South Stormont ON – Education and learning is what provides light in a world of ignorant darkness. I have had many opportunities to witness first hand just how dangerous it is when people, societies and cultures are ignorant of simple facts and lack common decency in seeing each other as human beings.
So when ignorant comments are made like many of the ones from Tammy Hart, it deeply concerns me. The facts about the full day kindergarden program coming into effect this year are simple. The school boards are choosing to implement this on a much larger scale than what is being funded by the provincial government.
Whether this is a good choice or not is up for debate. What it does is stretch staff and other resources. It also raises the question as to where the school boards are taking the money from to pay for the additional offerings? Of course the boards have elected officials called Trustees whose job it is to oversee budgets and spending on behalf of the tax payers who elect them. These trustees are not the provincial government. I am surprised that Tammy, an elected city councillor, wouldn’t know this simple fact about who is accountable for how the schools spend their money.
Perhaps what is needed is for people to take a greater interest in how our local taxes, school levees being a significant portion, are invested. Perhaps we need to push for greater transparency and better reporting from our school trustees?
Respectfully,
James Borer C.D. – South Stormont Ontario
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I must be plain ignorant then, the issue at hand is the funding and mismanagement. Costs.
Thank you Mr Borer for your service to Canada. The C.D. represents 10 plus years I believe.
We are all ignorant of something, and having to dig for information on our provincial web sites is not helping any of us.
I do not see how forcing kids in grade 10 to take a career path with courses for that path only, will have them be well rounded. How many at that age have a clue what they want to do?
The Ottawa University allows you to get a bachalor degree in fewer than 30 courses if you take a few in French. Take a look at the criminolgy program to see for your self. If I was hiring 1 of 2 people with the same degree, I would give asset points to someone having taken 30 courses.
Anyway, why are the boards allowed to offer something above what the Province pays for?
Full day kindergarten is just expensive daycare. I feel for the kids in rural areas taking a bus as well.
James you are off the mark. I mean really the education is one of the largest businesses which can legally misappropriate funding.
Ever been to a training seminar and see the money spent?
The amounts of booze and food consumed, the price for lodging for people living only a 45 min drive away. What about the half tanked supervisor flirting about with all the staff, publicly.
This is what represents us and theirs is the mentality we have structuring our education system.
A few years back while on a delivery in Cornwall $2000 for meal and wine? To some form of board meeting of some sort. The food I can understand, but why the need for wine?
I wonder how many hungry kids could that have fed, or how many books could that have bought?
Not everyone is like this I know but every little bit of inaction for even the smallest waste of money ads up to a huge waste on money and a loss of control to a vital system in Canada
We also have a system self protected it cannot play well amongst its own entitles. OTC or OTF wants to implement something called PLAR. A brief explanation, if you had taken a course for teaching prior to being a teacher it is not recognized claiming “ You were not in the mind set of a teacher at the time of your course” Thus if you wished to become credited you would need to retake the course again. This you only find out after you took the course and tried to become a teacher. PLAR Prior Learning Assessment Recognition. Would recognize previous accomplishments yet the OCT claims
“OTF does not believe that expertise gained via experience in a particular area automatically qualifies an individual to teach that area. NHL players and Olympic gymnasts cannot be deemed to be qualified to teach Physical Education to elementary and secondary school students, any more than those holding a PhD in Mathematics can be deemed automatically qualified to teach Math. The Federation also does not support the notion of non-academic routes to teacher qualification and certification. Programs such as Teach for America and other alternative, experience-based routes to gaining teaching qualifications that may be commonly found in several U.S. jurisdictions are not, in our view, equivalent to a program of formal teacher preparation, delivered by an accredited academic institution. Experience as a teacher or education administrator in lieu of a program of formal study is no more acceptable than experience as a doctor or dentist would be in the absence of academic training
So what do you think James is Tammy off base?
2 additional question,
1)why do I still pay taxes to education if I have no kids or if my kids are no longer in the system?
2 Why are my tax dollars being contributed to a pension fund that has controlling ownership in all Toronto teams plus approximately 50% stock in BCE?
Glad to see that there is some sense out there smee, I was beginning to feel alone.