yet to encounter a
school lunchroom in which they feel comfortable eating. No care is taken to
make sure kids feel good about the spaces they are forced to inhabit every day. It's not as if it would be
impossible to take this aspect of school life into consideration. For instance,
in Finland many schools have student lounges with comfortable sofas where kids
can relax and socialize before and after school, as well as between classes.
Some of these lounges actually have wood-burning fireplaces! Sound outrageous?
Well there's your answer as to why many kids feel ill at ease in school. (Also,
as an experiment, go check out the girls' or boys' bathroom in an average
elementary, middle or secondary school. Would you want to use it? No, you
wouldn't. Kids don't either.)</div>
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So one part of supporting student well-being is moving
towards a more democratic model of schooling. (Cf. the Sudbury School model.)
The other part—equally important, if not more so—is reducing the homework load.
The amount of homework assigned to kids has more than quadrupled since I was a
kid. (Okay, I made that statistic up, but I have researched this topic, and I
know that homework has greatly increased over the last several decades.) And
one has to ask, why? Are kids smarter or more academically prepared for life
after school as a result of all this homework? Not necessarily. In fact, most of the evidence points to homework having very little appreciable effect on
"achievement," however that is defined. Research also suggests that
homework is a huge source of stress and strife in families. So why does it
continue to be assigned in unreasonable amounts? When did we decide that it's
okay for kids to put in more work hours (when one includes the "second
shift" of homework) than the adults in their lives? It's actually
unconscionable that we continue to immiserate the vast majority of kids in this
way, throughout their entire childhood. We got rid of child labour, but we
continue to believe that kids working on "fun" projects until midnight when they're
ten years old is okay? It doesn't make sense.</div>
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So: the second simple way to enhance student well-being?
Abolish or greatly reduce homework. Concentrate on work that takes place <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in the classroom</i>. That is where
improvements can and should be made.<o:p></o:p></div>
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(See also, <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/10/answers-to-government-survey-part-1.html">Answers to Government Survey, Part 1: Student Success</a>.)<br />
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StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-14874643674465841882013-10-18T20:56:00.000-07:002013-10-21T13:28:10.151-07:00Answers to Government Survey, Part 1: Student SuccessThe Ontario government has recently initiated a process of public consultation about the future of education in the province. The different ways groups and individuals can participate in this initiative–called "From Great to Excellent: The Next Phase in Ontario's Education Strategy"–are explained on <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/about/excellent.html">this</a> ministry of education website,* but the easiest way to contribute, especially for individuals, is to fill out the online <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/about/survey.html">survey</a>. The survey consists of seven questions about various aspects of Ontario's education system, including questions about equity, student well-being, parent engagement and technology in schools.<br />
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I've decided to fill out the form and post my answers here as I complete them. I believe the consultation process is a good idea–in theory, at least. Questions have been raised about how much impact the consultations will have, whether certain contributions will be more welcome than others, and whether the process is in reality simply an exercise in public relations. I don't know the answers to these questions, and I have no idea who will read my submission or even if it will be read. Nonetheless, filling out the survey has been worthwhile for me, as it has allowed me to clarify my thinking about the issues being addressed. It has also allowed me to vent a little and have some fun with my answers. Below is my answer to the first question.<br />
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<b>Question 1</b>: <i>What are the skills, knowledge and characteristics students need to succeed after they have completed school, and how do we better support all learners in their development? (1000 word-limit)</i><br />
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First, I think we need to define what we as a society mean by "succeed." What does "success" mean? How is it measured? I think the wording of this question assumes that "success" equals economic success. (I could be wrong.) But that is a very narrow understanding of success. It also reduces education to training for the job market. The problem is that the question "what do we mean by success?" is not primarily an educational one. It is moral and philosophical. In fact, it is the type of question I wish kids were exposed to more often in school. But an education that sees itself as equal to "training" has no room for this sort of question.<br />
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Personally, of course, I have opinions about what types of skills, knowledge and characteristics I want my own kids to acquire during their years of schooling. For instance, I want them to learn to think critically, but not in the amorphous edujargon sense in which the term is often used these days. To me, critical thinking isn't just thinking about pragmatic problems "outside the box" so you can make a lot of money like Steve Jobs (who, ironically, dropped out of university). To me, it means being able to apply a critical, questioning eye to <i>everything</i>, including the systems in which one finds oneself at any given time–i.e, including school. I want my kids to learn to think critically so they can make informed decisions as citizens in a (flawed) democracy, not so that they can become model employees in the global economy.<br />
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As for skills, I disagree with the emphasis on soft computer skills, such as how to use PowerPoint or create spreadsheets. I think the curriculum should be geared to encouraging students to read and write critically and to reason logically. Currently, the emphasis on cross-curricularity and on "presentation" skills (often colouring–even in grade 9!) in every subject distracts from this goal. Even if one sees education as training, it's impossible to try to predict which specific skills kids will need when they enter the job market. If they have a solid grounding in reading, writing and thinking analytically (which includes thinking mathematically), they will be intellectually adaptable and able to "succeed" at university and in most jobs.<br />
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To be clear, though, I'm not advocating a "back to basics" approach. I believe students should be offered a lot of choice and that arts should be given as much weight as the much-touted STEM subjects. What I am advocating is intellectual seriousness–no matter the subject, and for <i>all </i>students–in place of the incoherent whorl of "concepts," "21st-century skills," and cross-curricular "connections" that fills (to bursting!) the current curriculum.<br />
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*See also Sheila Stewart's informative <a href="http://sheilaspeaking.wordpress.com/2013/10/18/ontario-education-strategy-consultations-and-input/">post</a> about the consultation process.<br />
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(Answer to question 2, about student well-being, can be found <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/10/answers-to-government-survey-part-2.html">here</a>.)<br />
