Me and the Duffster

There has been a story on Prince Edward Island recently that has been getting a lot of play. During his maiden speech in the Senate Mike Duffy made a comment about the Premier of PEI agreeing with the Premier of Newfoundland and he used what he thought was a witticism to make his point.

It went something like this, he suggested P. E. I. Premier Robert Ghiz may get the "shaft" by getting in bed with the Premier of Newfoundland, Danny Williams, and that the sight of two politicians in bed is "a grotesque scene." On the Guardian and the CBC websites the postings are about equal and generally fall into two categories.

1. Some think its funny and tell the others to lighten up, it was an obvious attempt at humour to illustrate a point.

2. Others think it was unforgivably offensive and think Mike Duffy should resign or be kicked out of the Senate.

I tend to agree with the first and mildly think that at the very worst it was an error in judgement, but only because of the climate of political and every other kind of correctness prevalent in society today. I have to ask the question, why have we progressed to the point where the expression of a simple point of view brings such a personal and righteous attack. Surely to God anyone reading the full text can understand that it was simply a metaphor used to describe Danny Wiliams sometimes outrageous and confrontational behaviour and that anyone who gets to close to him will surely be tarred with the same brush. Here is a sample from the Guardian blogs on the issue.

Donna from Alberta writes: Good for Duffy for telling the scandal mongering media to get lost. It is about time someone did it and Duffy is just the person to do it.

Ron Blacquierre from Stratford, PEI writes: Mr. Duffy is turning out to be nothing but an unelected blow hard who was appointed by the PM to act as one of those little yappy dogs that nip at your ankles.

Mervin Hollingsworth from Saskatoon, Sask. writes: This is typical of the media in Canada. They are like a pack of mad dogs with a bone.

Taxpayer from Charlottetown, PEI writes: How do you spell disappointing. D U F F Y

I am afraid that I am like the Duffster, totally understand him, and am going to wander through life with a puzzled look on my face wondering "what the hell was that all about". If everyone fits into one of the two camps I wonder as I draw my last breaths if I will think "I wish I thought the opposite", I don't think I will, and I don't believe I was bad person because if it. It depresses me though that this is where we find ourselves.

Lets Blow Some More Money

Its always the same thing when it comes to education, just like in Montague. Put up a new building and it will mean a better education for the students, problem is the two don't equate.

The issue is the methods we use to educate our children, not the facility they attend. Until we are able to grasp with the issue, that in our education system, the quality of a childs education is largely dependant upon the quality of the person at the front of the room. Until we deal with that no progress towards excellence in education will be made and all we will have, is another $20 million of taxpayers money spent on another building.

There is not one single person on PEI, who when examing the years they spent in school cannot divide the teachers they had into about three categories.

1. Those teachers that were able to excel in bringing the best out of their students and ensuring they learned something from their time spent. (Good teachers)

2. Those teachers who drew a paycheck, had a job teaching, did not inspire anyone and never pushed anyone towards anything but mediocrity. (Mediocre teachers)

3. Those teachers who were unable to really get to grips with creating a classroom in which kids could learn anything. (Bad teachers)

And if people are honest, anyone can look back and put names to the teachers that fall into each category.

My Grade 12 teachers:

The first was Mr. Buglas who excelled at seeing that everyone in his class learned and enjoyed the experience. He taught history and English, he was pretty strict but everyone respected him and enjoyed his classes. (Good teacher)

Another teacher Mr. Huculak was well liked because you never had to do much, and he inflated grades. He taught Chemistry and Physics, he told interesting stories to pass the day, but nobody learned much, and no one did well on departmental exams. (Mediocre teacher)

Then there was Mr Frizzel, what a piece of work, mad all the time and frustrated with the students, had a mean streak and just couldn't get the concepts of algebra and triginometry across. (Bad teacher)

We all have had a string of teachers that fell into one of these categories, and your school career pretty well parallelled the hand you were dealt. If you had the misfortune to get a bad teacher in a subject like math or english, then you didn't have a good foundation to build on when you were shuffled along in the system. I was lucky enough to be able to get through school whether I had a teacher or not as I was a pretty good student, but what a tragedy for those who had learning difficulties and ended up leaving school after Grade 9.

