 Ontario’s Minister of Education, John Snobelen, is a man with a plan. He wants to prove that he, a grade 11 dropout, can cut billions of dollars from the Ministry’s budget while simultaneously making the system better. That’s a tall order for anyone, especially someone who has spent less time in school than I have. So, ignoring the long odds, Johnny-Boy has busted out his secret weapon: "Excellence in Education: High School Reform". This booklet, tastefully highlighted in Tory blue, is intended to spell out the Conservative’s plan for changing schools like the Woodlands. Here’s the straight 411, no diggity.
- After ‘98, no more OAC year. The government thinks it doesn’t prepare students for university, so why bother with it? Apparently,
Ontario is the last place in North America to still have 5 years of high school.
- Standards will be higher.
- Students will write an education plan for each year, outlining their goals.
- Our system of basic, general and advanced courses will be changed to Series 1, 2, 3, and 4 courses. Series 1 courses will be of interest to
anyone, and will be offered at only one skill level, like destreamed courses in grade nine, but will be offered throughout your high school
years. Series 2 would get students on the track towards apprenticeship, community college, and entry into the general work force, and will
concentrate on practical skills. Series 3 courses are designed to prepare students for college and/or university. The last series, 4, is supposed
to help people who change their minds about their goals. Series 4 courses would be shorter, and would merely "catch-up" students to a
higher standard (i.e., when switching from series 2 to 3).
- Dropouts will be able come back into the school system with credit for whatever they learned while they were doing whatever they were
doing (for example, Mr. Snobelen could take the experience he got while being Minister of Education, and put it towards a grade 12
business course). They can take an equivalency test which will allow them to skip grades if they have learned the curriculum in the outside
world.
- Teachers will be assigned to groups of students to be their learning buddies, keep them on track, be their advocates, plan remedial
tutoring, and help them write the education plans they will have to write (see #3).
- Student transcripts will show how many times you attempted a course.
- More "partnerships" with business will be formed, and an increased emphasis will be placed on co-op.
Aside from the above, Snobelen has a bunch of plans to change grade 9 again, re-arrange the credit granting system, and possibly
re-introduce massive provincial exams. However, he’s putting those last ideas up for public consultation.
Take a close look at the changes presented in this pamphlet, and it is clear that many of them are thinly-veiled, tight-fisted, nearsighted cost-cutting measures, designed to allow the government to siphon more money from education without making it seem that they are raping it and leaving it for the flies.
In the long run, I think corporate partnerships aren’t as good at educating as they are at saving money. It doesn’t matter if we don’t learn anything while we work at the steel mill, as long as it’s on the corporate world’s tab. Also, this whole idea of teachers as “learning buddies” (see #6) is redundant: isn’t that what counsellors are for? Mandatory co-op is another half-wit idea. If you force
students to work for nothing, they will just goof off, wasting time that they could have spent actually learning something.
However, the basest idea in Johnny’s booklet-o’fun is the convoluted system of "Series" courses. It’s as if the Tories don’t
understand that education is not just a ticket to employment. Preparing students for jobs should be a priority, however, it should be secondary to preparing students for life. In Snobelen’s plan, a Series 2 English course would teach students how to fill out forms, type memos, and write resumes. Literature, poetry, and independent thought play second banana to desk-jockey automata. If you want to learn about humanity, art, and insight, you will have to sign on to an Series 3 course. After all, why should the Ministry waste its precious education dollars on teaching Shakespeare to low-caste citizens who will probably have no use for it? It’s all a matter of putting money on the horse that’ll win the race - and leaving the others to choke on the dust.
Perhaps the most frightening aspect of Snobelen’s reform is the fact that students are being further reduced to little more than bar-
codes. The reason for this is simple economics. The Ministry of Education has a product - you. In order to feed the corporate demand for literate, obedient workers, students have become nothing more than products whose worth is measured by their value to employers - not to themselves. Employment is but one facet of a person’s life. Is it better to have legions of narrow-minded, shallow wage slaves, or a school system that teaches children to think for themselves? Sadly, it seems high school is rapidly being transformed from a quest for knowledge,
to a race to fill the cubicles of tomorrow - and that’s not common sense.
