POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY NEIL REYNOLDS IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
Children range from sadly dull in intelligence to brilliant.
They also run from lethargic to bursting with energy.
Our public education - rooted in averages - and with both feet firmly planted in the ooze of political correctness simply does not recognize this reality.
Because we jumble them all together, many, many, and at both extremes, are not served well, indeed perhaps not served at all.
We've eliminated trades training, an honorable and valuable education. We do nothing in most places with fitting kids with apprenticeships nor is the practice of co-operative education at all common.
Not to speak of the often poor quality of teaching to our young - many never get a chance to optimize the talents they have.
We have gym teachers teaching math and other bizarre combinations in grade school, the place where foundations are built.
Principals busy themselves with committees and other bureaucratic rubbish, anything to get away and sound important, rather than working desperately to see that their schools function at their best.
The official curricula are often pathetic, not even written in good clear English and stuffed with pompous nonsense instead of focusing on what really matters.
There are no music or art programs nor are there decent libraries in many, many grade schools.
Many schools have few computers and few teachers who know how to use them.
If we could genuinely change our schools, there would be something interesting for every student, and no teacher could play the nasty game of not working hard to help and then promoting them out of his/her hair regardless of skills absorbed.
But we can't, and it is the teachers' union which keeps things as backward and frozen in time as they are.
So relax and enjoy the reality of what we have created.
