Discussion Back to Basics for Education!!

The educational system over the last 20 years has become a place to promote political agenda's rather then focusing on the ABC's of learning. I was not aware of this shift since my children had finished their education. I am still in contact with school children on a daily basis because I teach an extra curricular activity one on one. I started my research by asking questions to parents, teachers and students.

The political agenda became very much in the foreground while Kathleen Wynne was in office.
Kathleen Wynne's career began as a school trustee for the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) in 2000. She was elected to the Ontario Legislature in 2003. She ran for the Liberal leadership race in 2014. The Liberal party won the Ontario provincial election. While in office her party introduced a reformed sex education curriculum. Many parents voiced their concerns.
Doug Ford said he would not progress Kathleen Wynne's objectives. This has not happened. The implementation about sex has exploded in the public/separate school system from the United Nations. (Please see my previous post from Penny Marie Claridge regarding a full explanation of this).

Now to the present.
A recently retired TEACHER in the public school system confirmed some things I had been reading/hearing about.
PRONOUNS and "I IDENTIFY AS..."
A TEACHER gave me the example of a student that told her she identified as a cat. A litter box was placed at the door of the classroom. No questions were asked. Compliance was expected.
This TEACHER confirmed that if a student chose to change their pronouns, due to privacy laws, the parents were not to be informed by anyone from the school.
Another TEACHER has confirmed the explicitly sexualized books that are now in the school libraries for children beginning in Kindergarten. They are pornographic pictures. But pass the laws because the pictures are cartoon illustrations instead of photographs.
A STUDENT took me by surprise when she referred to a girl as "sisgender". It showed me how much this is in the school system.
A PARENT informed me that her daughter came home very upset because the teacher gave a 45 minute presentation about "being born in the wrong body". This was in the separate school board.
A STUDENT I see frequently, often comes home from school quite upset with the emotional outbursts of students either verbally or physically (fights happen quite often in the classroom). I was told it is not good to sit in the front row of the classroom because when the students throw things, the front row gets hit by the objects.

There are other options of education





This is a local (kitchener/Waterloo) initiative emerging from teachers that have left the school system and want to go back to the basics of learning without any other agenda. Concerned parents have been noticing. An update will be posted closer to this event.
This option for parents is about "old fashion values".

Juno news has done an extensive article which is attached
Gmail

AnneM said:

Juno news has done an extensive article which is attached
Gmail

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Hey Anne, When linking an article you should insert the direct link, not from your Gmail inbox. Since you linked your Gmail inbox, no one is able to view the article you thought you attached because it is linked into YOUR Gmail.

Also when you're posting, please try and include an opinion or a comment on something about the article. It looks like you're just reposting information which is not the purpose of our site. If you want to just post information post it here; Waterloo Region Information Archive

AnneM said:

The educational system over the last 20 years has become a place to promote political agenda's rather then focusing on the ABC's of learning. I was not aware of this shift since my children had finished their education. I am still in contact with school children on a daily basis because I teach an extra curricular activity one on one. I started my research by asking questions to parents, teachers and students...

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I’m a bit skeptical about some of the examples here, especially the litter box story. That claim has gone around a lot online, but a lot of schools and school boards have said it never actually happened. I’m not saying schools don’t talk about gender identity or pronouns now, but it’s a big leap to say classrooms are putting litter boxes in for students who identify as animals.


That said, I do think schools sometimes struggle to balance academic basics with social issues. Ideally, they should be able to teach reading, math, and science well while also addressing real social topics students are dealing with. It shouldn’t have to be one or the other.

AnneM said:

The educational system over the last 20 years has become a place to promote political agenda's rather then focusing on the ABC's of learning. I was not aware of this shift since my children had finished their education. I am still in contact with school children on a daily basis because I teach an extra curricular activity one on one. I started my research by asking questions to parents, teachers and students.

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The biggest issue for me is transparency with parents. Whether someone agrees or disagrees with gender identity discussions in school, parents probably shouldn’t feel like they’re being left out of major things happening with their kids. That creates distrust really fast.

At the same time, I don’t think the solution is completely removing discussions about identity or sexuality from schools either. Teenagers are already exposed to that stuff online every day. Schools trying to pretend it doesn’t exist probably wouldn’t work either.

I work with younger kids sometimes and honestly most of them are still just focused on normal kid stuff. What I see more often is teachers trying to manage way bigger class sizes and behavioral problems than they used to have. That’s probably part of why people feel like the system is falling apart.

Curriculum debates get a lot of attention politically, but a lot of teachers say the bigger issues are lack of resources, burnout, and students struggling after the pandemic years. Those problems would affect learning way more than whether pronouns are discussed in class or not.

CristianB said:

I’m a bit skeptical about some of the examples here, especially the litter box story. That claim has gone around a lot online, but a lot of schools and school boards have said it never actually happened. I’m not saying schools don’t talk about gender identity or pronouns now, but it’s a big leap to say classrooms are putting litter boxes in for students who identify as animals.


That said, I do think schools sometimes struggle to balance academic basics with social issues. Ideally, they should be able to teach reading, math, and science well while also addressing real social topics students are dealing with. It shouldn’t have to be one or the other.

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Regarding the litter box story. I got it first hand from a teacher I have know personally for 35 years. I have no reason to believe she is exaggerating or purposefully giving me incorrect information. It would defeat the reason for posting information.

AnneM said:

Regarding the litter box story. I got it first hand from a teacher I have know personally for 35 years. I have no reason to believe she is exaggerating or purposefully giving me incorrect information. It would defeat the reason for posting information.

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Ok, that makes more sense, I think this story was true in one area but then got thrown around a lot across Canada. I heard a lot of people in my area talking about this story but there was not any truth to it and never happened here. To my best knowledge it might have happened in Ontario if it did happen.