Jensen
I just randomly searched 'Simon Jensen' on Google and found this letter he wrote to an editor of a magazine. Oh Jensen, I miss you. Best teacher.
Still Rewarding
In his recent editorial, Teaching Is Still a Rewarding Career, Registrar Joe Atkinson asserts that "this is... an exciting time for teachers... Professionally, we continue to learn more and more about how children learn and how to teach students more effectively." His authority for this? His own 35 years as an educator.
If we are that much smarter, why do we force children entering high school to make career choices at the age of 14? How do we justify forcing 15-year-olds to sit through 12 hours of literacy testing in two days, when we complain about sitting through staff meetings that last no more than two hours?
In the 70s we recognized that to teach more effectively we needed only to classify students, so that their specific needs could be addressed. Words like Basic Level courses, and General and Advanced were born. Vocational schools blossomed throughout the province and Life Skills became a teachable subject.
In the early 80s we thought we got it right with OSIS, in which every student advanced at his or her own pace, with plenty of spare time in the senior secondary years to concentrate on those really tough courses. It was recognized that smaller classes were needed to enable teachers to address an individual’s progress. OSIS and consistent funding provided a decade of stability.
Then came the unlamented "Transition Years" document. This was a laudable but unsuccessful attempt to ease teenage anxieties associated with the transition from elementary to secondary school, and to address the perceived inequity between students in Advanced level courses and those labelled General. Its passing was mourned by few.
We are now convinced that children will learn more effectively by making course content more difficult - setting standards or benchmarks - and by testing them continuously until they get it right. The Ministry of Education thinks that their policies are the most daring and innovative in decades, when in fact they resemble the emperor's new clothes.
We don’t know any more now about how children learn than we did 30 years ago. We don’t teach more effectively than we did 30 years ago, we just do it differently. How differently depends on how the political winds are blowing.
C’mon, Joe. If you’re going to force all the teachers in Ontario to subscribe to your magazine, the least you can do is to give us something more convincing to read.
Simon Jensen
Simon Jensen teaches Visual Arts at Cawthra Park Secondary School in Mississauga.
P.S. Does anyone know Mr. Jensen's website address?
Still Rewarding
In his recent editorial, Teaching Is Still a Rewarding Career, Registrar Joe Atkinson asserts that "this is... an exciting time for teachers... Professionally, we continue to learn more and more about how children learn and how to teach students more effectively." His authority for this? His own 35 years as an educator.
If we are that much smarter, why do we force children entering high school to make career choices at the age of 14? How do we justify forcing 15-year-olds to sit through 12 hours of literacy testing in two days, when we complain about sitting through staff meetings that last no more than two hours?
In the 70s we recognized that to teach more effectively we needed only to classify students, so that their specific needs could be addressed. Words like Basic Level courses, and General and Advanced were born. Vocational schools blossomed throughout the province and Life Skills became a teachable subject.
In the early 80s we thought we got it right with OSIS, in which every student advanced at his or her own pace, with plenty of spare time in the senior secondary years to concentrate on those really tough courses. It was recognized that smaller classes were needed to enable teachers to address an individual’s progress. OSIS and consistent funding provided a decade of stability.
Then came the unlamented "Transition Years" document. This was a laudable but unsuccessful attempt to ease teenage anxieties associated with the transition from elementary to secondary school, and to address the perceived inequity between students in Advanced level courses and those labelled General. Its passing was mourned by few.
We are now convinced that children will learn more effectively by making course content more difficult - setting standards or benchmarks - and by testing them continuously until they get it right. The Ministry of Education thinks that their policies are the most daring and innovative in decades, when in fact they resemble the emperor's new clothes.
We don’t know any more now about how children learn than we did 30 years ago. We don’t teach more effectively than we did 30 years ago, we just do it differently. How differently depends on how the political winds are blowing.
C’mon, Joe. If you’re going to force all the teachers in Ontario to subscribe to your magazine, the least you can do is to give us something more convincing to read.
Simon Jensen
Simon Jensen teaches Visual Arts at Cawthra Park Secondary School in Mississauga.
P.S. Does anyone know Mr. Jensen's website address?