Public Schools to provide education or Public schools for the training of criminals

Public Schools to provide education or Public schools for the training of criminals

We destroy the love of learning in children, which is so strong when they are small, by encouraging and compelling them to work for petty and contemptible rewards, gold , stars, or papers100 and tacked to the wall, or A’s on report cards, or honors rolls, or dean’s lists, or Phi Beta Kappa keys, in short, for the ignoble satisfaction of feeling that are better than someone else.   – John Holt

IT ALL ADDS UP Pcs scratch new-age math Manipulators!

• Toronto Sun
• 13 Mar 2019
• BRIAN LILLEY

Elementary school students will go back to the basics when it comes to math, teachers can count on new training and parents should plan on receiving additional tools to help their kids with math homework.

This is all part of a major overhaul of Ontario’s failing math curriculum.

The full curriculum overhaul will be unveiled by Education Minister Lisa Thompson in coming days, but the strategy is laid out in documents obtained by the Toronto Sun.

“Discovery Math is gone, it has failed our children,” a senior government source said.
Instead of Discovery Math, a system proponents say “turns traditional math on its head,” schools in Ontario will return to tried and true methods.

Yes, rote learning will be part of it which means students memorizing the times tables once again, but the new math curriculum will also be aimed at helping students gain the skills they need for life.
“Whether it is coding, engineering or balancing their own budget, students need these skills,” a government official said.

For years, Ontario’s math curriculum has been a problem.

While headlines have focused on fights over sex education, math scores have been dropping. The most recent test scores for Grade 6 students showed that less than half met the provincial standard, a major drop from years past. In 2010, 61% of students in Grade 6 met the provincial standard. By
2014, that number was down to 54% before falling to today’s pitiful 49%. In Grade 3, the numbers look a little better with 61% meeting the provincial standard in the most recent round of testing. But back in 2010, test results showed 71% met the provincial standard.

The full change over from today’s curriculum to the new one is expected to take four years.
During that time, the province plans to invest in teacher education, help school boards establish “Math Leads” and introduce “Math Facilitators” at the lowest 1,000 performing schools in Ontario.

Math leads will work within their school boards to help both teachers and students improve. They will lead teacher training and lead the rollout of the new curriculum.

New teachers will receive a certain amount of math training and must pass a test by the spring of 2020.

The plan also calls for existing teachers to get extra training. The province will provide funding for teachers to acquire “additional qualifications” for those leading classes in Grades 6, 7 and 8.
Teachers obtaining the new qualifications will move up their pay grids faster, while students can expect to learn from instructors with specialized math knowledge.

The province also wants to focus on the lowestperforming schools, often schools at the lower end of the income scale. Those schools will get math facilitators to coach teachers and principals and identify “learning gaps” in math that can be targeted for special attention.

Finally, parents will have access to a digital curriculum designed to allow them to assist their children with homework and in understanding the concepts taught in class.

Ontario’s students are running into trouble with math because they have been failed by the political leaders who were charged with running the system.

After more than a decade of chasing fads and trendy curriculum ideas, Ontario’s students will now get a math program that is tried and true.

Time will tell if it has the desired effect, but sticking to the current path simply isn’t acceptable.