Thank you to all those who have taken the time to chat with me during this election period. I am happy to reflect your comments here so that everyone can see what different people are thinking and saying about public education issues. If you recognize your comment and think I have mis-represented you, please let me know. It is not my intent and I am happy to rectify any mistakes.
Below I have organize ed the comments by theme and I hope this is useful to everyone. Themes so far include: Value & Quality of Public Education / Edmonton Public Schools , Funding, Teaching, Special Needs, Skills / Content of Curriculum, Transportation, Importance of Teaching Canadian Values, Bullying, / Safety / Well-Being, School Closures.
Value and Quality of Public Education / Edmonton Public Schools
Well, I went to public school here in the southwest and it was a good experience. – Haddow resident
What was the best thing about the Burnaby School District where I worked? Well, it was very well organized and there was lots of trust in the elected officials. Also, lots of nationalities — both staff and students — and everybody working together. – Visiting relative in Royal Gardens
Schools are sad. Kids are so rude and do what they want. There is no discipline at home and teachers don’t have the authority to properly discipline kids or they don’t want the authority. Even wee ones are noisy, rude and destructive when they come into my business. – Royal Gardens resident
School is awesome. It’s so much fun. I like the sports and the teachers are good. – Riverbend Junior High student.
Public education is really important for those who need a leg up. For those who need it, it IS the leg up. Thus, need to improve the support for kids who need help. Need more classroom aides. – Royal Gardens resident
I’m pretty impressed with Edmonton Public Schools – Rutherford resident & Educational Assistant in the system
Do I have ideas on how to make public schools better than ever? No. I am very happy with the French Immersion school my child is in. – Rutherford resident
Yes, public education is very, very important to the neighbourhood, to the whole city. – Duggan resident
We had a good experience with the public schools my kids went to, so no comments right now. – Ermineskin resident.
Funding
One thing my school was short on was resources — technology, classroom resources. – Haddow student
We need smaller class sizes. – Haddow resident
It’s always about more funding, isn’t it?, to allow sports and other programs. – Royal Gardens resident
I wish the government funding would permit small class sizes. – Duggan resident
I wish the government would get its act together about the funding. The up and down makes it so difficult for schools to plan. — Ermineskin resident
Sometimes I find there is so much waste in the classroom — so much paper is used. Maybe this is because we come from a different culture, but still. Is all the paper really necessary? …. I am glad to hear about more money coming from the Government in early July. I hope this would mean that there could be more educational assistants, which would really make such a difference to the teacher. I volunteer in the classroom and I noticed that without an aide, the teacher spends a lot of time with the special needs child. In a large class, this is hard for everyone else. – Ermineskin resident.
Teaching
I think the organization is too top heavy. I’d like to see more teachers and aides and fewer people downtown. – Royal Gardens resident
(Catholic parent) The teachers were great. What I really appreciated was how well they communicated with us. – Haddow resident
I hope the strategy of letting go all the part-time subs and retired teacher subs doesn’t backfire. My observation as a part-time sub is that there was always a lot of need. I also wonder if the application process for a job is flawed. It seems to be about who you know and I think some really good teachers fall through the cracks. – Haddow resident
I wish high school specialists (such as in Math) could actually teach their specialities instead of being shunted into another subject. – Royal Gardens resident
It’s hard when the principal is a tyrant and micro-manages everything. – Rutherford resident
The whole Meet the Teacher night is a waste of time. It would be better to have one-on-ones spread throughout the entire year — such a lot of work for teachers to get ready for these evenings and how useful are they, really, to the parent and the teacher? – Rutherford resident
There should be less administrative stuff for teachers to do so they can get on with their real expertise — teaching. –Duggan resident
How does the accountability for principals work with respect to teacher evaluations and staffing decisions? — Terwillegar South resident
Teachers need to move every 3 -4 years so they move out of their comfort zone and stay motivated. They need to be creative and get too comfortable if they stay in the same school for many years. Why are teachers and schools concentrating on the 90% of kids who are doing well . These kids know how to study. Teachers need to pay attention to the 10% who are not doing well. Instead the message is “we don’t want you here.” – Ermineskin resident
It’s too political to be a teacher with Edmonton Public, so I am now with another district. The current school I’m in is smaller and we are one happy family. In Edmonton the highschools are large. Departments can be very regimented and squash new ideas about ways to teach and engage students. – Duggan resident
Importance of High Expecations/Leadership
Setting targets and then reporting on them is critical. There are three things that can give us some good understanding of what is happening in the classroom — parent satisfaction, results of standardized tests, and high school completion rate. Once this data is collected, then we need to get it to the parents. This is really important so they understand how the school is doing. You have 30-40 seconds at a dinner table, so you need to give parents a simple framework by which to measure their child’s success. This is how you can engage them, and once they’re engaged, it’s great for the school. – Royal Gardens resident