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StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-59019301554135816292013-06-11T11:38:00.000-07:002018-07-12T12:58:18.158-07:00The New K-8 Ontario Sex Ed Curriculum: Too Far or Not Far Enough?Last month the Toronto District School Board suspended a middle school teacher for displaying a sexually explicit safe-sex poster in his Grade 7 and 8 classroom. The board has since overturned the suspension, but the media interest in this <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/05/07/to0508-je-posters/">case</a>, and <a href="http://www.torontosun.com/2012/09/26/sex-advice-on-tdsb-website-angers-christian-advocate">others</a> like it, would lead one to believe that Toronto public school children are exposed to too much sexual information in the classroom, too soon. If my experience is any indication, nothing could be further from the truth. During their four years of school-based sex ed, my twin daughters–now in Grade 8–learned too little, too late.<br />
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Part of the reason for this is that their teachers have been working from what many professionals in the field of sex ed—including members of the <span style="background-color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Ontario Physical and Health Education Association (<a href="http://www.ophea.net/">Ophea</a>)–</span>consider to be a flawed and obsolete curriculum. In 2010 the McGuinty government, in consultation with parents, students and experts in children's physical and mental health, overhauled the health and physical education curriculum. But the sex ed portion was shelved after conservative religious groups–most vocally, Charles McVety, president of Canada Christian College–protested against its explicitness and its frankness about LGBT issues. Currently, the curriculum in effect throughout the province is the "interim" 2010 document, which is the new physical and health education curriculum with the sex ed portion cut out and replaced with the 1998 version.<br />
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The problem with this older sex ed program is that it is . . . well, old. It was conceived before widespread Internet access, thus before Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, texting, sexting, cyber-bullying and online porn. But socio-technological outdatedness is not its major shortcoming in my view. The <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/health18curr.pdf">1998 curriculum</a>, written in the politically and culturally conservative Mike Harris era, is a document of its time in more fundamental ways, as well. Consider, for example, that it does not mention puberty or menstruation until grade 5 (by which time a growing proportion of girls will have started their periods), that it steers almost entirely clear of LGBT issues, despite the fact that, as my daughters have attested, "gay" starts being used as schoolyard slur as early as Grade 1. When it broaches sex and sexuality in middle school it does so primarily in relation to STI prevention and abstinence. In Grade 7, the learning expectations in the Growth and Development strand are as follows:<br />
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– identify the methods of transmission and the symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and ways to prevent them;<br />
– use effective communication skills (e.g., refusal skills, active listening) to deal with various relationships and situations;<br />
– explain the term abstinence as it applies to healthy sexuality;</blockquote>
In the Grade 8, students are introduced to sex and contraception, but again the emphasis is on abstinence, with students expected to "explain the importance of abstinence as a positive choice for adolescents" as well as "apply living skills (e.g., decision-making, assertiveness, and refusal skills) in making informed decisions, and analyse the consequences of engaging in sexual activities and using drugs."<br />
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One can debate the merits of "abstinence-is-best" as advice for pre-teens and teens, as well as the wisdom of equating sexual activity with using drugs, but it would be difficult to argue that this approach to the subject of sex in middle school is strictly educational. In fact, the abstinence message has little to do with the realities of adolescent sexuality; rather, it is a moral interpretation of human sexuality derived from specific interpretations of Judeo-Christian teachings on marriage and family life.<br />
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But although abstinence-is-best is a moral message, its presence in the 1998 curriculum is primarily political. At the time, the Christian right was in ascendance in the US both politically and culturally. In 1996, federal funds to the tune of 50 million dollars a year were made available to states teaching abstinence-only sex education programs. (George Bush more than doubled the spending on these programs in his 2003 budget.) Culturally, it was the era of teenage purity balls, chastity rings and abstinence pledges. In Ontario, the Harris conservatives represented the watered-down Canadian version of this cultural zeitgeist. And so the term "abstinence," which was not a part of my own sex ed vocabulary, wended its way into the Ontario sex ed curriculum.<br />
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Between 1998 and 2010, a lot changed in Canadian culture. Gay marriage was legalized in 2005. Access to the Internet grew steadily in the naughts, reaching approximately 80 percent of Canadian households by the end of the decade. It was clear to educators as well as legislators in the liberal McGuinty government that sex education in the province's schools was in dire need of an overhaul. And the 2010 Physical and Health Education curriculum is quite the overhaul. Undertaken while current premier Kathleen Wynn was education minister, the <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/health1to8.pdf">2010 curriculum</a>* is, at 211 pages, five times longer than the 1998 version it was meant to replace. It is also considerably more complex, covering a wider range of topics, with a greater emphasis on mental health, specifically on cultivating "resilience" in adolescents as they bumble towards adulthood. On balance, it appears to be a stronger, more relevant curriculum for elementary kids living in the 21st century. Unlike its predecessor, for example, it addresses the intersection of technology and sexuality head on, beginning in Grade 7, with discussions of online bullying, sexting, sharing photos online, etc.<br />
<br />
It is its relevance in other areas that triggered the religiously-inflected criticisms that resulted in the new sex ed strand being shelved before it could be implemented. The purported problems begin in Grade 1, with kids being introduced to proper names of their body parts, including vagina and penis. From the teacher and student prompts (a new feature in this curriculum) :<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Teacher prompt</i>: “We have talked about the body parts that everyone has. What body<br />
parts do only boys have and what body parts do only girls have?”<br />
<i>Student</i>: “Boys have a penis. Girls have a vagina.”<br />
<i>Teacher</i>: “We talk about these body parts, like all body parts, with respect.”</blockquote>
One wonders what critics of this section think children should call the body parts between their legs that they are aware of possessing from toddler hood. ("Wee wee", "down there"?) After all, other body parts are studied and referred to by their scientific names in early grades; to my knowledge there have been no objections registered against the naming of the uvula.<br />
<br />
