Canada: an education superpower
 

Hi did anyone read this?:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40708421

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

I have now, and am gobsmacked- if Canada is in the top tier, then God only knows how bad it is elsewhere in the world.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

If 55% have been through higher education, explains some of the difficulty in finding jobs if one has not.

Looking at what my wife went through in high school vs me, even 20 years ago it appears BC was doing something right.

Trying to do high school level upgrading now and well high school level classes are far harder here.

I kind of think the education in Canada may not be half bad.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

Canada is a super power in generating income from education. WES, IQAS, Language tests to get to Uni, application costs to have your education recognized, ridiculous fees for memberships. Listen Canadians....if you fall ill in Uk, don't get treatment in Uk, our doctors and nurses are not upto scratch according to your experts. FFS! By the way, stop trying to recruit these second class professionals in UK in order to prop up your own inadequate medical cover in Canada. Talk about double standards, professionals don't like being forced back to education to de-skill. Rant over.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

What are you on about?

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

I'm sure things have changed since I was at school :lol:
But when I first knew the stepkids I had the impression they were at a level in school much more advanced than I was at that age.

But then ask them to find anywhere on a map outside of North America - Canada, even - and they would have likely got the wrong continent or guessed wildly.

They believed that Russia was always cold, England always wet and London permanently shrouded in fog.

I exaggerate a little but perhaps it illustrates a difference which I'm not sure how to describe.

I'm tempted to say the difference between educational standards and knowledge. Or something. :unsure:

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

And how many people in the UK think Canada is always cold everywhere?!

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

Good point, but at least they probably know where it is. ;)

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

My daughter is starting an engineering degree next month here in Canada. I believe her tuition fees are approximately half in dollars what those in most parts of the UK will pay in pounds each year. And, as I understand it, engineering is one of the more expensive subjects.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

It's almost mandatory to get a higher education in canada, without it you will only be expected to work for minimum wages, which actually won't be too bad by next year at 15$ an hour

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

I would concur broadly with the article.

I moved from the UK nearly thirty years ago to Toronto and both of my kids went through the Canadian education system and have done extremely well.

My relatives kids have all done very well in terms of education.

Probably first generation immigrant syndrome.

Teachers have a higher statues and are better paid in Canada compared to UK.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

A lot of people in the UK think Canada is the same as or an extension of the US!

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

15/hr is still not enough to live in Metro Vancouver...lol..

But yes pretty much impossible in Canada to get a decent job without college of some sort.

All one has to do is look at some of the programs schools offer, many of those jobs really dont need higher education.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

A lot assume it to be an extension of the UK too. The Queen and all...:lol:

America Lite is often not an inaccurate description though.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

Just getting something off my chest, probably has little to do with the original post, call it thread drift?...😉

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

I think that's about right. It's like thinking Flanders and Wallonia are both Belgium; people in one or both of them might disagree but the rest of the world will go along with it.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

Really? That sounds a smidge anecdotal/Geoff-hunch to me- how can you generalise like that? Stability of maintaining a job is way less in Canada
I presume you meant status...again- justify that comment please

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

I like the statue idea personally.

.................................................. .....

Very odd that...I had Stinkypup quoted but it was showing Snowy. I over-typed Snowy with Stinky and Snowy still showed up.

I edited again to say that I definitely had Stinky in there but Snowy was showing up and guess what. This time Stinky did show up. :confused:

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

Yeah- the Stinky virus seems to be embedding on quite a few PCs at the moment- I would run an antivirus programme and that should clear me off the site.....


You wish :lol:

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

I'm a UK teacher and have neither statues or status!

One of my cleverest kids recently asked me if Venice was a country, so I really don't think that their grasp of geography is any better than their Canadian counterparts! (Not my fault though.... I'm history not geography!!)

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

I have some children who attended school in Canada. They complained relentlessly about history saying there really isn't any; it's the Plains of Abraham every year. I asked how come, since there's so little history, they didn't score 100% every time but that was thought unhelpful.

