Restless Parents Are A Sign Of Growing Concern About Education
It’s not about “underfunding” that parents gathered for recently in Richmond. It was about underperformance of Math, in particular. The presentations outlined the issues — How Discovery Teaching Fails Elementary Math — How Parents Can Ensure A Math Foundation for their Child — Important Topics Removed From HS Math — The Myth of Math Disability.
There is a growing consciousness amongst some parents (and a few students) that the new curriculum, already rolled out in some areas, is just a further step to “deeper dumbing-down”. The international mantra-speak about this 21st Century Transformative Learning always uses a string of words like “collaboration, communication, critical thinking”. Have you noticed?
Parents, by law, still need to be informed in quantitative terms whether their children are acquiring the basic skills. Also, they want to know if they have achieved expectations they are capable of. The topic of “educational negligence” is not far from the thoughts of a few hard-nosed parents. They are aware of the growing legal opportunities that may be open to them for remedies. See — http://hkier.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/journal/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/ej_v36n1-2_137-152.pdf
[to Globe & Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/fewer-provincial-exams-more-in-class-assessment-in-bc-to-come-next-year/article30178911/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/fewer-provincial-exams-more-in-class-assessment-in-bc-to-come-next-year/article30178911/ Provincial Exams scaled back and Vancouver Sun — Province reduces number of exams required for graduation — http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/province-reduces-number-of-exams-required-for-graduationhttp://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/province-reduces-number-of-exams-required-for-graduation ]