But of course, in our culture not all body parts are equal; some are designated "private." Vaginas, penises and breasts are only allowed to enter the public realm in controlled, mostly sexualized ways, most often packaged for consumption (think pornography). The ordinary functions and processes of these parts, such as vaginal lubrication, wet dreams and erections, all of which are covered in the new sex ed curriculum in Grade 6, are not to be mentioned publicly or discussed matter-of-factly–at least not according to McVety et al. If we don't name certain experiences, the argument seems to go, we can pretend they don't exist; we can pretend that children don't, for instance, already possess bodies and budding sexualities, and that they won't one day (sooner rather than later, perhaps) be sexually active persons. It seems superfluous to point to the ample <a href="http://ari.ucsf.edu/science/reports/abstinence.pdf">evidence</a> suggesting that comprehensive sex education leads to later initiation of sexual activity and safer sex when initiation occurs. Critics of sex ed in general, and Ontario's new curriculum in particular, seem determined to believe the opposite. It's difficult not to suspect that the real objection is to sex education, full stop–an objection to bringing the private and familial into the public (educational) sphere where its meaning becomes unfixed and up for negotiation.<br />
<br />
In a similar vein and for similar reasons, religious groups objected to the LGBT content of the 2010 revised curriculum, specifically the teaching in Grade 3 about "visible and invisible" differences such as sexual orientation. In later grades, the curriculum lays out for kids the distinction between sexual orientation and gender identity. The expectation for Grade 8 is that students will:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
demonstrate an understanding of gender identity (<i>e.g., male, female, two-spirited, transgendered, transsexual, intersex</i>) and sexual orientation (e.g., heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual), and identify factors that can help individuals of all identities and orientations develop a positive selfconcept [six].</blockquote>
Not surprisingly, this section riled the McVetys of the province with its suggestion that human sexuality is a more complex and fluid phenomenon than the version of it on display in other parts of the culture, in mainstream movies and TV shows, for example–and in evangelical churches.<br />
<br />
That's not to say this portion of the curriculum is beyond critique. The careful, culturally-sensitive language is potentially problematic not because it is symptomatic of a "radical sex ed" agenda, but because such language runs the risk of dating the document and restricting kids' understanding of sexuality. There is, after all, no scientific or even cultural consensus as to the number and nature of human gender identities. Meanings and definitions of sexuality are continually being contested, which is as it should be. The sex ed classroom is as good a place as any for robust, open debate about the complicated interrelationships between sex, gender and sexual orientation. Nonetheless, with homophobic bullying and cyberbullying showing no signs of easing up in middle and high schools, any curriculum that gets kids thinking critically about such issues is a good start and long overdue.<br />
<br />
The true flaws of the new sex ed program lie elsewhere, in my opinion. Its controversial LGBT content notwithstanding, the 2010 curriculum strikes me as still too timid a document in key areas. Certain problems seem to have been carried over from the 1998 curriculum. For instance, although sex ed now starts in Grade 4, one year earlier than in the 1998 program, menstruation and spermatogenesis are still not taught until Grade 5, which is far too late given the age at which many kids now reach puberty. And, in the 2010 version, as in its predecessor, contraception is not taught until Grade 8.<br />
<br />
When it comes to sex itself, echoes of the old abstinence-is-best-agenda remain. For instance, in Grade 7 you find this expectation:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
explain the importance of having a common understanding with a partner about delaying sexual activity until one is older (<i>e.g., choosing to abstain from any genital contact; choosing to abstain from having vaginal or anal intercourse; choosing to abstain from having oral-genital contact</i>). . . .</blockquote>
And in the next paragraph, the term abstinence is explained in a "teacher prompt":<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The term <i>abstinence</i> can mean different things to different people.<br />
People can also have different understandings of what is meant by having or not having sex. . . . Having sex can be an enjoyable experience and can be an important part of a<br />
close relationship when you are older. But having sex has risks too, including physical risks like sexually transmitted infections . . . and getting pregnant when you don’t want to.</blockquote>
The ideal student responds (in the accompanying "student prompt") as follows:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“It’s best to wait until you are older to have sex because you need to be emotionally ready, which includes being able to talk with your partner about how you feel, being prepared to talk about and use protection against STIs or pregnancy. . . . </blockquote>
Abstinence rears its head yet again–albeit in attenuated form–in Grade 8, when students are expected to:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
develop their understanding about sexual health (<i>e.g., about issues such as abstinence; the choice to delay first intercourse; setting sexual limits; safer sex and pleasure; use of contraception, including condoms, for pregnancy and STI prevention</i>), using knowledge of self and of safe-sex practices and contraception (including condom use), seeking additional information and support as needed, and practising (<i>e.g., through role play</i>) the communication, assertiveness, and refusal skills that may be needed for decision making in real-life contexts.</blockquote>
There is, buried within the long parenthesis, a mention of pleasure, and to be fair, the pleasures of intimacy are discussed in other parts of the Grade 8 expectations, especially in a section outlining the pros and cons of being in an intimate relationship. On balance, however, when it comes to sex, the pro side is given short shrift. There is very little detail about sexual pleasure, masturbation or orgasms, and quite a bit of information about scary STIs, unwanted pregnancies and the negative social consequences of being in a relationship (alienation from friends, for example).<br />
<br />
It is true that this is an elementary curriculum, and a more "sex-positive" element may emerge in the new high school curriculum, which I have not seen. Still, it is fair to ask whether it is appropriate or necessary for children's introduction to sex ed to contain so much implicit moralizing, so many preachy and condescending warnings against sex. It seems that in an (obviously futile) effort to appease its potential critics, the writers of the curriculum have lost sight of what a truly progressive sex ed program might look like. I do not pretend to know what the details of such a program would be, but I don't believe it would be quite so fear-based. Instead of emphasizing abstinence, it might focus on consent, a concept conspicuous by its absence in the 2010 curriculum, despite the welcome inclusion in the Grade 8 expectations of a discussion of gender-based violence.<br />
<br />
I think, too, that a progressive sex education would engage kids, and nothing is less engaging or easier to dismiss than sermons about the dangers of sex. This is especially true given that we live in a culture in which there exists, for adults and kids alike, a parallel, free and nearly universally available alternative to sex ed: namely, pornography. A progressive sex education must be at least as interesting as its pornographic rival. Unlike its rival, school-based sex education need not–and ideally, would not–have anything to sell or promote beyond knowledge of and interest in a vital component of human experience.<br />
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<br />
