R

Unpublished letter submitted to The Toronto Star

Re:   Parents upset at lack of rapid testing at schools, September 13, 2021.

With a lifetime of experience in elementary schools as a teacher and principal in Ontario I have noted disturbing trends that have changed the core of education more and more to custodial rather than educational and professional. There is a continuing shift away from the knowledge and facts that make up the curriculum, towards school as a social centre.

Homework and out-of-class learning are things of the past despite the fact that only about twenty-five percent of the material required can be learned while at school. There are only so many hours in a day and this time is being increasingly crowded out by out-of-school activities, family commitments, student work schedules, partying,  gaming and social media all of which are seen as having a higher priority than school and learning. Studying and learning have no place in busy teen lives with cellphones and social media to keep up with.

This change is also reflected in the comments of parents and media. When asked about why it is important for students to return to in-person learning they all speak about the main focus as being on seeing their friends. No mention is ever made of the tough learning that must go on to master an increasingly difficult curriculum. Schools have become primarily social centers where students are gathered to be custodially supervised by adult nannies.

School is about everything but learning.  It’s about social media, friends and fun not preparing students for the future. Education – real education – seems to have been pushed aside and replaced by a socially vacuous, superficial me-world crowded with personal commitments and perspectives where everything is no further away than your Smartphone – and that’s the problem.

Cellphones and social media are  replacing real learning and that is leading to a serious deficit with students studying to learn the information they need to lead society in the future.

These changes to society have led to a complete de-professionalization of education and the dumbing-down of Canadian and other societies around the world.