Library Staff Cuts: A Review

            Recently in The Chignecto school board in Nova Scotia the librarian were let go as part of an attempt to resolve issuers from a budget cut. You can read an article on it here. This means that all the schools in the school board will no longer have a working Liberian in the schools. The article states that the libraries will stay open, however this is not 100% known.

Sex? A Healthy Sexuality Resource: Reflection 5

In class we discussed how sexual education is being taught in schools and our experiences with sex education when we were in school. When it came down to it the experiences were not great. Many facts were left out and most people from out class were taught the bare minimum, while some had not been taught any sexual education at all. This interested me because sexual education is something that I believe should be much more important in schooling.

Ideal High School: Reflection 4

In class we created our versions of what we believe to be the “perfect high school”. This was a fun activity that also helped do demonstrate some forms of critical pedagogy. This activity helped us think and reflect upon our own high school experiences and what we thought could possibly make it better for high schools today. The lessons helped us use our own critical thinking to make ways for high school students to think critically easier.

Best Friend Ban: A Review

Recently in the United States there has been some banning of “best friends’ in schools. I stumbled upon this new ban that is happening while watching my usual YouTube videos. You can watch the clip here and the article about the ban here.

I agree with all the points that are made during the video. In my opinion banning having “best friends” isn’t going to do anything productive. To me it seems like a way to over shelter children. The purpose of the ban is to protect children from the pain of losing friends. I don’t see how losing a best friend is really all that bad of a thing, everyone loses a friend at some point in their life, and I hardly believe that anyone is traumatically scarred from it, at least very few people. One the other hand I see how the ban would encourage children to work in groups better and not to rely on one friend in particular, but I don’t believe a ban in necessary for that.

Matilda: A Review

When I was younger one of my favourite movies (and books) was Matilda. I remember my dad read the novel by Roald Dahl to me when I was in elementary school and later when the movie came out I watched it on repeat because I loved it so much. At the time the movie and book was just something that I found fun and light-hearted. I liked that Matilda was around my age and loved to read like I did as a child. Today looking back on Matilda I see how it is more than just an adorable story about a little girl who comes to stand up for herself, but really reflects on teaching styles.

Web better than parents for sex ed, some teens report: Review

After I wrote my reflection about the class discussion we had about sexual education in schools I decided to do some research about how well Canada is doing with this subject. I had some high hopes that the education was doing better than it was when I was in junior high and high school, but as it turns out my hopes were nothing other than hopes. I found this article that documents the results from a study done in Ontario that was meant to find how much teenagers knew about sexual education, and the results were not great. If the test given to the students in the study was a real test most of the students would not have passed it, something I find very disheartening.

Schools should be open to cellphones in class: A Review

            A few months ago I was watching the news on television when one of the topics that came up was cell phones in the class room. At the time I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it but over the past few weeks I find myself going back and thinking about what I watched that one night. I went out in search of the news article and found it on the Globe and Mail website. I found this article very interesting. It talks about more than one side to the issue of kids using cell phones in schools instead of either agreeing with it, or disagreeing.

Paulo Freire: Reflection 3

Paulo Freire

Paulo Freire was a Brazilian educator and theorist who introduced the theory of “problem posing” education. He strongly critiqued the way that most institutions taught and the way the education was occurring in society. He believed that education should be questioned and that it should not simply be supplied information. Freire felt that there should be a strong relationship between the teacher and the students and that all students should be successful. Problem posing education focuses on discussion and becomes much less oppressive toward the students. His theories of education eventually led to what is now called “critical pedagogy”. 

            Problem posing education is a form of education that creates the teacher and the student to be equal. The teacher does not simply supply the information and an “all-knowing” person to the student, but rather supplies the information through other means such as discussion and in a way that the teacher is also learning from the student. This form of education is meant to specifically help the student in their life, and not just a set of predetermined outcomes. There is not a set time frame that topics must be covered by; the next topic begins when the student fully comprehends the first topic. This is something that is very unique to this form of education and very helpful for the students. If a person is not grasping a concept then the concept will be taught until it is fully learned. Evaluation of students is not done in the typical tests and papers, but is also done in more non-formal ways, such as discussion. This helps students who learn in different ways and gives everyone a better chance in doing well in their subjects

Afro-Centric Schools: Reflection 2

The appearance of Afro-centric schools has become more and more popular over the past couple of years. While they are mainly turning up in larger cities they have become news around the entire nation. Opinions on the matter of these Afro-centric schools range in great degrees. Some feel they are very important, others think they are unnecessary and many see both arguments and are unsure about the situation. There have been debates, like the one that we watched in class that end up becoming very heated. As everyone does agree that there are issues with the curriculum and that the African-Canadian student population does need some help no one can agree on what is the best way to fix the situation.

            The purpose of the Afro-centric schools in Ontario is to help African-Canadian students in that area. Studies have shown that African-Canadian students have not shows great efforts or do well in the typical education system. “A 1993 report on the old Toronto school board found that the graduation rates for black students was 44 per cent and the dropout rate 42 per cent” (Dei). These statistics show that something is not right with the system and with the help of Afro-centric schools it has been proven that the curriculum is a factor. The typical curriculum in Canada is a Euro-centric system, meaning that it is taught through the ideas of that of the Europeans while the aspects from other cultures are left on the back burner. The Afro-centric schools use the same curriculum but add in aspects from African cultures. This gives African-Canadian children their own histories and shows them important historical figures that they can relate to better than in the Euro-centric system.   

Cultural Capital: Reflection 1

Cultural capital is a term that refers to the social and cultural goods that a person has. What is considered a good cultural capital is decided by the values of that society. While cultural capital does not only deal with a person’s wealth it can play a big part in their cultural capital. Gender and family history are other large factors in a person’s cultural capital. In education cultural capital is a large influence in how well someone succeeds.  There are many factors in a person’s life that can help them succeed or fail and these are all considered cultural capital. Although it is something that may not be thought of often cultural capital can strongly influence the education of children throughout their entire lives.

            Cultural capital is a term that sociologist Pierre Bourdieu brought to the forefront. Bourdieu was a sociologist who was particularly interested in the effects of cultural capital and how if affected people, rather than solely economics.

            Gender is a part of cultural capital that plays a very large role. From a young age boys are girls are trained to be better at certain things. Bourdieu talks about this being prominent in early education. He mentions that young girls often succeed more than young boys at first in school. This is because girls are taught to be gentle, calm and docile therefore being open to learning whereas young boys are more rambunctious and have not been trained to learn as well as young girls have been. Bourdieu’s example of cultural capital and gender in this way is often very true. Both of my parents work in elementary schools and the majority of the students that do well in the earlier grades are female, especially in reading and writing. While this is not always the case and there are young male students that do well as well and young girls that may not do as well it is a pattern that is observed year after year.