Ticket to Ride

The Beatles’ lament about a girl having a ticket to ride and so leaving the singer sad sounds not unlike the Dalton Gang talking about high school dropouts. They seem to be making some illogical connection between having a driver’s license and staying in high school. It must be some Liberal malaise, because it makes about as much sense as the Federal Liberals proposing a new ban on handguns.

The new schooling legislation does have some other features that do not have a failing grade. Yet it seems odd than they are once again talking about streaming, something that seems to come and go as successive education ministries struggle to keep young people in the system long enough for them to gain some skills and become gainfully-employed, tax-paying citizens.

One can bring down the wrath of all teachers by mentioning the Mike Harris regime, but was Mike facing the same problem that Dalton has before him now? Mike’s solution was to get angry with teachers and change the curriculum, and going so far as to suggest that teachers should be tested! While Dalton has not come out with the same rhetoric, he is admitting that for some reason, too many young people are dropping out of the system as soon as they reach age sixteen. Could it be the curriculum, or the way the teachers present it that makes the grass look so much greener on the streets than in the classroom?

Could it possibly be that we are focussing our early learning years on getting a job instead of an education? Are 16 year-olds mature and ready enough to take their place in the workforce? In some cases, they may have to work to help support a family, and so their learning experience may be curtailed of necessity for a time. But at 16, have they had time to learn about life in ten years of schooling?

Do they know how to look after themselves in a health-conscious way so they can expect years without illness brought on by unhealthy choices in eating, inactivity or substance abuse? Do they know how to cooperate with others so they can lead a life of peace and contentment? Have they learned examples about placing proper values on how they will spend their money, not only on themselves, but for others? Have they absorbed enough science to understand how this wonderful world works as well as the consequences of our actions on the environment? Do they understand the value of peace and freedom and the cost and commitment of democracy?

Has a 16 year old had the time to begin to reflect on social and economic justice and their responsibility to society? The truth is that it may take many years of learning to attain these skills. Some young people will pursue this learning through university study, while others will gain it through life experiences, but they must be aware of the choices available to them. Are they getting this from the present curriculum? Are their teachers providing them with the life skills needed for a better life or are they just pushing the youngsters through the production line like so many widgets?

Too often, we expect career choices or even set the job goals for our young people at too early an age. If every boy who wanted to be a policeman or fireman stayed the course, we would have too many emergency response people. If every girl who ever dreamt of being a nurse attained that dream, they would be forming waiting lines at the ER. However, childhood fantasies change as children learn more about the world. Yet somehow we are again thinking of streaming kids into technical training at age 15 or 16, thinking they will not make it in the ‘professions’.

The problem is that not everyone is capable of learning these life skills at the same rate. Perhaps our public system can never address this problem and we should be encouraging other options for our education. Can we teach our young at home or in community classes enough about life to prepare them for technical training or university when they mature? The growth and success of home schooling seems to point in that direction.

Is it elitist or only pragmatic to suggest that children with learning disabilities ought not be forced to compete with ‘gifted’ learners? Or that the ‘gifted’ have to compete for their share of a teacher’s attention – a teacher who is trying to cope with a ‘problem’ child? All of these young people are going to end up sharing a society and that too, must be a recognition taught in the system.

If our society as a whole is falling behind on the world stage, and indications are that it is, we have a problem. Are we lacking the skills to educate ourselves? One of the skills we need to learn is the ability to critique, analyze and debate not only problems, but policies and procedures. Our learned members of Parliament are trying again to address the failings of our education system. Using a driver’s license as a carrot or as a stick hardly seems like an educated answer to the problem of high school dropouts.