This month for students returning to the classroom there will be a few changes to the curriculum and most notably to grad requirements.
The school system is having students only take literacy and math skills exams, as opposed to the broader set of government exams students have been writing for decades.
I have mixed feelings. I can understand the desire to have some kind of standardized, quantifiable data to make sure all students are getting their basic education.
I recall taking a district-wide English test back in Grade 10 where I had to figure out from the context of questions what “clauses” meant.
I realized that the teacher – hands down the worst one I ever had – neglected to cover this material, mostly because he’d leave the room for most of class, leaving me to answer other students’ questions.
It was a factor in making me want to be a teacher.
I’m glad I changed my mind, though, because I’d be frustrated now with the never-ending changes in how students are taught and assessed, to say nothing of increasing demands on teachers to support the demand for data, teaching to the test and so on.
As I said, I understand the desire for standards, but I’ve long held a grudge against the old provincial examinations.
I was in the second cohort of Grade 12 students that wrote the tests. All semester, I’d held an A average in history, my favourite class with my favourite teacher, but I made the mistake of cramming too hard, leaving myself exhausted and ultimately losing my A by something ridiculous like half a percentage point.
In contrast, my friend, Pat, had failed but applied his photographic memory and crammed in advance, coasted by and raised his overall grade to a C minus, much to the chagrin of our teacher.
To this day, I can still recall much of what I learned in class, and I have no doubt I’d fare better than my friend if we were to take the test today. At the time though, the only thing that mattered was my grade.
If I were in high school now, I’d be quite happy to say goodbye to the tests and never see them again, but, as this is public education, you never know what the future will bring.
