Progressive student behaviour approaches are now unequal to the challenge, according to classroom teachers and engaged parents. Violent, disruptive, and disrespectful students are free, in far too many schools, to erode learning and sustain the turmoil with impunity.
As cellphones, screens, and endless online and cyber engagement immerse students in distractions, teachers are now facing an uphill battle to reclaim the attention of the pandemic generation.
Restorative justice has gained fresh currency in Canada’s schools even though its experimental approach to student discipline is unfounded in the classroom context.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission ruled that children had “the right to read” and were being denied it in that province’s schools. Most “learning disabilities” labels were actually the result of reading failures, the latest OHRC inquiry found.
Repeated pivots to emergency home learning were detrimental to school age children and families, and education was used as a “pandemic control” instrument without sufficient recognition of the academic and social impacts on children and teens.
Leading global think tanks were the first to confront “the new normal” and it’s now being embraced by those once thought least likely to change their scripts: Canada’s provincial public health officers.
The idea that prioritizing academic achievement is at odds with student well-being is not defensible.
Zombie ideas beliefs about policy that have been repeatedly refuted with evidence and analysis but refuse to die.