* Public access to the 2010 version of the curriculum is no longer available. Link now directs to the further revised 2015 version that was implemented in 2015.StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-547878054060047422013-04-21T15:35:00.000-07:002013-05-06T10:22:58.963-07:00The Boy Crisis in Education, Part 2: Science Fact and Fiction<i>This is the second part of a three-part post on the "boy crisis" in education. Read the first part <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/04/the-boyand-girlcrisis-in-education-part.html">here</a>.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If we want to describe what happens in an atomic event, we have to realize that the word "happens" can apply only to the observation, not to the state of affairs between two observations.<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Werner Heisenberg, <i>Physics and Philosophy</i> (1958)</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
The most glaring fictional element in the "boy crisis" story is the science on which it is based. The story begins, factually enough, in the womb, where the male-to-be fetus is immersed in testosterone produced by its own inchoate testes in response to the dictates of DNA. That this testosterone bath–or its absence in female fetuses–results in genital and other physiological differences between the sexes (discrepancies in average body size and muscle mass, for instance) is not in dispute. But the rest of the story, the rhetorical leapfrogging from these differences to structural or functional differences in the brain and thence to distinct boy and girl psychology and behaviour–in other words the interpretive leap from sex to gender–is not warranted by the evidence.<br />
<br />
Cordelia Fine and Rebecca Jordan-Young (researchers in the fields of cognitive neuroscience and sociomedical science, respectively) have pointed out the myriad ways in which neuroscientific evidence has been cherry-picked, misinterpreted or–in the case of conflicting findings–ignored by popular writers such as Michael Gurian and Christina Hoff Sommers who are intent on proving the gender difference theory. As an example, Fine has traced the way in which a single fMRI <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7854416">study</a> of language processing in men and women became part of the "evidence" supporting the theory of the lateralized male brain–i.e., the notion that in men's brains there is less communication between hemispheres, and more specialization for certain functions than in women's brains. The study, conducted by four researchers at Yale and published in the journal <i>Nature</i> in the mid-nineties, involved imaging the brains of 19 men and 19 women while they performed three language tasks. Two of the experiments documented in the study showed no difference in lateralization, whereas the third (a rhyming task) showed a slight difference, with brain activity concentrated on the left side in men, but more evenly distributed between the hemispheres in women. Subsequent meta-analyses negated the findings of the one experiment, demonstrating its statistical irrelevance when placed in the bigger picture of studies of language lateralization. Yet, as Fine documents in lectures and in her book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Delusions-Gender-Society-Neurosexism-Difference/dp/0393340244">Delusions of Gender</a></i>, the Yale study has been cited 600 times in the scientific literature, and continues to be cited by popular writers (Hoff Sommers, for example) as evidence of girls' and boys' innately different verbal skills.<br />
<br />
Other examples of misuse or cherry-picking of the science are not hard to find. Despite recent evidence to the contrary, for instance, popularizers of the difference theory claim that the corpus callosum, a band of neural fibres that connects the two hemispheres of the brain, is larger in females than males and that this difference is responsible in part for girls' and women's greater facility for empathy and multitasking. Here is what Michael Gurian and his colleagues Kathy Stevens and Kelley King have to say about this brain structure in in their 2008 book <i><a href="http://books.google.ca/books?id=8QUOblSbHZMC&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=corpus+callosum+in+boys+and+girls&source=bl&ots=ecjmEqoU5o&sig=EVwmRRL7Tr-L9aB-Wxfgq-P0w-g&hl=en&sa=X&ei=UdFsUeL1M6a_0AHF6oGoDg&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=corpus%20callosum%20in%20boys%20and%20girls&f=false">Strategies for Teaching Boys and Girls</a></i>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In females, this bundle of nerves tends to be denser and larger than in males, resulting in increased "cross-talk" between the left and right hemispheres . . . <i>And this means</i>–girls are generally better at multitasking than boys, including watching and listening and taking notes at the same time. This gender difference may also help explain why girls tend to tune into their own and others' feelings and move emotional content more quickly into thought and verbal processes.</blockquote>
The authors helpfully go on to explain:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Combined with the hormonal changes during adolescence, the increased connections between thinking and feeling may account for the hypersensitivity and tendency to be dramatic that girls exhibit during adolescence.</blockquote>
There are two things to note here: first, the repetition of the claim that the corpus callosum is larger in females than in males, despite the fact–confirmable by even the most cursory Google search–that there are no sex-based size differences in this brain structure. But perhaps more troubling is the ease with which Gurian et al. pass from (pseudo-) scientific statement to analogy, to tired gender stereotype. It seems to me that there is a kind of weak metaphorical thinking going on in these kinds of leaps: interconnectivity is like multi-tasking, therefore girls who have interconnected brains must be better at multi-tasking. But one could just as plausibly assert that since (or if) boys brains are more lateralized, they should be better at performing separate tasks simultaneously in different "rooms" (my metaphor–you're welcome) of the brain, without disturbance or "noise" from other rooms. Bingo: boys are better multitaskers!<br />
<br />
The problem is that once you depart from what is known–and in the case of neuroscience, a discipline still in its infancy, even what is known is often in dispute–the possibilities for wild extrapolation are endless. So you have Leonard Sax, executive director of the National Association for Single-Sex Public Education, arguing that because of purported differences in adult women's and men's performance on a test of spatial navigation, the following is true:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[M]any middle-school boys seem to learn algebra better when you start with numbers, whereas many same-age girls seem to be more engaged if you start with a word problem. For example, if you are teaching equations in multiple variables, the typical 7th-grade boy will do better if you begin by asking "<em>If x + 2y = 60, and 2x + y = 90, how do we solve for x and y?"</em> But the typical 7th-grade girl will be more engaged if you begin by asking "<i>If a sweater and two blouses cost $60, and two sweaters and a blouse cost $90, how much does each blouse and each sweater cost?"<b>*</b></i></blockquote>
Reading this, one can't help but wonder which comes first, the "science" or the gender stereotype.<br />
<br />
