WOW, it seems that in this, Canada and U.S. education are similar. Recently my daughter was told to get assistance from me, her parent, by her teacher when her teacher could not help her in Math. After helping my daughter, I told her I was going to see the teacher about it. My daughter literally begged me not to do any such thing. She was terrified of being laughed at, made fun of by the other students, or singled out anyway. She was also worried about repercussions in class later. It seems that anytime a parent speaks with that teacher the teacher later makes snide comments in class about it. That of course, infuriated me even more! I eventually spoke with the teacher over the phone about it and she justified her actions by stating that the subject matter was not part of her curriculum and my daughter was given too advanced assignments by the school's computer due to her high test scores. The computer determined what exercises my daughter should be given and the teacher had no examples in her books of the exercises. Well, not only did it amaze me that the teacher could not complete algebraic equations without knowing what the correct answer should be ahead of time but also that it was okay to push it off on the parent! Only the computer had the answers and she would only get a correct or not response. North Carolina education simply amazes me at times! That is a perfect example of the new NCWISE system which is supposed to be 'no student left behind!' I think they left the teachers behind a long time ago!


>Hi Tracy,
>
>I'm convinced that here in Ontario the main objective of the curriculum is to create compliant consumers. You know, people who never question price or quality or service levels and in fact are embarrassed (as my kids were when I did) when you do so yourself.
>
>Several years ago I read a note from my son's teacher on a paper he wrote and she gave him 0 because he didn't come up with the 'expected' answer. When I told him I was going to go have a chat with that teacher he begged me not to go, citing all kinds of social reasons and fear of sure-fire failure.
>
>Cheers
>
>>I've noticed that many elementary school's mission statements specifically state in some way an attainable challenge in critical thinking but I've not heard of any elementary school actually providing a course in it. I wonder where it would fit into the schedule given the current curriculum and the limited number of hours?
>>
>>math
>>science
>>reading
>>english
>>social studies
>>keyboarding or computer science
>>health
>>physical fitness
>>
>>were the classes my daughter took in the 4th grade. Reading was a separate course and still was last year in the 7th grade. English was actually called Communications but the subject matter was the same as the old English classes. There are not enough hours in the day as it is to cover all of the required material and the core subjects are lacking in attention...
>>
>>
>>>>>>One of my suggestions is mandating a critical reasoning course to 4th graders in public schools. Why?
>>>>
>>>>lol...Obviously...you are not a father who has a kid or had a kid in the 4th. grade...
>>>
>>>No, but I pay taxes. And since my argument was that teaching a child to be thoughtful means they will be more thoughtful about what we teach them from that point on I think thats a valid point to make as I'm paying for the education. And though it was geared towards educators, I suspect it would equally apply to parents.
>>>
>>>You're right, I don't have a kid, but that strawman aside, are you saying that you'd prefer if your children weren't thoughtful? Especially in this age of mass media? Is that because you've found they're easier to control when they accept your lies?
>>>
>>>This is *way* off topic. You could start a new thread in the chatter forum if you're actually interested in talking about this. Something tells me your more interested in honing your debating chops.
>>>
>>>I've never been one to turn down discussing my own ideas so you're trolling the right guy.