22 - North Shore News — Wednesday, April 5. 2000 Educat EACH year I sit down and evaluate the cur- rent status of the edu- cation system, not in the context of how stu- dents are doing in a single school, but in the broader context of how the direction of educational policy may be affecting the future of families. Now in my twenty-first year of being an educator, I'm sorry to say there’s not much new to report. My children are going through the same academic education system I went through, despite the fact that I live in a very different world than did my father. Children go to school approximately six hours a day, for about one hundred and eighty days a year. They all take English, math, sci- ence, social studies, maybe a little second language instruction and a dabbling of music, art, library, physical education and computers. That’ 's exactly what I did four decades ago, minus the computers. We used to watch movies on a Friday afternoon and now they watch videos. That’s Progress! f course, there are some things that have changed at the high school level. I went to a high school of 500 stu- dents; now it’s hard to find one under 1,500. Evidently big schools are a more effi- .cient allocation of resources, but I preferred knowing everyone in my school and having the chance to partici- pate in a lot of things, since teachers who ran activities were constantly trying to come up with enough people in a small student body. 1 remember a large portion of the student population being engaged in extracurricular activities and it was pretty hard to fall through the cracks. We never had a secu- rity guard in the school. A teacher’s authority was enough. “We need a lot less educational administration and policies and a lot more resources at the classroom level to reduce class sizes, train teachers and provide modern learning tools.” Today there are a wide variety of courses in the aver- age high school, many of them leading nowhere, but. conveniently established to keep students in school who might drop out if there was any real intellectual rigour to them. Too many high school graduates leave semi-literate, unskilled and undisciplined. What does anyone expect these students will do in an era where the educational requirements of even the most basic starting employ- ec, in anything but perpetual minimum wage occupations, is often a few years of post- Montessori leasher Training — Montessori Teacher Training T he North American Progressive Program commences each September. It is 3 hours, one evening a week and 9 months fong. This program is for pecple desiring to obtain their Montessori Teaching Dipl ioma. For further information or a free brochure, contact Date Gausman B.Ed., A.M. C.E. =-PARENTING secondary education? The reality is that many of our schools and teachers are caught in a time-warp. We are doing things better than ever before in some ways but we are not doing enough of the things necessary to pre- pare students for the modern worid. Schools like to show off computers and computer to student ratios, but most teachers are ill-irained in computer utilization, many computers are outdated, and few children actually have much access to a computer on a daily basis. That’s not to say that I would put young children in front of computers for long periods of the day, but at the high schoo! level, every student should have the opportunity to use 2 computer as a tool of learning on an on-going basis. I went toa forum on education recently with a large number of educational leaders, professorial types and business peuple. I heard the same rhetoric I have been listening to since [ entered my teacher training almost three decades ago, complete with buck-passing for the problems, calis for more studies and focus groups, and exciting new ini- tiatives with fancy-sounding names but awfully vague on derails. I’m not so naive as to believe solutions are simple, and I don’t mean to offend the good intentions of those who truly are trying to tame the beast of education, but there are some elements nec- essary to a good education system that have to be addressed very directly before the schools will truly meet the needs of a changing society. We need parents who care enough about their children to teach them discipline, respect, and the value of a good education. We need headstart programs for every child between the ages of three and five, that include a parent education component, so that every child can come to kindergarten healthy, and prepared to learn. We need a lot less educational adminis- tration and policies and a lot more resources at the class- room level to reduce class sizes, train teachers and pro- vide modern learning tools. We need to go out of our n system caught i way, as teachers, to make sure that at least one of us makes a cennection with every child in the school and helps them stay engaged in the learning process. When we invest o1 money in classroom instruc: tion, and invest our time in developing relationships with our children and our stu- dents, I believe we will see a significant change in the education system, moving it me Warp technologically forward and humanistically back. Maybe by next vear’s report? — Graham Hookey is the author of Parenting ls A Team Sport. ghookev@yahoo.cum News photo Mike Wakefield Pin the name on nthe donkey THE stork recently delivered a baby donkey to Maplewood Farm, and it needs a” name. if you can think of one, enter your suggestion down at the farm. The visi- tor who suggests the chosen name will win a membership. — Do you have a Chronic Skin Condition? (Rosacea, Pimples, Acne, Dry Skin...) Our Personalized Skin Care Programs have helped many people. We can help you! 100% guaranteed. Natures Creatio dé 109 East 2nd St,, North Van 990-0633 Closed Sunday & Monday "Social Sails & Eti Ag es 5 - ee Communicating with confidence Ages 10-16 March 20-24 (Summer programs also available) . Call 275-8975. Dynamic Skills Inc. (wwwbe-dyna Zforl “Game Theket Bi in this coupon and receive a . rina complimeniary game, : Valid Mon-Fri only. Not vatid with other Promotions. One coupon per customer. 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