Participating in Ontario government townhall on education. This is not a conversation. When you get on the phone, before you are invited to speak in the "town hall", you have to speak to a facilitator and tell them what your comment is. /1
It is a strange system. When you have a comment to make, you have to press #9 and then you are removed from the town hall to tell the facilitator what you are going to say. Then they have to type it out. I asked one of the facilitators how you get chosen to speak in the /2
main forum. The first one said it was first come, first served. The second time I asked the question, I specifically asked why she had to type out what I had just said. She told me that my answer was actually being vetted before I would be given permission to participate
in the forum itself. Throughout this process, there are polling questions. The questions themselves are absurd. Like the one we just had was "do you agree a Parents' Bill of Rights" should include a term along the lines that my child should get the best education. /4
I was encouraged to hear the responses from most of the callers, which were generally well-reasoned and thought out. It makes me wonder, though, who we were actually talking to. During the course of this town hall I spoke to at least 3 different "facilitators". There was /5
also a moderator and someone else to introduce each caller to the main forum. There are many, many people employed by the Ministry to do these town halls. The questions themselves are so broad that they are almost devoid of reason. I felt this was a very frustrating /6
process and a question how much my input really matters, who is going to receive it, how is it all going to be "tabulated" and what difference will any of this process make, other than costing a ridiculous amount of money. I also feel frustrated since I spent all that time on /7
the phone and didn't contribute anything other than to the topic of skilled trades and coding and the occasional response to a "polling question", when I thought the question was one that I could actually answer in that format. So... @LisaThompsonMPP , I will give you my /8
input now, since I figure it will count for about as much in this forum as it did in that phone "town hall". #1) With respect to STEM, I think it would be helpful if you would reinstate PRO grants so that school councils can use the funds to host events like "family math night"/9
because I feel that increased parental understanding of the math curriculum is key to student success. #2) With respect to skilled trades and coding, my advise is to start teaching coding to students at an early age, since most skilled trades in the next decade or so are /10
going to involved computer technology. To that end, the Ministry should be providing teacher training for coding as well, for all grades. #3) The EQAO should be scrapped and money that would be spent on it should go to other more pressing needs like special education /11
mental health supports, crumbling infrastructure and more technology in the classroom. #4) The most important thing to teach all students is critical thinking. Our province is suffering from a significant deficit in this regard already, the proof of which lies in the fact /12
that your party was elected to form government in the first place. Critical thinking skills is the river which runs through all important and necessary life skills, like financial literacy and civic responsibilities. Teachers should not be forced to teach children what /13
to think: they should be allowed to teach children how to think. #5) Banning cellphones from the classroom absurd and possibly illegal. Technology is ubiquitous. Teach children how to use it properly. Teach teachers how to use it properly. Get more technology in the /14
classroom, not less. Ensure that all students have access to working technology, across the board and don't let just the more affluent children learn how to use it. Make our children -- all of them, from all backgrounds -- equipped for life in their lifetimes. Do not waste /15
our time by requiring us to tell you that it is a ridiculous idea to ban cellphones from the classroom. #6) You do not need to build a new, age-appropriate HPE curriculum: you already have one at your disposal. It was introduced by the last government after extensive /16
consultation with countless experts, teacher, parents, students. Knowledge is power. Teach children the proper names for their body parts. Teach them about consent. Include LGBTQ+ issues in the curriculum. Be inclusive. Use the 2015 curriculum, it is just that easy. /17
#7) No elements should be included in a Parents' Bill of Rights. You teach children in our schools, not parents. Parents already have plenty of rights. The suggestion that parents need a "Ministry of Education Bill of Rights" is laughable. /18
#8) My additional feedback is that I think it is appalling that you have not yet rescheduled the Indigenous issues curriculum rewrite. Your government has shown a clear lack of commitment to the TRC's call to action. I feel that it is essential that all students learn the /19
history of residential schools in this country. Your Ministry's time and resources would be much better spent ensuring that the curriculum rewrite happens as soon as possible, so that our children can learn from history and so we can start taking essential steps towards /20
reconciliation. Thank you for "listening" to my input. /21