It's not as if there is no science, as opposed to "science," that might actually shed light on how both boys and girls learn or perform certain tasks. It's just that it's . . . well, complicated, and not amenable to tidy gender-based generalizations. One complication is the inconvenient possibility, raised by some researchers, that sex differences in brain activity (for instance, in degrees of interconnectivity) may represent separate routes to the <i>same</i> behaviour. Another problem is that the research is continually evolving and yielding complicating or even contradictory answers to questions involving sex differences and learning. Take math and science ability, for instance. One supposed advantage of the testosterone-exposed, lateralized male brain is that it gives men a leg up in the more "systematizing" disciplines such as math and engineering. It's no coincidence, according to Cambridge psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen (author of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Difference-Female-Brains-Autism/dp/046500556X">The Essential Difference: Male and Female Brains and the Truth About Autism</a></i>) that "professions such as maths, physics, and engineering, which require high sytstemising, are also largely male-chosen disciplines." But there's one not-so-slight problem with this argument: It turns out that that the brains of mathematically-gifted children and young adults exhibit higher degrees of hemispheric interconnectivity than their non-gifted peers. (See this review <a href="http://hkage.org.hk/en/events/080714%20APCG/01-%20Keynotes%20&%20Invited%20Addresses/1.7%20Geake_Mathematical%20Giftedness%20in%20the%20Brain.pdf">study</a>.) So if brain differences were the reliable predictors of life trajectories that Baron-Cohen claims them to be, one would expect more girls–with their purportedly interconnected brains–to grow up to be mathematicians than boys. That this is not the case, suggests that something other than differences in brain structure or organization is at play.<b>**</b> And this something–call it experience, nurture, or socialization–is the missing piece in the "boy crisis" story and the science on which it relies.<br />
<br />
The assumption underlying the gender difference story, as Cordelia Fine has pointed out, is that "in the brain" equals "natural" or "hard-wired." The question that gets elided by such an assumption is why a given ability or deficiency exists. Are the differences between the brains of men and women, or between those of any two individuals for that matter, innate in the sense of being genetically-determined, fixed, and immutable? It is increasingly clear to people who study the brain that the answer is, for the most part, no. That is not to say that boys and girls or men and women are neurologically identical. Neuroscientist Lise Eliot, author of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Pink-Brain-Blue-Differences-Troublesome/dp/0618393110">Pink Brain, Blue Brain</a></i>, has identified three minor behavioural or cognitive differences that are presumed to result from the fetal brain's testosterone exposure (or lack thereof): differences in activity levels in boy and girl babies and discrepancies in spatial and verbal ability. In almost all other ways brain function does not differ according to sex. But these differences, which are exceedingly small when children are young, are amplified by experience. And as it turns out, experience trumps nature when it comes to the still mysterious workings of the human brain.<br />
<br />
Or, to put it more accurately, experience becomes <i>part of</i> a particular brain's nature. This is not an entirely new idea: neuroscientists have long acknowledged the role that environment plays in brain development. Babies who are not spoken to will not learn to speak, for instance. But the older neuroscientific model held that after critical periods of change, the brain pretty much stayed the same throughout an individual's life. Advances in neuroimaging techniques, which allow for a more accurate (though still indirect) picture of brain structure and activity, have been able to demonstrate that the brain remains malleable or "plastic" throughout life, and that specific experiences can have lasting effects on brain function. So we now know that daily meditation induces both structural and functional changes in the brains of Buddhist monks; similarly, the <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=london-taxi-memory">brains of London taxi drivers</a>, who have spent four years memorizing the intricate patterns of the capitol's streets, show measurable growth of gray matter in a part of the hippocampus associated with spatial navigation and memory. <br />
<br />
What then, it is fair to ask, is the effect on girls' and boys' brains of years spent in a culture in which gendered expectations and experiences begin seconds after birth, with the donning of blue caps and pink caps and the proffering of girl toys and boy toys? How is it possible that children's brains would <i>no</i>t be affected by a social environment in which any resistance to such dichotomization of human experience, exemplified by occasional stories of "<a href="http://www.thestar.com/life/parent/2011/05/21/parents_keep_childs_gender_secret.htm">genderless babies</a>," provokes widespread cultural anxiety?<br />
<br />
Which leads to the final point to be made about the "boy crisis" narrative: namely, that its conclusions, like the science on which it is based, are all wrong. Girls and boys are not the same, but the truly innate differences between them are few and small; to parent and teach them differently is to enable these small differences to be exaggerated and amplified. In order to close achievement gaps–which are the only non-fictional element of the "boy crisis" (and which will be discussed in part 3)–girls and boys must be taught in a manner that minimizes their respective differences and provides, as far as possible, true equality of opportunity, independent of gender.<br />
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<i><br /></i>
<i>Next: The Boy Crisis in Education, Part 3: Sex, Lies and Statistics</i><br />
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<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
*<span style="font-size: x-small;"> From the <a href="http://www.whygendermatters.com/">website</a> for Sax's book <i>Why Gender Matters</i>. Interestingly, this section is quoted as part of a series of corrections for his book, but although Sax points out the weakness of the scientific evidence, he stands by his point about the differences in the ways boys and girls learn algebra. Ironically, the more recent <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2888277/?tool=pubmed">study</a> he cites to back up his claim, concludes as follows: "Taken together, these results provide further support for the gender similarities hypothesis . . . and argue against the notion of innate gender differences in mathematical calculation."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">**</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">In the case of math ability, evidence of the effect of socialization is readily available. A recent <a href="http://jls.sagepub.com/content/30/4/440.abstract">study</a> showed, for example that mothers talk about numbers and mathematical concepts far less frequently with their daughters than with their sons. Moreover, <a href="http://www.lscp.net/persons/ramus/fr/GDP1/papers/spencer99.pdf">research</a> conducted in the nineties, and confirmed by subsequent studies, has proven the statistical reality of "stereotype threat": that is, the situation wherein women informed before a math test that men usually score higher than women on the test actually perform less well than women told that there is no sex difference in test results.</span><br />
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StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-6808038068363354132013-04-10T18:17:00.002-07:002013-04-21T15:38:22.125-07:00The Boy Crisis in Education, Part 1A funny thing happened while I was researching the widely-bemoaned "boy crisis" in education. I discovered that it may not exist, or that if it exists, it has been vastly overblown. Not only that, I uncovered the rather surprising fact–though it shouldn't be surprising, should it?–that there is <i>still</i> a girl crisis in education, one that has been overshadowed in recent years by the attention paid to the possibly spurious boy crisis.<br />
<br />