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SAC Attack!
Once again this year, SAC membership fees have risen considerably, reaching an all time high of forty dollars. Still, all students are expected to pay this amount without question. Any students who refuse
to pay the membership fee are shown little mercy by the SAC. In an effort to extort as much money as possible from the students of this school, the SAC have worked hard to make the life difficult for the non-SAC member. Firstly, these unfortunate students are denied the use of lockers, requiring them to carry all
of their books with them everywhere they go. The SAC is very adamant about this policy, resorting to alarmingly Big Brother style extremes to see that it is enforced. At a recent SAC meeting, the Executive went so far as to urge SAC members to turn in any of their non-SAC member classmates who were seen using
lockers. One would think that this would be enough to send even the most stubborn holdouts crawling submissively to the SAC office, clutching wads of cash and begging for forgiveness, but apparently the SAC doesn't think so. They have gone even further by requiring SAC membership in order to be part of any club
or organisation that receives any SAC money. The same is true for all school teams, a policy that cannot be beneficial to competitiveness of our school in sporting events. Students without SAC membership even suffer academically, as they are unable to sign books out of the library, or use the on-line or CD-ROM
resources. Even working in the Candy Shop is of limits to the non-SAC member, for reasons that have not been explained. All in all, students without SAC membership are second class citizens within their own school. The display outside the library high lights this by displaying the unbought student cards of the non-SAC members, silently taunting them as they pass by. Each day a few card vanish from the window, exchanged for the above mentioned forty dollar membership fee, evidence that the tactics of the SAC are working. For an organisation which claims to be interested in raising school spirit, the SAC seems to be more interested in raising a quick buck.
Now one could make a case that since the SAC does fund all of the things mentioned above, it is only fair to restrict use of them to SAC members. After all, how would feel about some freeloader using athletic
equipment, CD-ROMs, or stained glass that you had paid for. However the key point to consider here is this, only a small portion of SAC funds actually towards all of the things I have mentioned. The SAC have planned for an income of $57,700, with most of this coming from SAC membership fees. At present the amount raised is sitting at around $36,000. Total expenses for this year are budgeted at $61,501.46, with about $22,000 going to pay for the SAC itself. School Clubs and organisations receive a combined total of $6,600, while the Athletics department and the Library get about $3,500 each. So where does the rest of the money go? To the yearbook. The high cost of producing the yearbook has left the SAC with a
considerable deficit, a deficit which will soon require the cutting back of funding for school activities. How ironic that the yearbook, a visual record of school activities, is draining away the money that makes these activities possible. Where are our priorities if we place more value in remembering the present than we do in living it? What good is a yearbook if it has no pictures of teams or clubs, because the money that should have gone to pay for teams and clubs has instead gone to yearbook?
Clearly there are many problems with our current system. One solution to these problems would be adopting a model that is used at Meadowvale Secondary School. Meadowvale students pay an activity fee of five dollars, which covers membership in clubs, participation on school teams, special activities, and the right to use the library. To implement a system like this, the SAC would first have to trim some fat. Merely requiring students to purchase their own locks and planners would save over $16,000. Separating the yearbook from the SAC would save almost $30,000, thus lowering the SAC budget to a much more reasonable $15,500. With these steps taken, SAC membership fees could then be lowered to ten dollars, making membership much more appealing to the average student. The cost of purchasing a lock must be added to this total, but considering that one lock could be shared by two students over the course of four or five years, this expense would be negligible. Forgetful students looking for somewhere to record their homework could manufacture their own planners using nothing more than a stapler and a package of paper. Yearbooks would still be available for sale, but with a few minor changes. Economics dictates that in order
to be successful, the gross revenue from yearbooks must be greater or equal to the production costs. Therefor, the yearbook must either be produced more cheaply or sold at a higher price. Until the yearbook is able to support itself, it will continue to be a fincial drain on our school. Ultimately it is all of the students of this school who must pay for the yearbook's debt. SAC members pay directly through their membership fees, while non-SAC members pay through their inability to participate in school activities. Seperating the yearbook and the SAC could only benifit all of us.
