The Last Exile

The night before school started for my daughter she was in a state of high anxiety and worried about who she would get for a grade 1 teacher. She was scared witless by the thought she would draw Miss Chapeski who carried the schoolyard reputation as being old, tough and downright mean. I escorted my daughter to school on the first day of class and stood with her as the grade 1 teachers called out their student’s names.

When it was Miss Chapeski’s turn the Last Amazon’s name was called and the LA’s worst fears from the night before were fully realized. She looked at me and asked what should she do. I told her to buck up and go line up. It would be okay and she was to remember; she was my daughter. She lined up but she looked like she had just made the list for the showers at Auschwitz. I worried all day for her and left work early just so I could be sure to be waiting at Miss Chapeski’s door when school let out for the day even though that was not the original plan. I thought I would plan a special outing to try to offset the realization of her worst fears. The Last Amazon met me at the door with a smile but before she filed out she gave Miss Chapeski a hug on the way out and told her she was the best. Well, knock me over.

Now Miss Chapeski was an old schoolmarm type. Although, she was tiny and frail she had the ‘pull the ear thingy’ down pat which managed to slay even the biggest of students but there was a beauty and method in her madness. She possessed the most redeeming quality of any teacher I have ever encountered, which is this – everyone learned in Miss Chapeski’s class, and I mean everyone. Miss Chapeski taught a split grade 1-2 class but in the course of her professional life she taught literally every elementary grade and taught in three continents. She taught so well that her grade 1-2 class became the dumping ground for all educational miscreants in the school. Misbehave in your class and be sent to the office to be dealt with and the office would send you to have a seat in Miss Chapeski’s class.

Once arrived, she quickly set out the rules, and made sure you did not leave her classroom until you learned something from your own grade level. She wore authority well in both her voice and her stand. She was tough but fair with a voice which was never monotone but carried and projected well. Her classes were enormously engaging although rigidly run. There were lotteries, there were spelling bees and math games and drills. Subject from subject moved rapidly and enormous amounts of material were covered and reinforced daily. The first day my daughter was given an elementary dictionary, drilled in how to use it and told to produce a one page story on anything which had to be handed in every Friday. Producing one story a week was repeated throughout the school year and considered mandatory. She had rulers on every desk and taught the kids tricks on how to manipulate numbers using the rulers as their guide and gave regular math drills immediately after lunch.

My daughter won an essay contest that year in the 5-9 years age category. It really wasn’t a fair Canada-wide competition as my daughter was extremely bright and she had Miss Chapeski spurring her own to new higher and higher heights each day. Miss Chapeski was forced to retire after my daughter’s year in her class by the board or lose out on her pension. She still came back as a substitute teacher and a chance encounter with her lead to me agonizing over my younger son’s language issues. She suggested I teach him language using phonics and an orthographic based alphabet system and without that piece of critical information, I doubt he would be the compulsive reader he is today.

Now contrast this with this educational article at the Toronto Star.

No rows of desks in this classroom, and no teacher lecturing at the front.

In fact, that’s something Barrie teacher Liz Collett rarely does. Instead, she’s on the move, talking to students about their work, from the small group sitting on the floor playing Monopoly to others nearby figuring out a math problem.

The children in this Grade 2/3 class do not take a spelling test all year – in fact, the school avoids all pencil-and-paper tests – nor do they get assigned homework. Instead, their teacher gives them immediate feedback on their work throughout the day; they rarely hand in something for a final grade that she hasn’t gone through with them and handed back with tips for improvement.

Welcome to the school of the 21st century, a place where teachers and students collaborate and cooperate. Such cutting-edge classrooms, gaining ground across Ontario, are trying things some might consider coddling kids or even lowering the bar – using graphic novels instead of covering the classics, letting students submit a voice-recorded essay instead of a written one or even allowing teens to design their own courses.

Without it, educators say schools risk tuning out – or worse, turning off – today’s learners. And though critics accuse schools of dumbing things down – universities continue to complain about high school graduates’ poor math skills – others will say such changes are actually based on the newest research on how to appeal to today’s youth and boost not only their interest, but their achievement. And a new report suggests these schools are on the right track. It found that many of today’s schools are not holding kids’ interest. And if they’re not interested, they’re not learning – and isn’t that the point?

And then take a look at this Toronto Star report from the day before:

So many Ontario teens are bombing university math now that there is no Grade 13, universities are scrambling to boost students’ skills before they arrive.

Alarmed at how weak high school grads seem in basic algebra – on some campuses up to 50 per cent fail or quit first-year math – a growing number of universities sent out surprise math packages this summer to incoming students to “clear out the cobwebs” and give emergency help to those who need it.

“By and large, students are ill-prepared, and they get a rude awakening because up to 50 per cent either fail or drop math,” said math professor Peter Gibson of York University, which has launched a task force to find ways to keep freshmen from flunking math. McMaster University also is sponsoring research into the problem. Math profs across the province blame a four-year high school program that leaves little time for mastering basics, and a culture unwilling to push young people to drill in necessary academic skills.

And I would accept the rational used to blame the failure on 4 year secondary school math program rather than the old 5 year system if this failure was seen across the board in other provinces which have only used a 4 year system since…well forever. Or if students from private schools were failing math at the same rate in Ontario but they are not.

My personal experience suggests the failure lies elsewhere and can be firmly placed at the standards set by the Ministry of Education. I have three children who had near perfect grade 8 math scores and not one of my children had an easy time with grade 9 math because they were poorly prepared in mathematics for the secondary school level by their elementary curriculum and the teachers who taught it. If my grade A students were struggling; how much harder would it be for a B student to grasp grade 9 math? To be so poorly prepared at the beginning makes catch-up almost a herculean task in secondary school.

You may not realize it but in the last ten plus years the Ministry of Education has designed a curriculum which has been tailored to discourage things like teaching multiplication times tables by rote. Apparently it is considered much improved to visualize a group of seven things filled with 8 items each and then count out the answer but I cannot imagine solving algebra equations when I do not know instantly that “X” times “Y” equals “N” without a moment’s thought. Individual teachers can still teach it but most of the modern ones have opted out of rote and speed drills for math but that is only one example of the ‘progressive’ new curriculum. I bet you could ask a 1,000 public school grade 11 students what a gerund was and not one of them could do much beyond giving a wrong answer and a blank stare.

The truth is this, shoddy standards and experimental teaching methods leave our graduating grade 12 students ill prepared for choices beyond a liberal arts degree, and really, how many social workers or sociologists does any given country need? If the country is Canada, then the answer appears to be to infinity and beyond, but then again, this is also the reason why we have chronic shortages in the maths and science based professions and are often reduced to importing said talent rather than teaching our own.