September 2001
Editor's Notes
When I was in high school (and I suspect it's pretty much the same now), there were two groups of kids: those who hated school and those who loved it. Generally, the former hated school because they "didn't need it." After all, post-high school, they were destined for a life of big bucks and low stress in the local pulp mill. If you were a girl, you hooked up with a fellow who had such a job, and worked part time, if you were ambitious, in one of the local banks. For these people, school was something to get over and done with so they could get on with the rest of their lives.
The other camp was populated with idealists. Kids in that group were not only going to leave town for further education; many of them had hopes of exotic, world-changing careers in such things as nuclear medicine, astrophysics and ichthyology (there were no computers back then). For them, school was a place to advance those goals, and teachers were the key to getting there. These kids would wring out of each teacher every scrap of knowledge he or she could offer; they pushed the teachers to instruct up to—and even beyond—their capabilities.
The funny thing is that both groups knew who the "good" teachers were. Everyone knew who gave more rather than less homework, who was willing to offer extra instruction to keeners, who would demand effort and quality of their students—even the former group of kids who tried to avoid any unnecessary extra work. In our high school, the kids' assessments were merciless, but accurate. Unfortunately, then as now, no one—parents, students, principals, or other teachers—could act on that knowledge.
This issue of Fraser Forum looks at some unfortunate tendencies in education in Canada. It explains why the choice-limiting "catchment area" policy so prevalent in many school districts should be scrapped. It looks at the learning gap between boys and girls, and it offers a method for implementing teacher testing in such a way that the good teachers are rewarded and the poor ones weeded out of the school system.
The changes proposed here have been needed for decades. The struggling pulp mill workers in their mid-40s with no jobs and no training have discovered that it isn't just the "smart kids" who need education. For Canada to succeed, their children must be inspired to learn before they, too, drop out of the education system.
—Kristin McCahon
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