B.C. minister of education Margaret MacDiarmid put out today (September 5) the following open letter to parents:
As your child heads back to school this year, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the important role you, as parents, play in the success of all the children and young people in our education system.
Research has shown that when parents are involved and engaged, it not only helps their own child, it helps other children in the school. The evidence is consistent and convincing: parent engagement is one of the key factors identified by researchers in high-performing schools, and families have a major influence on their child's achievement in school and through life.
I really encourage parents, when thinking about back to school, to talk to their child's teacher. Really get to know your child's teacher. Offer to volunteer. Become part of the parent advisory committee. You need to know what's happening in the classroom to support your child.
Keep in touch with your school and discuss your child's education. The close co-operation between home and school contributes significantly to creating a positive learning environment for children.
Learning is an active social process. You are your child's first and most important teacher. Your role in their education remains as important today as it was when they were saying their first words or learning to walk.
As your child heads back to school, please get engaged to ensure all our children have a successful education experience. We can't do it without you.
Margaret MacDiarmid
Minister of Education
Government of British Columbia
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Comments
time to call President of the Parent's Association - Coquitlam mayor Richard Stewart -- BC Liberal -- Campbell-clone/
Fraser Institute wants South American companies to get BC $$ to help educate poor kids in BC---and help create competition in education in the province.
What a great time to have political ambitions -- no-one in the system - the politicians--media--institutions--stink tanks--has any credibility or say--all you have to do is give them the Trudeau finger -- and that's fair.
Popeye you've done it again -- Popeye you've done it again
MysTerri
The situation is quite simple. The conservative right (BC Liberals & Fed. Conservatives) throughout North America are pushing for the privatization of everything, including schools and it takes time to achieve this. So Education Minister MacDiarmid's buddies at the Fraser institute have implemented their own, disproven, scoring system for our schools. To quote a renowned cognitive scientist and linguist who has deconstructed their attempts to destroy our adequate school system:
According to the above account, our schools are now also "metaphorically failing and are being punished for failing by having their allowances cut".
Protesting education budget cuts, is like pissing in the wind. Unfortunately, the BC Liberals are running this province now and the only way to stop them now is to toss them out in 2013.
Whether it be schools, taxes (HST), health care, privatization of public organizations, or just good old truth telling transparency, the BC Liberals have three more years to complete the implementation of their well documented right wing agenda. Make no mistake about it, they intend to convert this province into their own fiefdom and they are well on their way.
The above quote is from George Lakoff's "Don't Think of an Elephant" which explains how the conservative right frames issues and how Progressives must stand up to these bullies and call it like it is. Because even bullies like the BC Liberals don't like being shamed.
When you clean up your own side of the street - it becomes easier to focus on the task which is keeping greedy business people from the taxpayer's purse -- on health education and other.
Gordon Campbell's BC Liberals make a good free enterpriser think very seriously about the virtues of socialism.
Education occurs in the mind of the kid. If that mind is tired, starved, or lazy it will no more accumulate facts than paint will stick to a greasy wall. Sure, very occasionally, yeah, there will be this inspirational super-leader teach who will lift the downtroddens out of their spiral into the underclass, soon to be a movie starring Morgan Freeman. But that is unrealistic. The parents have no right to expect that out of teachers. All we can expect is that they not be in the way of the kid, who should, like all kids, be dynamic and interested in the world, as we have or should have taught them to be. (hops off soapbox)