They did their parents proud, all getting through high school without being pregnant, but none of them knows Greek and only one Latin so I don't know that you could say they're educated.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

That rang a bell, (Canadian educated). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Venice

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

I'd love to give her the benefit of the doubt but I really don't think she was referring to historical Venice! 😂
Top marks for combining the humanities though!!

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

Not sure I'd be much help with the Greek and Latin... ancient languages aren't my strong point!
I am a little twitchy about the lack of history in schools, but my poor son gets enough history edutainment at home to last him a lifetime!

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

I don't know about Canada but here a kid who gets out of School with basic literacy and numeracy is definitely a winner.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

My wife is a teacher and I put her on a pedestal. Is that like being a statue?;)

Teaching in Canada is generally better paid than in the UK. It is thus a sought after career. Whether society at large regards teachers as having higher status in Canada vs the UK I couldn't say. My wife's experience in teaching in the UK (2000-2004) leads her to believe that teachers are more highly regarded in Canada.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

You only need 3 languages English, Football and Love.

After getting an "E" for GCSE french I have never deviated from that.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

:sad_smile:

What was I saying about UK teachers having low status?

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

iirc, I achieved "unclassified failure" in French at the CSE level. I suppose my teacher might have been surprised that, shortly thereafter, I married a unilingual francophone with whom I then had the marginally enlightened children.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

I have 3 children in Primary school in Ontario and I have been somewhat disappointed with what I feel are gaps in their education here. They are entering grades 4 and 5 and have not been taught history other than pioneers (no actual historical events), no handwriting and no computer studies at all. My eldest did all those things by Year 1 in the UK.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

Do schools still teach cursive?


Seems to be a dying style of writing.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

Cursing. :sneaky:

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

It died out in the UK years ago. In fact when I was lecturing in the US, I couldn't give hand written in-class exams as I couldn't read their cursive writing.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

In the late 60's and early 70's when my mother was secretary to the provincial minister of education she received letters that were improperly composed, mis-spelled, and lacking proper grammar. ... from teachers. That could be the start of the going to the dogs timeline.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

We learned it in the 80's in California elementary schools, I think around 4th grade, but by the time Middle school and high school came around, teachers wanted homework/class work printed and reports/essays etc typed.

I can remember most of the letters in cursive, but its sloppy, hard to read, and writing that way is too slow, I can print far faster, but these days, not much needs to be written in general anymore.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

I wonder what the logic is behind not teaching cursive. At school, my kids learn drama, dancing and have PE 3 times a week, plus something called DPA (Daily Physical Activity) which means jumping up and down or something, but the powers that be don't think it's important that they know how to sign their names to a job contract or mortgage application as adults. We've taught them cursive at home, but they are not encouraged to use it at school. I find it odd.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

We learned how to write early on, probably grade 3. Somewhere I still have my report cards; "Caretaker's problem with writing may be due to the way he holds his pencil." I think in grade 5 we started writing with fountain pens and bottles of ink then the cartridge type, (NO bright blue ink!).

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

I've never understood these grade/year references. :o

I'm not sure when we started but up to age 10 I was in a school where we did Tables, reading (including going to the head too read with him) handwriting, we had electric bells and wrote with biros.

The family moved part way through last year in primary school - my dad got a better job - and after Christmas I started going to the new school before going on to Comprehensive/High.

The school bell was hand held and they wouldn't let us use biros or even fountain pens. Scratch Pens they called them but they appear to be called dip pens on google.

https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/t/ink-...d-43992456.jpg

Inkblots everywhere. :frown:

That school was like going back in time by a couple of decades.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

Depends on the region - I just had a look at Alberta's and it is higher than the UK, and I would say, substantially so. Canada, the US, and Australia all pay their teachers a lot more than the UK does.

Teaching, however, does have ENORMOUS turnover, and a lot of new teachers (something like half) quit after their first 3-5 years.

Re: Canada: an education superpower
 

Not trying to be overly contentious but what do you mean by "highly regarded"? And, by who? And why is being "highly regarded" important?