Put Away The Scissors

  10,000 of anything is a lot. That many teachers being taken out of the Ontario school system is astronomical. Add, on average, eight more students into the classroom according to the Minister of Education. What does that mean for our children? It means that the leaders of this province are setting them up to fail. And they will. How could they not?

  As I type this my son has twenty-seven students in his class. All at varying levels of knowledge. In a seventy-five minute class, there are approximately sixty minutes of teaching and fifteen that is devoted to one-on-one help as the class does homework and the teacher has a few spare seconds to help those who didn't quite get the lesson. 

  Now let's do the math. That is under one minute per student the teacher has to give them their undivided attention. What can she/he possibly show a student in under thirty seconds? Let me tell you what....NOTHING. And that's now. Add the eight students "average" increase and see the numbers plummet even more. Too bad for those students who need help or the teacher to go over it one more time. Sorry outta time.

  The blame can't be put on the teacher. Not in this case. Class sizes are already too large. And I get it money is tight and we need to start living within our means however.....not by cutting education. There must be other places pennies can be saved.

  When they cut funding to education parents are expected to step up and cover the shortfall. By that I mean tutors and online courses. Which is great if your parents can afford to do that. But the harsh reality is most can't. So we have a two-tier education system that penalizes the poor yet again. That continues the cycle of poverty perhaps for another generation. 

  Which brings me to my next question...does the government cuts to education make other programs need more money? If I can't get a well-paying job because my parents couldn't afford extra help for me and I can't get into secondary education won't the government at some point probably be helping me make ends meet? Or have me using their other programs? Like social services or subsidized housing or daycare? Are they not taking away from one to help me and putting it into something else to help me? Wouldn't you help more people by putting more money into education? Makes sense to me.

  I have no answers. I can't balance my own budget let alone give advice to the province. But I am 100% certain that cutting funding to education is a lose-lose situation. One that we all will feel for many years to come!

  Ang