French Will Set Me Apart............Not!

September 24, 2004
As someone who will soon graduate with a French/Education degree, you would think I would be happy about the government’s decision to implement a mandatory second language program into the school system. This means I should stand an awesome chance of getting a job right after graduation. I should be happy! However, I am a little leery of the long-term consequences of this decision.
I have always viewed French as second priority-a subject that academically successful students enrol in for a challenge. As a straight “A” student, I loved the excitement of learning something completely unique. However, the more advanced I became in French, the sloppier I became in English-especially when it came to writing. I would often incorporate the French spelling of a word in my English essay or vice versa. This may not seem like a big problem, but take someone like little Johnny who is struggling from day one to write appropriately in his first language, and add another language to the equation. This kid is bound to be overwhelmed with frustration!
From another standpoint, if we all become fluent in a second language, what is going to set us apart from the competition in the job market? I will not lie to you, when I started my French degree; I did so hoping I would have a chance of working for the government if teaching fell through. Five years into my degree, I think I stand as much of a chance getting a government position as the guy sitting next to me. Just think about it!
Fifty years ago, it used to be enough just to have a high school diploma. Soon, everybody was graduating from high school so job qualifications had to be increased. It became the trend to attend post-secondary institutions. Now with increased enrolment on post-secondary campuses, you need a diploma AND a few years of experience to even get an initial interview with the big corporations. How much more qualified can we become?
If we continue increasing the qualifications needed for jobs, we will soon discover that people are spending way too many years getting an education. How do we stop this cycle before it gets out of hand?

What Makes a Teacher Different From a Doctor or a Lawyer?

September 24, 2004
What can I say besides the fact that statistics never lie? I have always felt that a person’s GPA should not be the sole bearing on whether they are accepted to a professional university program such as Education. It has been proven repeatedly that “experts” in Math, Science, Social, English, French, Drama, and Music often are not the best teachers.
It is no secret that the University of Lethbridge has the best education program in the province of Alberta. However, I know many deserving students who never even are considered for admission into this faculty due to lower GPA’s than the cut-off. I can’t help but wonder how many excellent future teachers are being forced to get their degree from another institution simply because they can’t make the grade.
If only there was some way, we could change the current system of admission to include an interview component where everyone must demonstrate a certain amount of volunteer experience working with children. In this respect, hopefully you would get the best well-rounded students in the program, and not necessarily the smartest. Having a good grasp of the material you are teaching is important, but becomes useless if you have no idea how to communicate this information to your students. Just think about the process of applying to medical or law school. Letters of reference, a certain amount of volunteer experience, and a personal interview are all common requests to even be considered a candidate. We, as teachers, are just as important to the future of society. Why don’t we have to go through an identical screening process?
I know implementing these changes requires more funding, manpower, and most certainly time, but I believe the end results would be extremely rewarding. Just some food for thought!

First Year Teachers

September 23, 2004
After graduation from university, everybody encounters difficulty finding that first job out in the workforce. When I was admitted to the University of Lethbridge with the goal of becoming a teacher, I consulted practicing teachers on what major they thought would land me a job the fastest. They volunteered answers such as Math, Science, Computers, French, and Music. As an honor student in high school, I knew I could teach just about anything. However, teaching math or computers for the rest of my life just didn’t sound appealing, and well I gave up piano in grade three so music was also out of the question. In the end, I decided to try a French degree. To prevent boredom, I also took on the addition of a Science minor. I wanted to basically take classes from all disciplines. After all, at the elementary level, you teach everything.
Even though I sound like a hot commodity for a job almost anywhere, I am preparing for the worst. A fellow French major who just graduated in April, has been unable to find permanent work since then. This highlights for me the competitiveness of this career. Having said this, I can somewhat understand why 60% of teachers fall under the umbrella category of “teachers as technicians”. Once you get a job as a first year teacher, you already realize you’re on probation. This can be a very stressful situation. Often, you’ll do whatever it takes to please your “supervisors” (superintendents, principals, and senior colleagues). Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long to establish a routine teaching practice. If one gets too comfortable with just following orders, pretty soon the dream of becoming a leader in the field of education is nothing more than an unrealistic dream. Nobody expects people to wake up one morning with a whole new plan of action. If you do, you risk shocking your colleagues. If they decide they don’t like the new you, you could see the door sooner than you think.
Conformity to the norm is sometimes done in the name of job security. I think everybody wants to be that great teacher that everyone talks about. They want to be seen as indispensable because of their great ideas, and of course change everything that is wrong with the system of education as it stands. At the same time, great ideas are nothing unless you stand in a position to implement them. You have to have the support of fellow colleagues as well as the ambition.
I have the dream of being a future leader in the education system-a so-called “teacher as autonomous professional”. However, I hope the jobs and experience I acquire in the real world give me that opportunity. If not, I will risk falling into the “teacher as technician” category. Therefore, let’s agree that “teachers as technicians” aren’t necessarily bad teachers, they may have only lacked the opportunity to bring about enormous change.