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Je Suis un Revolutionnaire.
There is a staggering sound which pierces the hallways of Woodlands. An unsettling din that spreads as it goes. What is this sound you ask? Silence. Silence is the number one problem facing Woodlands this year. The apathetic fever that seems to have gripped everyone is inexcusable. There are approximately 1800 students in our school, and to assume that none of them have any complaints is ludicrous. Are we to believe that all is fine and dandy in the World O' Woodlands? I should hope not. There are many issues that could be earmarked as controversial in our school, yet they never seem to be explored.
The fascist set-up of the students regarding lockers and yearbooks is a prime example (can't have one without the other, slick). Just as an informal survey, see if you can find more than a handful of non-SAC students who are happy about the situation. Now take the disgruntled majority left over and ask them how many paid their student fee anyways. The fact is, nobody seems to stand up for what they believe in.
I presume some of this may be due to a lack of information regarding the system. Are you aware that your student card entitles you to attend every SAC meeting? You don't even have to show it to them. Just take a seat and listen. Better yet, stand up and raise an issue. Whatever you deem a worthy cause should at least be discussed at the meeting, because SAC stands for STUDENT activity council, not "Sexy Asian Chicks", as the executives like to refer to themselves as.
Maybe the problem lies in insecurity. It takes a lot of confidence to stand up in front of a bunch of kids you don't know, and then contradict those same strangers, so I suggest bringing friends...lotsa friends. Form a coalition, and unite for whatever your cause may be. Hell, maybe you want to ban this publication. If that's the case, go to the SAC meeting and bring it up. All I'm asking is for anyone with a mind to go to the SAC meetings, every Thursday after school in the Lecture Hall. At present, about fifty people attend now, and that is a paltry percentage of the overall student body. In conclusion, participate in school matters. Go to meetings, participate, and speak the hell up.
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Multimedia Memories.
your life in ones and zeros
A CD-ROM yearbook. I'll admit that this sort of high-tech wizardry does have a certain appeal, and is quite novel, especially considering the fact that it is being made / programmed by Woodlands students themselves - and also that we’re the first school in Peel. The Yeardisc would be a worth-while undertaking if it weren't for a few dead Prime Ministers.
Our paper yearbook is already in a deplorable state of debt, so adding another division does not seem to make much sense. How could such an act of mis-spending have gotten past a vote on our SAC? Simple - there was no vote. That’s right, the students are getting shafted once again as the people with the power toy with our student fees without our consent or consultation. Then again, The Woodlands doesn't quite have a knack for money management, especially
when it comes to yearbooks. The Yeardisc will cost thousands of dollars to produce, and a lot of that money has already been spent on new computer-related bric-a-brac for the Yeardisc editors to play with.
The price of the yeardisc, when it is sold in June, should not exceed $25 (if all goes as planned). Add to that the $40 locker tax that students have already been forced to pay, and I think the Yeardisc will find its product a hard-sell. The solution would be to allow students to take the Yeardisc instead of their paper yearbook (and refund them the difference), thus allowing the yeardisc to compete freely, and also being a clear indicator of how well the yearbook could sell on its own (without the SAC twisting arms for them). I doubt the yearbook club would allow that, however, because the yeardisc and yearbook have a common goal. After all, when given a choice, Woodlands students can't be trusted.
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Internet Schminternet
Unless you live in a tarpaper shack in the wilds of Montana, it is likely that you have been pestered by the incessant droning of media analysts and pundits, harmoniously singing the praises of the Global Village. The Global Village is a sort of catchy name for a giant electrified world community, in which the citizens of our planet peacefully lay down their nerve gas and Kalashnikovs they usually use to solve their problems, in favour of chat sessions, e-mail, and emoticons [ those insipid “faces” found in e-mail messages. You have to look at them sideways, like this ; ) or this @: 0 See?] The self-proclaimed “digerati” claim that the Internet will allow people all over the world, regardless of income, religion, nationality, hat size, or golf score to interact with one another. However, if these prophets had bothered to get out and really see the world we live in, they would realize that wiring the world onto the information superhighway is at best a pipe dream, and at worst, a cynical grab for political power.
