The Final Answer

In my last post I stated that "Almost all restrictions around content, programming for students with special needs, out-dated time-tabling requirements and the like need to be eliminated."

What was I thinking? Let me tell you. If you ask teachers what they need the answer is always the same. They need more time! More time to plan proper differentiated instruction, more time to create common formative assessments with their peers, more time to communicate properly with parents, more time to pursue effective PD within their schools and occasionally outside of the their schools. 

There are, however, two significant barriers to this solution that would yield results in the school, classroom, and the individual student. 

1) Public Opinion thinks that teachers already get far too much time off as it is. Guess what? The public is correct. Teachers get a ridiculous amount of time off, and any teacher that does not humbly and meekly acknowledge this fact when asked or confronted by it is doing the entire profession a disservice. We do not necessarily need to apologize for the fact that we get too much time off, but we do not to acknowledge and graciously admit that we are quite spoiled in this regard. 

We are Paid by the Public and Their Opinion of us Matters

We need to acknowledge it because how is the public supposed to understand that teachers, who already get so much time off, need more time??? I think part of the solution is self-evident. The long holidays should be moderately trimmed in order to find some of the professional working, non-instructional time. How's that for an unpopular, but ultimately correct solution?

Teachers know what is needed, and we need to be willing to give a little in order to get what we need. There are many ways this could be implemented: Re-structuring the school year so that it runs a little bit further into Summer, so that there is more non-instructional time in the school year is one way that I can think of. 

because there is a bigger more ominous barrier to getting teachers the time that they need

2) The cost of education is immense, and there is probably going to be less money coming into schools, not more, so how are we supposed to function when faced with the economic reality of education?

Let's just assume we won't be getting more money for education.

There are answers. Those answers are capture in the first sentence of this post. Imposed restrictions from above need to be lessened. The province should set bench-marks of minimum requirements, the ministry of education can share assessments that will identify when students are not meeting learning objectives, and schools can be given the freedom to program and plan for those students in a way that they deem appropriate. If students do not need six periods of "Language Arts" instruction, why should this be a criteria set by a provincial authority? If students do need seven or ten periods of math instruction per week, why are schools not given the freedom to program for these students and their needs? Give schools and school boards the freedom to plan, program and schedule in the way that they deem appropriate for their students. 

If the province and the ministry get serious about loosening their controls over how a school operates then there needs to be another avenue of accountability. Accountability based on academic benchmarks set by the Province that schools are responsible for enabling every student to achieve. 

I may or may not continue this rant in future posts. Until then, you're welcome for having the answers!!