The current iteration of the story of boys' struggles in a"feminized" school system dates back to the late nineties, and roughly coincides with the publication of Michael Gurian's influential book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Wonder-Boys-Michael-Gurian/dp/B001BC8DZK">The Wonder of Boys</a>. </i>In the book, Gurian details the ways in which the new myths of masculinity, those derived from feminist debunking of the old myths, have damaged boys' self-esteem and adversely affected their social and economic prospects in post-industrial societies. Gurian was one of the first authors to marshal the new "brain science" to bolster his argument that boys and girls are innately different and should be parented and taught accordingly. Since the publication of Gurian's clarion call to action, many other authors, educators and journalists have added their voices to what amounts to a collective lament over the performance and status of boys in contemporary schools. Among the most influential of these authors are single-sex schooling advocate Leonard Sax, and Christina Hoff Sommers, a revised edition of whose book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-War-Against-Boys-Misguided/dp/0684849569">The War Against Boys</a></i> (2000), will be released this spring.<br />
<br />
So what, according to these authors, does the boy crisis consist of? The first thing to note is that it rests upon an essentialist understanding of gender, that is, on a collapsing of the distinction that psychologists and sociologists have drawn between biological sex on the one hand, and cultural manifestations of masculinity and femininity–gender–on the other. (A more recent book on the subject by Simon Baron-Cohen, is tellingly entitled <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Difference-Female-Brains-Autism/dp/046500556X">The Essential Difference</a></i>.) The feminist contention that, to paraphrase Simone de Beauvoir, feminine and masculine are made not born has, according to the boy-crisis proponents, met its Waterloo in the new brain science, which shows that girls and boys are neurobiologically from different planets. (Venus and Mars, one assumes.)<br />
<br />
The brain research that writers such as Gurian et al. adduce to support their message of innate differences between boys and girls is highly complex; much of it has been debunked or disproved by subsequent studies, and almost none of it supports the extrapolations made by non-scientists writing for popular audiences, such as Gurian, Hoff Sommers, and Louann Brizendine, author of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Female-Brain-Louann-Brizendine/dp/0767920104">The Female Brain</a> </i>and <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Male-Brain-Louann-Brizendine-M-D/dp/0767927540">The Male Brain</a>. </i>More on that later. For now, here in rough outline is what, for convenience sake, I'll call the "difference argument": male and female fetuses are exposed to differing amounts of the hormone testosterone in the womb, which leads to structural differences in the brain, which in turn lead to feminine and masculine behaviour in girls and boys. Brain science, then, according to this view, proves that our understanding of what is natural is not culturally determined as feminists would have us believe. On the contrary:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Culture has always been very much the communal refinement of biology, the practical expression of nature. Even our complex network of socializing influences are created as outgrowths of biological imperatives. We create sports structures for boys, boys create gangs for themselves, more boys go into science than girls, boys communicate through certain male-specific verbal patterns–the list of boy-specific "cultural" patterns is very long, and few, including male violence, do not begin in brain and hormonal biology. (Gurian, <i>The Wonder of Boys</i>, p. 28)</blockquote>
<br />
The post-feminist denial of this uni-directional relationship between nature and nurture has, according to Gurian and other proponents of hard-wired gender difference, led to a widespread suppression of boys' natural instincts and behaviour, and nowhere so flagrantly than in the feminized, "verbally-drenched" environment of schools.<br />
<br />
So, the second part of the boy crisis consists of an indictment of modern schooling as contrary to boys' nature. In school, boys must sit still in rows rather than move around constantly as is their natural wont; they must listen to and respect female teachers rather than the absent male role models they naturally crave; they must express themselves verbally rather than spatially; they must work collaboratively rather than competitively; they must suppress their natural aggression, and so on. All of this, according to the boy crisis rhetoric, comes naturally to girls, but is crushing to boys, and has led to their educational demise, as evidenced by their worsening results on standardized tests, by dropout rates which surpass those of girls, and by their diminished presence on university campuses.<br />
<br />
There's no denying that it's a depressing story, one capable of generating reams of attention-grabbing copy, but the problem is that it is for the most part just that: a story.<br />
<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Next: <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/04/the-boy-crisis-in-education-part-2.html">The Boy Crisis in Education, Part 2: Science Fact and Fiction</a></i><br />
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<br />StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-59356649833876441642013-03-25T09:54:00.000-07:002013-03-27T12:09:20.894-07:00Evidence-based . . . or notDuring the course of researching my post on the purported boy crisis in education (coming soon!) I came across a fascinating book by John Hattie, an educational researcher from New Zealand. The title is Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement (Routledge 2009). By "Visible Learning" Hattie seems to mean some combination of transparent pedagogy, feedback from teachers to students and students to teachers, and evidence-based innovation. But for me the real fascination of the book is the sheer amount of data underpinning Hattie's review of the 800 meta-analyses. Together, the 52,637 studies included in the book represent over 83 million students. That's a lot of data and a lot of "effects"–146,142, in fact–correlated to 138 variables affecting learning.<br />
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"Evidence-based" is a popular buzzword in education, as it is in many other spheres of research. But as Hattie points out, the vast number of studies about "what works" in education can be overwhelming to teachers and administrators. Perhaps more damagingly, the abundance of disparate and sometimes contradictory findings can lead to the justification of certain pet practices on the basis of one or two studies that may suffer from small sample size or design flaws. This is where the power of of meta-analysis comes in. Meta-analysis overcomes or neutralizes potential distortions in the results of individual studies–caused by sample size, design or methodological problems–through the aggregation (and sophisticated statistical manipulation) of data from multiple studies. That's the theory anyway, but as with any theory, meta-analysis has its critics. In the case of this particular synthesis (or meta-meta-analysis), the most salient problem–one acknowledged by the author himself–is that it concerns itself solely with research measuring effects on "achievement," and achievement is invariably measured via some form of testing. But many educational policies, including choice of curricular materials, pedagogical approaches, and integration of technologies, are justified by appealing to these very measures. So the information presented by Hatti is extremely useful to anyone trying to evaluate such programs on their promulgators' own terms.<br />
