Geoff Matthews points this out in today’s Sun newspaper. Not that class sizes need to reach 20, but what the heck was Dalton doing making this promise in the first place?
Now comes word that the provincial government hasn’t a chance of meeting its self-imposed target of cutting classroom sizes for primary grades to no more than 20 students by this September — a promise that was made during, you guessed it, the 2003 election campaign.
The question isn’t whether the goal can be met. It’s why did the premier make the promise in the first place?
Is there some magical reason why a class with 20 students can be managed, while a class with, say, 23, will spiral out of control?
Couldn’t a class of 30 kids work perfectly well in some instances, while in others anything more than a dozen would be a challenge?
At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old geezer, let me point out that when I was in school, we had classes of well over 30 students, and we never seemed to lack for a bit of personal attention from the teacher when it was required.
You got it right on the money Geoff. When I was in public school, there were well over 30 kids in my class just about every year. The only time there were less was if a grade only had 25 or so kids or if there were 50 or 55 in the grade and two classes were split.
The issue isn’t class size. It’s how the teachers control that class. And this day and age, they just don’t have the skill or desire to do it. They blame things like ADD or ADHD for their inadequacies in controlling children. They push them along year after year just happy to get the troubled ones out of their class, watering down the value of a high school diploma.
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WHERE’S FLIPPER?
Help find the Liberal’s missing “non-leader” and priceless French asset! Bonus points for actual sightings! Gory details at:
http://www.thiscanada.com/2007/03/08/wheres-flipper/
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Here’s the problem with class sizes these days. I goes much deeper than simply “#’s” and teacher control or lazyness (antother issue alltogether).
Problem #1: Parents: Parents don’t “parent”. That’s a big statement I know and obviously it is a generalization and I know that there are many exceptions to this statement. I see more and more parents getting lazy when it comes to their own children. And it is not because they don’t care. They are just soo darn tired! Time. Nobody seems to have it these days. With the pressures of making $$ and the high costs of living, both parents often have to work to maintain the lifestyle that they THINK they want. I think that parents need to step back for a moment and look at their lives with new eyes. Do you REALLY need a Blackberry? Do you really need two brand new cars in the driveway every 4 years? Did you really have to opt for the bigger house with the extra bathroom and granite countertops? Did you really have to get the 52 inch HDTV plasma television (or would the 42 incher been just fine). All I’m saying is that while we have become soo “needy”, our kids can sometimes lose out. Maybe if it become more socially acceptible to have a parent stay at home until they go to school (grade 1), then maybe the kids would be a bit better behaved when they get there (and classrooms will be more manageable).
Problem 2: Teacher incompetance and lazyness: My fiance AND her mother are both teachers. There is no shortage of “idiot” teachers. It’s amazing how we trust that the schoolboards hire quality proffessionals to help our children succeed in life. Some of these teachers are soo stupid, it’s amazing they got through. Then there’s the laziness factor. Some people are just inherently lazy. We can’t do anything about that. However, the teachers union has made teacher life too cushy. SOME (and I mean SOME) teachers do the absolute bare minimum and dont really care how their students progress. Larger class sizes for THESE teachers are impossible!
Problem 3: The cycle. So now we have kids who grew up in households with parents who didn’t have enough time to teach them core values and the importance of hard work and having pride in what you do… Some of these lazy kids with attitude problems grow up and what do they become? Teachers… because it’s a default career for soo many.
This isn’t an attack on all parents and all teachers but all it takes are TRENDS in the direction that I mentioned with a certain % of households and classrooms and you’ve got an escalating problem on your hands.
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There is also an element of demoralization at play: when we as a society take away any of a teacher’s power to discipline kids, it has an effect.
Couple that with the fact that even interested parents don’t always know what goes on in the classroom, and we’ve mixed a bad recipe.
I remember a kid in an adjacent class acting up one day and getting the strap. Parents come in, concerned that such a minor offense could result in such punishment. The teacher pulls out a full sheet of foolscap listing the kid’s misbehaviours – the little incident was merely the one that filled the page. Suddenly, the parents understood and supported the teacher. Sadly, such reactions are rare now (and the strap is banned in most, if not all, jurisdictions).
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And MOST of the changes we’ve seen is during the 13 year ruling of the Liberals….
Not that I support the strap per se, but I certainly hope that Conservative values can restore some control with the situation.
Our Liberal attitudes over the years is spinning out of control. Let’s stop this downward spiral shall we?
…side shoot: Can’t believe that some of my hard work and tax dollars have been spent on DRUGS for junkies in “safe clinics”… Just another example of Liberal REGRESSION of our society!
..but I digress.
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my kid is in SK and there are only 20 kids in the class. The school won’t let more than that, so McGuinty is making a promise that the school has a mandate on anyways. Hmmm he is promoting the only way he knows how not to break a promise hehe
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I’m sure everything could be solved if only we paid teachers more money- for the good of the students, of course.
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Yes. More money would be good to motivate teachers to work harder but the screening process for NEW teachers should be more stringent.
It’s VERY difficult to get into med school or dental school. Why is it such a breeze to get into teachers college. These are the people who are IN CHARGE of OUR CHILDREN and their development!
It seems like any moron who wants summers off can get into the program.