ann m

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...ticle15758230/

I'm surprised no-one posted this article about low standards in education compared to other areas of the world....some will surely like to gloat with "I told you so", and we need some others to defend Canada's honour

Tangram

Won't someone think of the children ?!?!!?

greenfreelander

From the southwest Uk=

My daughter (13yrs) had a card recently saying 'Hapy Berfdy'..m8.!
that sums the schools in our area up.!

A sociology degree will not get you a job either!!
Might get you a casual or zero hours contract at xmas with Argos or Tesco...

dbd33

Was there ever a time when having a sociology degree made one a more valuable employment prospect than not having a sociology degree?

greenfreelander

ummm...eeerrrr NO!

christmasoompa

I think you'll find that's text speak, and I would think highly unlikely to be taught at school. See, I'm down with the kids (GWI m8!).

My 6 year old son's spellings this week included words such as 'ingredients'.

That's not a surprise, what use would a sociology degree be anywhere in the world?! It's the current equivalent of a 'media studies' degree imo.

JamesM

I don't think any one normally wastes their time on Canadian news sites.

I'm still figuring out if I should click on the link or not.

I got off the phone with Mount Sinai hospital in Toronto this morning with the insistence that I wanted to see a doctor who had not been through their training system in Canada so any article on how bad education is here will be no surprise to me.

greenfreelander

Christmasoompa

Spelling 'ingredients' at 6yrs! excellent!!

I moved to the area im currently in 12yrs ago for my daughter to stand a better chance of just spelling her name! But 37 'charmers' to one teacher in a school of approx 1800...they quickly fall thru the cracks...
Unless you have a bitch mother like me, who stands over her and checkes her homework.

We are hoping to move to Canada to give her a better chance...so 'Big-up' the Canadian system...!!

christmasoompa

That's one way to look at it. The other is that it's too bloody difficult for a 6 year old boy, and that it takes practising every single night for his weekly spelling test with his overtired mother who isn't amused. Ingredients was one of the easier ones, he's had corkers such as 'Samuel Pepys', 'nightmare' 'embarrassment' and 'equipment' recently as well. :roll eyes:

37?!? Blooming 'eck. Is that a secondary school thing? Mine are both in a little village primary school, max about 25 to the class. Classes in Canada were much bigger than where they are now, my 9 yr old daughter only has 14 in her class.

Hertha

This was covered on yesterday's BBC website. Unfortunately, I can no longer find the article. The best performing countries were in the Far East. From recollection, Canada was in the top ten in regard to reading and science, but performed less well in maths. My reading was, though, that it outperformed the UK in all three disciplines. There certainly seemed to be some concern about Britain's performance.

fabretti18

Just checking

Almost Canadian

The data from comparisons of countries show that class size is far less important that those in the UK and Canada believe it is for educational performance.

iaink

True, classes in Japan for example are huge. On the otherhand social diversity is much less wide and discipline is far tighter, and its almost the default position that kids will have extra tuition outside of school too to ensure that they perform well.

I dont have too much concern about education in Canada, and one study is just one study/report and not something to put too much store in one way or the other.

My experience is that the difference in real terms between being deemed 5th in the world and 15th is vanishingly small.

My own view is that what really makes a difference in how most kids do is not so much what the school does but how much the parents are involved. I guess we too are horrible parents who stand over our kids and make sure the work gets done. Its our experience that the public schools here teach only about 75% of the curriculum in any given year and that its well worth investing $15 in the grade whatever curriculum books to ensure that the gaps get filled.

If living in Canada means parents are happier and better able to spend time and money on their kids, then kids will do "better". If parents are miserable living in Canada then kids will likely suffer as a result, and there is not a lot the school system can do about it. The focus here does seem to be on making well rounded young adults rather than strictly focusing on academic performance, but most of the young canadians I know seem reasonably well educated and decent people, so in that unscientific way the results are positive.

Almost Canadian

I agree with everything you have stated here.

Maybe I am a poor parent but I simply believe that bright kids will do well and not so bright kids will do not so well irrespective of how "good" the school is. I have met too many lawyers, doctors, engineers, etc. that attended the "best" Universities and are not very good at their profession, and too many others that attended "bad" Universities that are very good at their profession to lead me to the conclusion that such matters should only concern "Pringle wearing, Volvo drivers" to steal from Billy Connolly.

dbd33

Surely the ability to hold down a prestigious job without being any good at it is exactly what is provided by attendance at a good university. For example, I think the parents of George Bush the younger, got very good value for their money.