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And the results are quite surprising. Contrary to expectation–mine, anyway–many popular "progressive" pedagogical approaches have low "effect sizes," whereas practices that have been mostly discredited and discarded turn out to have large effect sizes. For instance, the practice of problem-based learning, wherein a teacher acts as a facilitator while students work through "authentic" real-world problems has an average effect size of 0.14; in Hattie's scheme, an effect of 0.40 or greater is considered one that rises above the baseline achievement due to teacher influence and students' year-to-year development. By contrast, the practice of Direct Instruction (which, in this review, means something quite specific) has an effect size of 0.59. In his discussion of the studies of Direct Instruction, Hattie usefully points out the ways in which constructivism–a theory of knowledge–has been confused with certain types of inquiry-based teaching strategies. He rightly stresses that constructivism is not a pedagogy, and that constructivist epistemological views are not incompatible with teacher-directed pedagogies. Certainly, my own experience with my daughters' elementary curriculum leads me to believe that more direct instruction, especially in math, would not be amiss. (See <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2010/10/this-math-depresses-me.html">here</a> for my take on the problems inherent in so-called constructivist approaches to math instruction.) And in fact, when it comes to math instruction, Hattie's data show that direct instruction methods have more positive effects on achievement (0.55) than other methods, such as technology-aided approaches (effect size 0.07).<br />
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Other results are less surprising to me, but still may be controversial or difficult for administrators to accept. The effect of homework, for instance, is low (. 29), as is that of extracurriculars (.17). This latter figure may be of interest to parents and teachers in Ontario, where extracurriculars have been curtailed by teachers protesting government-imposed contracts. (See my post on the protests <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2012/10/from-all-about-me-to-we-musings-on-kids.html">here</a>.) But this is also an example of the weakness of this type of study: the effects of extracurricular programs in schools may not be measurable by tests of achievement, but that does not necessarily make them less worthwhile than programs that can be so measured. It might, however, explain, why they are considered "extra" as opposed to part of the curriculum.<br />
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One other finding is worth pointing out: by Hattie's calculations the effect size of gender on achievement is a paltry 0.12. He writes:<br />
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The . . . question . . . is why we are so constantly immersed in debates about gender differences in achievement–they are just not there. The current synthesis shows that where differences are reported, they are minor indeed.</blockquote>
This is a good question, and one which provides a perfect segue to my next post on the supposed "boy crisis" in education. Stay tuned.<br />
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<br />StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-39626653582105189242013-01-15T12:35:00.000-08:002015-09-02T21:51:37.968-07:00Teachers: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly (plus the Sexy!) Part 3b<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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(This is the final section of the third installment of a post on teachers. See Part 1 <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/01/teachers-good-bad-and-ugly-plus-sexy_2.html">here</a>, Part 2 <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/01/teachers-good-bad-ugly-plus-sexy-part-2.html">here</a>, and the first part of of Part 3 <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/01/teachers-good-bad-and-ugly-plus-sexy_6.html">here</a>.)<br />
<b><br /></b><b>The Sexy, Part B</b><br />
<b><br /></b>It was near the end of September, not long after the discussion about the Vietnam War, that I began to linger in Mr. S's classroom after dismissal. At first our conversations were trivial and impersonal—discussions of assignments or continuations of classroom debates—but they soon evolved into more relaxed, personal exchanges about all manner of topic. I took these conversations seriously, occasionally even prepping for them! They had become the highlights of my week and I consistently skipped math class so that I wouldn't have to forego them. At some point, Mr. S expressed concern about my math grades but after I reassured him that I was doing well, he stopped worrying and accepted my decision to skip. I can't imagine a teacher doing that today, but it was a different era, one whose spirit was more conducive to respecting kids' inclinations and choices. Even then it was a Zeitgeist on its way out, but Mr S, with his irreverence for convention and rules, seemed to embody it perfectly.<br />
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In our after-class chats we talked a lot about books, with him recommending and lending, and me acting like an eager sponge. In the first few weeks alone, he introduced me to Susan Sontag's <i>I, </i><i>Etcetera</i> Joan Didion's <i>Play it as It Lays</i> and <i>The White Album</i>, Camus' <i>The Myth of Sisyphu</i>s, Proust (whom he adored but recommended I hold off reading until I was over thirty), and poetry by Rimbaud, Verlaine and Éluard. One day he brought in his copy of Violette LeDuc's classic of lesbian lit, <i>La Batarde</i>; I'd asked to borrow it after reading about Simone De Beauvoir's interest in Leduc. As I flipped through it, I jokingly said I was going to show it to my parents and ask them what they thought of his taste in literature. He grabbed the book out of my hand, tore out the page where he'd written his name and handed it back to me. This gesture (which I assured him was unnecessary) was a springboard to talk about homophobia, a new-ish term at the time, whose meaning he explained to me. This in turn led to a discussion of "projection"—a concept that interested him. People who fear homosexual urges in themselves, he explained, will often project that fear onto another, thus relieving them of the burden of confronting the true source of their fear.<br />
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Books were not the only conduits to such discussions. Music and movies played a similar role. Mr. S would recommend movies that were playing at the local rep cinemas, alerting me to foreign films that he thought might interest me, especially classics of the French New Wave. (He shared my Francophilia, though in his case it was more understandable—his mother was Swiss French.) But he surprised me by praising certain popular movies as well. I remember him pronouncing Saturday Night Fever a "well-made movie." At the time, I was firmly in the "disco sucks" camp; such praise coming from him was a significant challenge to my adolescent snobbery.<br />
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Other topics I remember discussing included: the legalization of marijuana—I was in favour, he did not disagree; the jock-ish culture of high school; Canadian and American politics; and suburbia, against which I chafed but which he defended as a quiet place where people understandably chose to raise kids. "How can you defend it?" I asked. "It's soul-destroying." He shrugged. "Living here is part of why you are who you are." But the next day he brought in his copy of Cheever's <i>Bullet Park</i> for me to read: "My favourite suburban novel," he said.<br />
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What surprises me when I look back on those chats is not their breadth and occasional depth, but that they occurred at all. My own participation is not particularly surprising: the student "crush" is a familiar trope in both popular and literary culture, though I would argue that the trivializing term (often applied to unsanctioned attractions, especially those of the young) does not do justice to the potent mix of sexual and intellectual attraction I felt towards Mr. S. More difficult to understand from my perspective is Mr. S's motivation. I wondered then and I wonder now why he was willing to forgo so much of his prep time to engage in an ongoing conversation with a student. The more I think of it, though, the more I realize that what is important is not that he didn't feel anything inappropriate—though I believe he did not—but that if he did, I didn't know. He did not let it show. There was no physical contact between us, with one minor exception. On a spring day when I was the last to leave his classroom, he followed me out, and as I moved through the doorway, he took hold of my braid and let it run through his fingers. It was in all likelihood an innocent, affectionate gesture—which didn't stop me from wandering around for the rest of the day in a thrilled daze, thinking to myself, he touched my hair, <i>he touched my hair</i>!<br />