(Catholic school parent) I don’t know if it is the same in the public school system, but we feel kids don’t do enough in school, in their classroom. They are always going out and about. We think they should work and learn more in school — that doesn’t mean we think there should be more homework, but more real work in the classroom. — Rutherford resident
I want to commend Joanne Lubins a former principal who really turned Crestwood School around. It was all due to her leadership and expectation of excellence. Excellence goes on for generations. –Rutherford resident
Skills / Content of curriculum
The Grade 9 Social course was the worst. – Royal Gardens student
This year my son had to take a second language in junior high. I think this is wrong. It limits his choices. Why not let kids try different things/different courses? Why does it have to be so serious? Give them some fun and also exposure to wide range of activities. – Royal Gardens resident
You know what is missing — teaching kids HOW TO STUDY. – Rutherford resident
Should there be more specific technical programs? I found that students were less interested if they didn’t see any relevance to their future. The main program is maybe too generalized. Courses need to be useful. – Rutherford resident
Special Needs
I want to talk about how children with difficulties are treated. It’s a red flag to me if the funding is going to become more generalized again the way it was 20 -25 years ago. We recently paid for our grandchild to have speech therapy — that doesn’t seem right. But at least we knew how to get the help needed (due to our experience with one of our own children); lots of parents don’t know how to go about getting the help they need. Would an ombudsman or advocate be a good idea? Maybe.
With respect to Special Needs, it seemed to take way too long for my child to be assessed and there was so much paperwork. Also, there seemed to be a lack of communication between everyone — between me and the school, between the expert and the school, between the expert and me. –Terwillegar South resident
Does all the talk about inclusiveness mean that programs such as the Opportunity Program will be done away with? I would be really concerned about that. Parents need to have a choice. If they want their child to be included in the regular classroom, that is fine, but it is not right for all children. If this had happened to my daughter, she would been faced with everything she couldn’t do and it would have been very hard for her. … LY Cairns is a wonderful school and I can’t say enough good things about it. If you remember one thing from our conversation, please remember this! Blackmud Creek resident.
School Closures
There seem to be a lot of punks coming out of school these days. What do I feel about school closures? Well, it seems odd to be opening up schools out here and closing schools at the same time….. –Terwillegar South resident
Do I have a comment? Well, yes…one. I am ticked off about the school closures. The families in the inner city are the very ones who need smaller schools and smaller class sizes, so they can get the attention they need. Especially for immigrant families — smaller schools let kids become comfortable and learn the language. Especially in the inner city, keep the school small so everyone is known and feels like they belong. This is particularly true at the elementary school level. Libraries/art programs/etc. cannot replace the personal contact in a classroom. – Ermineskin resident
It is so great to have a school we can walk to! (i.e. Esther Starkman) –Terwillegar South resident
Importance of Teaching Canadian Values
Kids are being brainwashed today. The whole multiculturalism aspect should be removed and we should be teaching kids Canadian values. For example, I would be totally opposed to an Islamic school. I am against all fundamentalism.
Transportation
We changed schools because the bus was late 30 to 40 times and that is just not good for learning or my child’s self -esteem to be always late. Can’t they use technology to let people know what is happening? Maybe text messages? The website is not very useful once you are standing out at the bus stop, wondering if the bus is coming or not. — Haddow resident
Kids shouldn’t be on the bus for an hour or more. –Duggan resident
Long bus rides are a problem; a 12 minute drive is equivalent to 1 1/2 hour bus ride…. Blackmud Creek resident.
Bullying / Safety / Well-being
Why is there no crosswalk for the new school? This is crazy. Will they put one after a child has been hit? – Rutherford resident
I am really worried about the fact there are no speed signs for the new school or the playground. Cars just zoom along here. This is an accident waiting to happen. – Rutherford resident
I agree with you about the need for a “warm welcome.” I used to be an elementary school Assistant Principal (with another district) and I never tolerated bullying. Every child has to feel safe and welcome. Bullying needs to be everyone’s responsiblity. It’s really not hard to deal with — you just say bullies don’t stay long in this school, and mean it. If kids know teachers and the principal will protect them, then they will speak up. But you know, there’s a monetary commitment that is part of this. Administration needs sufficient non-teaching time to deal with these sorts of issues.
Arts, too, is another way to diffuse bullying. It is hard to bully someone you’ve just been applauding. I am very big on arts in schools. – Rutherford resident
I think many teachers come from the middle range of society with solid middle class backgrounds and values. As such, I think their responsiveness to bullying can be limited. They just don’t pick up on the cues and can be easily manipulated. – Duggan resident