Here is my teacher scorecard:

Grade 1 - Mrs Whitney - I lucked out, she was a grandmotherly woman who loved children and had the patience of Job (Good teacher)

Grade 2 & 3 - Mrs Lemon - I think she had some family problems, because its the only thing I can come up with that would explain her little breakdowns, she left about 3/4 of the way through the second year for reasons that weren't discussed around children, but she was still OK (Mediocre teacher)

Grade 4 - Miss Meintz, all the boys were in love with her and tried really hard to please, because she was cute and nice, and worked real hard at helping us along. (Good teacher)

Grade 5 - Miss Johnston, I believe she was really Adolph Eichmann in drag, spiteful, unbalanced and scary, with a bony chest from which two long cucumber shaped breasts drooped that gathered in a pouch just above her middle. I know from personal experience because she always picked me out and hugged me hard, pressing my nose into the depression between the vegetables aaaargh!!! If only it had been in a residential school, I could have been set for life. (Bad, No, Really bad teacher)

Grade 6 - Miss Dean, was not really a teacher, she was more of a bundle of nerves wrapped in a 200 pound body, who lived life as a character in a soap opera, there was a lot of drama here, and the class spent a lot of time blinking, with a stunned look on our faces wondering, what the hell is she talking about. But I have to sympathy with her, she didn't do well in the lottery. She ended up with flaming red hair and buck teeth, kind of reminded me of a beaver wearing a Ronald MacDonad wig. (Bad teacher)

Grade 7 - Miss Thomas - A Sergeant major of a woman who reminded you of Miss Hathaway from the Beverly Hillbillies, there was no time for fooling around in this class, but you were going to learn, and learn well, whatever it was she was trying to get across, and as a side benefit, you learned how to jump to attention and click your heels together when she entered the room. (Good . No, an excellent teacher)

Grade 8 - Mr Brock, bless his soul, was a dear man who was in his retirement year, was completely worn out and was not in good health. A short rotund man, he would actually settle back in his chair and fall asleep, we liked him so much the class would be quiet so we didn't wake him. I don't recall him actually teaching us anything for an entire year. The Principal understood this so he would rotate himself and Mr Van Der Geer in and out of our classroom to help out and at least conduct a few classes. (No teacher - he didn't fit any other category because he just didn't teach.)

Grade 9 - I moved schools three times that year so can't remember anything.

Grade 10 - Mr. Cairns, once again I really lucked out, he was a no nonsense, but funny intelligent man who could teach anybody anything and made every kid in his class feel special, if ever a person was born to be a teacher, this was your man (Good, No an - excellent teacher)

Grade 11 - same people as Grade 12

So thats it
Good teachers 5
Mediocre teachers 2
Bad teachers 3
No teacher 1

This probably approximates what the experience was for most of us.

Now here is the kicker, I can say that the type of building that housed the schools had zero effect on my education. Grade 1,2 and 3 were spent in renovated barracks on an Air Force base, no gymnasium, but we had a big schoolyard. But what a wonderful place, there was a big depression in the playground that filled with water every spring and formed a big pond, we all dragged hunks of wood to school and constructed primitive raft things where that we could play pirate on. The school was nice and warm though and we had time to dry out between launchings.

Grades 4 through 8 was in a school that reminded me of Belfast, except the gym was in the basement and was about 1/3 the size of the one in Belfast, but only had an 8 foot ceiling.
Grade 9 started in Richmond Hill in a huge three story old brick building, continued in a sprawling Junior High with lots of facilities and ended in a large Grade 9-13 school that had 14 grade 9 classes. Grade 10 same place.
Grade 11 and 12 was in Battleford, an old three story building with Grade 4 and 5 on the first two floors and 10 - 12 on the third. I never questioned why the odd configuration of age levels but I don't ever remember it causing any trouble.

Sure new buildings are nice but all they really are, is monuments to those who pushed, worked, and argued enough to carry the day. We see this in the exercise that took place in Montague and is underway in Souris, but its folly, because the momentum is kept up by the notion that a big new school = better education, repeated with the same conviction as the ancients who insisted the sun revolves around the earth.

It has been proven time and time again that charter schools that have the flexibility to introduce learning methods which transform the role of teacher, to facilitator of learning, turn out children with measurable higher levels of educational achievement. But unfortunately this challenges the status quo and promotes fear mongering by the educators whose ox is being gored.

As for a K-12 school, excellent idea you can even go and see it in action at PEI's #1 education facility for turning out achievers, Grace Christian in Charlottetown and it works very well.

As for older buildings being renovated or added to, absolutely the way to go. Seems to work fine for Oxford, Harvard and The Sorbonne where if you tried to tear down old buildings you would be drawn and quartered, and they seem to turn out some pretty fine minds from buildings hundreds of years old.

A successful school isn't the building, its the people in it.