Truth and Reconciliation Week: learning continues
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Truth and Reconciliation Week: learning continues

School Magazine  – 2022-09-26
if you want to learn more about what you can do to teach and talk to students about Truth and Reconciliation week, you can look beyond the Ministry of Education, whose preoccupation seems to be offering direct payments to parents for tutoring and training for future jobs that may. But, there is much out there that teachers and families can use to observe this week as it continues up to Orange Shirt Day this Friday September 30.

Ministry of propaganda dictates what to teach about the death of the Queen

William Paul  – 2022-09-20
York Region DSB stepped in a political puddle just after the death of Queen Elizabeth. Board staff wanted to ease back on tributes because, at about 124 000 students, there could be a wide range of reactions to her passing. The Ministry of Education said "no." Schools must teach about the "many contributions" made by her majesty.

What will new political leadership mean for education across Canada?

Doug Little  – 2022-09-14
Looking for a sketch of what's going on politically across the country? Search no further. Here is Doug Little's take on the life signs of education in each province and territory. There is new political leadership either coming or already in place in many parts of the country. What does that mean for education?

The Nazification of American education

Henry Giroux  – 2022-09-12
The crisis of education in the United States presents not only a danger to American democracy, but also advances the ideological and structural foundations for the emergence of a fascist state. The slide towards lawlessness and authoritarianism is now aided and abetted by educational policies that are repressive and dystopian, wedded to social control and the death of the social imagination

Poke the Tory bear!

William Paul  – 2022-09-06
With an 83 seat Tory majority chosen by 18 percent of eligible voters- you couldn’t be blamed for throwing up your hands and finding a safe place to weather the inevitable assaults on the public good: don’t poke the bear. The thing is - the opposite is true. Keep up the resistance - poke that Tory bear.

The eighteen percent Tory majority: what happened here?

William Paul  – 2022-06-09
There’s something happening here.” But it’s not Buffalo Springfield singing the song and not 1967, another dire time in history – it’s now and it’s Ontario where we have elected the same right-wing government for the second time in a row.

Schools, austerity & privatization in the pandemic era

Paul Bocking  – 2022-05-31
As we look back at the pandemic and look forward to the Ontario election let's remember that insufficient funding led to elementary schools with untenable class sizes and high schools with quad and octomesters. The result: learning gaps, long periods of virtual learning, and ‘disastrous’ hybrid learning in our schools.

We can’t afford 4 more years of Ford: Ontario Autism Coalition

Karen Bojti  – 2022-05-25
Autism advocacy is not for the faint of heart. Sure, we have gotten a lot of attention over the years. But what have we actually managed to change with a Ford government unwilling to listen? We can't afford for more years of obstruction and broken promises.

Fordwatch – Education: an election tool “for the people” to take on the Tories

School Magazine  – 2022-05-20
Governments often end up deserving to be defeated; the Ford government needs to be. It swaggered into  the legislature back in June 2018  with a cynical plan to dismantle fundamental services – “for the people”. If you'd like to see the back of the Tories, here's something you can use: FORDWATCH: EDUCATION with links to all the stories we’ve followed over the past tumultuous years. Updated: June 1, 2022

FORDWATCH

Susan Atkins  – 2022-05-19
Our list of worrisome activities of the Doug Ford government since the end of June, 2018. It's updated regularly. The last update was May 24, 2022

If you have information you'd like to share with us about the comings and goings of the Ford government, please email us at eatomag.18@gmail.com

Ontario election: leaders debate – we check facts

School Magazine  – 2022-05-18
We know the Ontario election, like all others, is about retail politics – how candidates might best appear to be doing what needs to be done without costing their constituents any more than they absolutely have to. We know that platforms have a sell-by date of June 2.

But could ever do with a grasp of the future that extends a bit beyond that sell-by date.

OHRC’s “Right to Read”: a reader’s guide

William Paul  – 2022-04-21
Reading is a human right; you can’t adequately participate in society without it - economy, social connections, political life – nothing. Society requires good, critical readers. The question is, how well are schools doing on this score?

