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Home My WebLink AboutThe Huron Expositor, 1996-10-16, Page 8a-THI HURON SJIPO$IT011, OotatINK MUMS Feature Schools becoming market oriented BY DAVID SCOTT Expositor Editor "Children are becoming road -kill in the drive to defeat the deficit." That was just one of a handful of controversial and thought-provoking quotes given by Heather-jane Robertson, co-author of the controvbrsial bestseller Class Warfare: The Assault on Canada's Schools, who spoke to a packed hall of Huron County teachers at Seaforth Community Centre Wednesday night. Robertson took the audi- ence on an educational trip across the country to examine what some of the different boards and governments are doing. "Nova Scotia and New Brunswick governments have proclaimed they will build no new schools with public money in the future, only pri- vate money," said Robertson. The government of Nova Scotia also announced on the same press release the priva- tization of the prison system. The same provincial govern- ment abolished school boards six months ago. "They're ending the democ- ratic process of the school. Boards reinforce that we can participate and make deci- sions in education." Robertson said Nova Scotia teachers didn't put up much of a fight against the abolish- ment of school boards. They said "not many people voted in elections anyway." "That sounds like the U.S. where less than 50 per cent of people vote in the presiden- tial elections. Do we declare democracy dead?" Republican PC's? Robertson said Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole recently announced three things he wanted to accomplish in office. The first thing he said was "get rid of the power of teacher unions." Minister of Education John Snobelin started making similar com- ments recently. "Where did that come from?" asked Robertson. She said the chief strategist for the Republican party was also hired by the PC party in Ontario. They're testing out the same ideas. "It's encouraging to see the Republican party doing so badly." Robertson says in Manitoba they've taken away collective bargaining from teachers. And there's one board that will only give teachers pay increases after a public refer- endum and individual testing. "The children are becoming road -kill in the drive to defeat the deficit." . The Edmonton public school system is publicly funding Christian Fundamentalist Schools. Robertson said school fund- ing is based on how many kids they can attract. "It's easy to teach high -per- forming kids. There's kinds of kids you want to attract and kind you would just as soon go to the nice Catholic school down the road." She talked about how some high school vice principals in Alberta carry business cards and 'scout" elementary schools for high -performing • kids. "Thcy go to perfor- • mance nights, basketball games, give parents of kids cards and call them up. It's called 'scoping out'," says Robertson. They're looking for "entrepreneurial skills." In Calgary, teachers have two sheets they have to sign up on: which day they can supervise the school yard and what night they're free for Bingo duty. "They hold Bingos to buy supplies for the school." In British Columbia, they've contracted out to Texas companies to write up their curriculum. "Texas is one of the biggest textbook manufacturers in the U.S. The religious right control textbook publishing in Texas and California. If there's a Canadian text book printed, PHOTO BY DAVID SCOTT LIVELY SPEAKER - Controversial author Heather-jane Robertson spoke recently to Huron County teachers about radical changes to education across the country. "I consider pimping for Pepsi exploiting kids." you can't give them prefer-. ence under NAFTA or it's considered unfair." said Robertson. Partnership with Pepsi A Catholic high school in Regina with 1,400 students has a partnership with Pepsi. "The principal called an assembly. All the teachers were wearing t -shirts adver- tising a bottled water. The principal said 'this drink will make you smarter.' They gave kids prizes for bringing in empty bottles of it." • Robertson says this contra- dicts an educational rule of not exploiting kids. "I consider pimping for Pepsi exploiting kids." Snobelen is "less cagey than some ministers across the country," says the author of Class Warfare. "The speed of reforms has more to do if we're in pre- election or post-election." She says the minister thinks of teachers as "front-line ser- vice providers and kids as 'consumers.' " Although there's hot topics in education like J -K and non -teachers teaching, Robertson chose curriculum reform as a subject to delve into. "What is worth knowing? It is the question public educa- tion has to grapple with - What they teach and what they don't teach. And who gets to learn it and to what degree?" What has been happening lately with education is that what is worth knowing comes down to what can you use on the job, she says. . "There is a document.for secondary school reform that suggests kids be given career portfolios beginning in kindergarten." Robertson calls this kind of thinking EDUCATION TODAY. EDU ON TOMORROW. Mitt, Harris' gov rnmsn* it eating away of •ducetion. lot him sotto ony mon Was out of yaw futon. Cat your MMP today. •• twtai • OtcT-a► • ! ' t *• Q STF PHOTO BY DAVID SCOTT SIGN OF THE TIMES? - This is what five different teaching organizations in Ontario think the Mike Harris government is doing to education in the province. Wvastortt 0°4"vos "the production of human capital." Corporate sponsorship is creeping into more schools. Recently there was a CBC radio interview that featured three teachers from a school in Ottawa that had an American Express sponsor program for a travel and tourism certificate. It wasn't a separate course. It used "existing resources and vol- unteers." "One of the teachers said the program used a new' method called 'infusion'. For example, if the rest of the class was studying Merchant of Venice, the few lucky trav- el and tourism students would study seat sales to Venice." However, when the kids who were involved in the American Express program were interviewed, none of them wanted to go into travel and tourism. "They just thought it was a cool way to study Shakespeare," said Robertson. Overskilled for Jobs She claims the problem isn't with students graduating without skills, it's a problem with not enough jobs. "Eighty per cent of people say they're over -skilled for their jobs. Of the 88,000 jobs created last year, 80,000 were part-time." And guess who is the single largest employer in North America? Wal-Mart, • Canada is the most educat- ed country in the world and is the hest place to live. accord- ing to the United Nations. "Business leaders are saying maybe we're over -educated." Robertson doesn't like the old cliche that schools are not in "the real world." "I'm tired of people refer- ring to the real world as out- side of the school. Classrooms are more real than some hoard rooms I've been to." The author says if we take to heart the suggestions of schools becoming more like the marketplace, things would really change. "Business is about sorting winners from losers. You invest in winners and devest in.losers. You would invest the most -money into the best students." Robertson admits sadly that "social class is still the hest indicator of how a student win do." The gap between rich and poor is increasing in society with the middle class erod- ing. "It's a recipe for disaster when the middle class disap- pears." Robertson also argued against the over 30 per cent illiteracy rate that Conference Canada has stated. 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