Planet earth, as amazing and wonderful as it may be, is still far too poor and ignorant to effectively use the Internet as a general democratic forum. If you took each and every person living on the globe, and arranged them in a straight line, you would find that about every sixth person in the line is a Chinese peasant. I’m not making this up. 900 million people (China Wakes- The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power, by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn, (c) 1994 Vintage Books, New York) make their living coaxing vegetables and raising livestock from the good earth, getting the shaft from a totalitarian central government and thieving provincial party bosses. Dirt poor, uneducated, and taught to be xenophobic, they live in a time warp, under the same social conditions that their forefathers faced millenia ago. The fact that some of them have lightbulbs in their rude shacks is one of the greatest social advances in history, when you consider what they
are up against. And the Chinese peasants are not alone in their ignorance (which is no fault of their own). Tens of millions of people on earth have never seen a plastic bag, never used electricity, never flushed a toilet, never known that the sun does not revolve around the earth. These people don’t have time to learn how to use the Internet; they would rather worry about getting enough to eat and stopping their children from dying of typhus.
Another consideration is that a computer system capable of using the Internet costs at least $1000 Canadian. The average yearly per-capita income for a citizen of Nepal is US$136.00. (NBC / Rand McNally World Atlas & Almanac, 1992, pg 168) The chances most people living in developing nations have of ever owning a computer system are pretty slim.
The last reason why the earth will not become a global village (at least within a hundred years) is that many governments are utterly corrupt and totalitarian. The makers of Surf Watch software used to stop children from viewing smutty pictures on the Internet have been approached by the government of Singapore (Wired Magazine, July 1996, pg 41). The rulers of that tiny nation, where it is illegal to chew gum or spit on the street, would like to install a version of net control software on the main telephone trunk of the country, to prevent unsavory ideas like western-style personal freedom from corrupting the natives. The Internet is simply too easily controlled to be an effective instrument of democracy.
The best tool to help the residents of developing countries leap into the great wide world is radio. A mode of communication that we in the first world take for granted, radio is free, difficult to censor, and can be used even by the 80% of Afghans who cannot read. Radios can be powered by winding a crank to recharge batteries (much like old-fashioned watches used a winding knob to “charge” a spring), by solar power, or even with the current in the human body. When I was young, I build a crystal radio that is dirt-cheap, virtually immortal, easy to use, and is powered by holding one wire against a water pipe, and another wire in my hand. This is the third world’s best communications hope. For many years to come, the Internet will be only be a commercial toy of the first world.
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Silence the Registers
(November 29 is Buy Nothing Day)
What do most popular North American Holidays have in common? Money, that's what. Despite some religious pretences, the main focus of every major Holiday is on consumerism, overindulgence and greed. Even as you are reading this, Christmas shopping season is entering full swing. How ironic that Christmas, an ancient Pagan Holiday that was pilfered by Christianity, has now become property of North America's new God, Commercialism. And how appropriate that during this particularly superficial time of year Buy Nothing Day is celebrated. Buy Nothing Day was first started four years ago by Ted Dave, an artist and activist living in British Columbia, and it is celebrated around the world on November the 29th. Thousands of people in the rich countries of the world will mark this holiday by not purchasing anything for one full day. While this may not seem like much at first, consider the mind set that is so prevalent in Western culture. Individuals exist only as consumers, their identity is determined by what they purchase, they live only to pour their money into the pockets of enormous, greedy corporations. Buy Nothing Day is a total rejection of that kind of thinking, an event designed to raise awareness of gross overconsumption in Western nations and the disparities that exist between rich nations and poor ones.
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