After Graduation

September 22, 2004
Another issue addressed by Arthur Slade in his book “TRIBES” is the ever present family and peer pressure adolescents face when deciding what they want to be when they grow up. Percy struggled to gain his father’s approval throughout childhood, and figured if he became the person he thought his father wanted him to be----a great anthropologist, he would finally win his father’s love and acceptance.
I think Percy’s whole situation is a real tragedy. Feeling unloved by your parents has got to be so isolating. After all, if you don’t have family to count on when things are confusing and difficult, where are you supposed to turn?
Grade twelve is a milestone year for many teens. You are finally considered adults in society. As such, you face the task of choosing a career that will allow you to become a functional member of society. For me, when people brought up the subject of what I wanted to be when I grew up, the answer was almost immediate—a teacher. However, I know some teens struggle with this question indefinitely. Not having an answer to this “simple” question can make anyone feel really stupid. Under immense pressure, teens often apply to post-secondary schools without a clear long-term goal. Society simply dictates this is the next logical step in life, and nobody wants to be left behind.
How do they know what they're taking you ask? Well, often these confused teens register in programs their parents, friends, and/or teachers recommend. Once in these programs, they feel obligated to finish (even if they don’t like it) because a lot of money was invested or even worse, others see them as that amazing doctor, lawyer, psychologist etc and they do not want to let them down. Their own happiness is thrown to the wayside, and they live the life that parents, friends, or teachers planned for them.
I believe this entire sad state of affairs is preventable. At the high school level, teachers and guidance counsellors should make a point of highlighting a student’s strengths and weaknesses. They should sit down with students at the beginning of high school and help them plan their timetables to highlight possible careers they want to pursue in the future. Leave as many doors open as possible, but do not over-challenge them to the point of becoming a dropout. Then, monitoring of their progress should be done at least once a year to make sure they are on track and keeping their options open. By grade twelve, it should be a graduation requirement to meet with the guidance counsellor and discuss the future beyond high school. Advice and assistance should be given at this meeting to ensure every student has confidence they can contribute to society in the best way possible after graduation. If post-secondary school is the next obvious step, students should be able to approach teachers with school application questions. Besides, who is more familiar with the school system then teachers themselves?
I know this would not exactly be easy to implement. Chances are it would be extremely costly and time consuming. However, it is a real tragedy that some teenagers never realize their full potential because they did not have the necessary support networks in high school to reach an informed decision about their future.

The Purpose of School Groups (or Clubs)

September 20, 2004
So, I was unable to put down the book “TRIBES” all weekend, and actually finished the entire book about an hour ago. Looking back at the predictions that I made in my last entry, this book was really well written. At least from my perspective, it had suspense and the ending wasn’t a dead giveaway. From a sociological perspective, this book did an awesome job of depicting the “sorting machine” of high school at the student level. Every school has the Jocks, the Chess Club, the Miss Perfects, the Skaters, and other “groups”. In essence, they are all competitive in nature and struggle to share their schoolyard territory. However, by grade twelve graduation, these division lines fall to the wayside, and everybody hangs out with everybody else. The students realize this is the last event many of them will ever attend together and just merely enjoy each other’s company. The question I am posing for fellow readers is: What makes events like graduation so special that every one just gets along? All through our school years, we focus on belonging to certain groups only to have the group dynamics dissolve in the end? That makes no sense whatsoever! However, this “sorting” pattern continues to prevail in schools all over the world. In some ways, these group memberships may be the beginnings of forming an identity for ourselves-at a simplistic level. When we begin the “real” journey of self-discovery after high school, we must shed our simplistic identity in search of a more well-rounded identity that will holdfast beyond the gates of the schoolyard and give us some indication of lifelong goals and dreams as a functioning member of society.

Tribes-by Arthur Slade ( A Peer Recommendation)

September 17, 2004

Since I was unable to purchase the textbook for class until today, I took the advice of a fellow classmate, and decided to pick up the book “TRIBES” by Arthur Slade from the U of L library. From the moment I read the first page, I was hooked! Even though some of the anthropological terms may cause my brow to furrow from time to time, I love the raw and realistic perspective the main character (Percy) sheds on daily life occurrences in high school. Even though it is the polite thing to do, I think we all at some point get bored with the societal norm of sugar-coating things to be polite.
From the beginning, we learn that Percy tragically lost his father-who was an anthropologist. Even though I haven’t read many chapters, I believe Percy’s behaviour stems from his failure to fully grieve and accept his father’s passing. He acts the way he does in an attempt to carry on his father’s legacy-something most sons believe is the honorable thing to do. However, due to his age, he is somewhat misguided in his approach. Plus, if you are a professional scientist studying a certain “tribe”, you distance yourself to a certain extent with the goal of remaining objective. I believe Percy interacts with others the way he does to prevent future heartache and loss. Another sign that points to his failure of dealing with death appropriately. These are merely hunches though, you can agree to disagree if you’d like. I like to formulate predictions on stories before I dive to far into them to see how right I was or wasn’t. I’ve only read the first two chapters. We’ll see what comes to pass in the remainder of the novel.