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But the point is, regardless of what he may have felt, and what I clearly did feel, nothing (beyond hair-touching) happened. Or rather what happened was entirely positive, from a pedagogic perspective: feelings rippling beneath the surface of our interaction acted as a catalyst for engaged teaching and learning. It's no accident that I produced better work and learned more in Mr. S's class than I had in the previous three years of high school English.<br />
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As I mentioned in <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/01/teachers-good-bad-and-ugly-plus-sexy_6.html">Part A</a> of this post, Eros has been recognized as an inducement to learning since antiquity. In the Platonic model, however, love or desire for a person is only the beginning of a process which, if all goes well, ends with the learner transferring her affection to Beauty or Knowledge itself. Human love, of the sort a student might feel towards a teacher, is merely a means to a "higher" end. (See the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_epistemology">Ladder of Love</a>.) It's a nice idea, but I don't think one has to view this progression as inevitable or necessary, in order to appreciate the role that Eros can play in learning. A love that remains focussed on a person or that is mixed with desire is a feeling that can produce intense and pleasurable learning. What is there to object to in that? (I'm not saying this is the only way to motivate students!) Love between student and teacher cannot be acted on under most normal circumstances; but it needn't be denied or suppressed either. As long as there are teachers like Mr. S, there will be students who love them. I say let the kids love and learn.<br />
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<br />StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-19016702092728162822013-01-06T20:24:00.003-08:002015-09-02T21:44:55.659-07:00Teachers: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (plus the Sexy!), Part 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #4c4c4c; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, Palatino Linotype, Palatino, serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">(<i>This is the third installment of a three-part post; read part 1 <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/01/teachers-good-bad-and-ugly-plus-sexy_2.html">here</a> and part 2 <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/01/teachers-good-bad-ugly-plus-sexy-part-2.html">here</a>.</i>)</span></span><br />
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<b>The Sexy, Part A </b>[that's right, a part divided into further parts . . . ]<br />
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I confess that the writing of this segment of my three-part post on teachers has been a bit of a struggle. Like all of you, I'm aware that we're not supposed to mention teachers and love, or teachers and sex, in the same sentence—not supposed to do so outside the context of porn, that is. (Google "sexy teacher," and see what comes up.) Which goes to show how deeply conflicted we are as a society, not only about teachers as human beings, but also about human beings (including teachers and adolescents) as sexual beings. All I'll say here, as a preface to my story about the "sexy" teacher in my life, is that there is a rich history and philosophy going back to ancient Greece concerning the role of Eros in teaching. Eros as a concept (derived form the god of the same name) is much more broad and powerful than sex. It is conceived (by Plato, for instance) as a primal force and motivator, which incorporates but is not reducible to love, desire, passion. Its role as a spur to learning has been recognized in both ancient and modern educational philosophy, but it remains unacknowledged and controversial in our culture. And yet . . .<br />
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There he was on the first day of class, the epitome of English-teacher cool, in black shirt and tight pants, book in hand, leaning back in his chair with one knee bent, foot against the edge of the desk. A cynosure. I hovered by the entrance of the classroom affecting an attitude of bored indifference, but I was secretly excited. Mr. S's reputation, and that of the unusual course he'd designed, preceded him. Pretending not to notice him, I picked up a piece of chalk and wrote in a corner of the blackboard, "Make the rich pay!" Just as I finished writing, Mr. S stood up. With a flick of his longish, dirty-blond hair, he surveyed the space and the kids occupying it. He glanced briefly at what I'd written on the board and reached for the blackboard eraser; as I took my seat at the back of the class, he shot me a ghost of a smirk that seemed to say "<i>really</i>?" then put the eraser down, leaving the Marxist-Leninist party slogan on the board. "This course is World Literature in Translation," he said in a voice that silenced the room. "I'd like to start by reading a poem by Sappho."<br />
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The material in the course was rich and eccentric by today's standards. We began with the Classics: Aristotle's Poetics; plays by Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles; poetry by Sappho, Horace and Catullus; excerpts from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Then we jumped to pre-modern and modern lit (I don't remember studying anything in between), reading short stories by De Maupassant, Chekov, Kafka; plays by Ibsen, and Jean Anouilh; essays by Camus and Simone de Beauvoir.<br />
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Mr. S expected us to read these texts carefully and write serious responses in the form of essays or reviews; but the selections also served as conduits to some of the most exciting discussions I'd ever had in a classroom setting—discussions about philosophy, psychology, art, feminism, politics. Mr. S moderated these discussions expertly, encouraging open, flexible discussion amongst the students, but he was also willing to express his own opinion as the need arose. He almost never lost his cool, which is probably why I recall one occasion early in the school year when he did. I can't remember the literary context, but we were talking about about war, specifically the Vietnam war. A boy commented that "if the US had won the war, we wouldn't have had to deal with the problem of 'boat people' in North America. Mr S said, "The <i>problem </i>of the boat people. Hmm. Are we all a 'problem' then? Aren't we all immigrants in this country?" "No, sir," the boy said. "Oh, I see," Mr S said." So way back before the English and French arrived, there were the native peoples—and the Johnsons. Just your family skating around on the glaciers with the Inuit, right?" "No," the boy said.<br />
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An awkward silence followed this exchange, but I remember being secretly thrilled. For the first time in my life, I'd witnessed a teacher challenging the unthinking, petty racism that I saw and heard daily in high school. My half-Jewish, WASP-resenting, self-hating white soul was stirred. I was in love.<br />
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<i>Next</i>: <b><a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2013/01/teachers-good-bad-and-ugly-plus-sexy_15.html">The Sexy, Part B</a></b>StepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.com0