Inside the Chaotic Charter Schools Run by a For-Profit Company

Jeff Bryant  – 2022-03-30
Former teachers and board members say charters run by Accel Schools are designed to fail. Accel Schools is a company that operates schools on an investor-driven business models meant to extract as much profit as possible from bare-bones operations.

The freedom-flipped-on-its-head-convoy: readings for educators

School Magazine  – 2022-02-16
The so-called “Freedom Convoy” is at best about what some people consider to be their “freedom” to put those around them at risk of infection without consequence or responsibility. So - with our bias right out there - here is a list of readings that might help in understanding what's going on. Updated to February 21, 2022.

Schools need to step up to address Islamophobia

Nada Aoudeh and Muna Saleh  – 2022-01-20
The inspiration for this article was born of frustration and heartache following the murders of four members of the Afzaal/Salman family that left a nine-year-old child injured and orphaned in London, Ont., on June 6, 2021.

It also follows ongoing injustice related to state-sanctioned racism of Bill 21 in Québec and a rash of hate attacks in Alberta, most of them targeting Black Muslim women in hijab.

As revenues boom, Queen’s Park tightens the screws

Randy Robinson  – 2021-11-29
Back in March, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy tabled a 2021-22 budget that projected only a slight improvement in revenue over last year. By the time of his Nov. 4 fiscal update, the minister was seeing a revenue increase that was nearly 10% higher than March. Money was pouring into provincial coffers.

Confronting the Right-Wing Attacks on Racial Justice Teaching

Rethinking Schools  – 2021-11-07
The Toronto District School Board posted a page by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre about what is alright to say about Israel and what is antisemitism (see article below). In light of that, here is an article from RETHINKING SCHOOLS about restrictions on the teaching of history and contemporary social reality.

“Hybrid learning” is not learning

School Magazine  – 2021-09-22
"Hybrid learning" is a misnomer. There is no way to support the idea that learning is taking place in a class run by a teacher who has to teach students at school along with those watching from home.

Anti- Black racism at Queen Victoria PS: how serious is the TDSB about it?

William Paul  – 2021-07-05
After a year and a half the Toronto District School Board has produced a report about a racist letter written to the Vice Principal of Queen Victoria PS in Parkdale. The big question is whether it will lead to action or more rumination. What does the TDSB seriously plan to do about anti-Black racism?

Beginning the journey of reconciliation: Orange Shirt Day in elementary schools

Robin Drinkwater  – 2021-04-21
With the collaboration and support of the Orange Shirt Society, Alberta Educator Robin Drinkwater developed a curriculum for young people from Kindergarten to grade 6 based on Orange Shirt Day, set aside to acknowledge the destruction wrought by Canada's so-called “Indian Residential Schools”

Beginning the journey of reconciliation: an interview with Phyllis Webstad

William Paul  – 2021-04-21
Orange Shirt Day is the legacy of the St. Joseph Mission Residential School Commemoration Project and Reunion that happened in Williams Lake BC in 2013. It is based on the story of Phyllis (Jack) Webstad who attended the Mission in 1973/74 when she was just 6 years old. Nearly 50 years later, Phyllis Webstad continues the work of teaching about Residential Schools.

Deconstructing anti-Black racism – a high school course

School Magazine  – 2021-03-24
At the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, four TDSB teachers moved the ball forward for anti-Black racism education. Tiffany Barrett, D. Tyler Robinson, Remy Basu and Kiersten Wynter presented a course about the language and history of anti-Black racism, what it means to students trying to understand themselves within it and what change could look like.

Deconstructing anti-Black racism: an interview with the authors

School Magazine  – 2021-03-24
What thinking goes into a curriculum about deconstructing anti-Black racism. The teachers who put it together took time to talk to School Magazine about their thoughts on how they see the curriculum moving out to other students and people's reaction to it, so far.

There is no de-streaming without democracy and meaning

George Martell  – 2020-01-09
For the past year and a half School Magazine has concentrated on Doug Ford and the destruction brought about by his government on social services health, cities, transit, the environment, the legal system and – let’s not forget – education.

But there are other serious issues we need to keep our eye on. One of them is streaming kids into programs that limit their options. But is de-streaming, by itself the answer?