Both kids and teachers are back in school and for the next few years at least, it looks as though that will be the status quo. This is no-doubt a relief to all parties, including the government. However, I am hoping that parents realize that while their protests made an impact, their children’s education still hangs in the balance, and now is no time for complacency.
Every day, when we put our kids on the school bus we need to remember that public-school education is not simply a glorified free child-care facility that ensure our children stay safe and secure while we work. Education in its best form provides vertical mobility within a society, a population with the broad range of skills to participate fully in a democracy -- and it also enhances the well-being of children. From my perspective, the reduction of class sizes is critical to these goals.
I have never taught in the public school system (I did attend, but about 20 years ago) but I am a teacher, and have had many conversations with other teachers working in the public school system. From what I’ve learned, it seems like even the most motivated teachers in this system face major obstacles to meeting the goals listed above.
As a professor at Quest University Canada, I feel extremely fortunate to teach in an environment with only a maximum of 20 students per class. Each class runs for 1 month and focuses one subject at a time. We meet for 3 hours of a day in class and additional individual meetings outside of class. In contrast to juggling 6 different classes with 30 different students each in the public school system, we only need to focus on this one group of 10-20 students each month. Given the necessary small size of Quest (only about 200 students per year), this type of education is only available to a very small fraction of student.The experience of teaching in this environment provide me with insight about what we need to create a school system that promotes the well-being individuals and with that, vertical mobility in a society.
Recent research in positive psychology has indicated that well-being is influenced by four factors: safety and security, a child’s sense of self-efficacy, his or her sense of autonomy, and finally the child’s feeling of connectedness with other people. In my experience, having small class sizes greatly contributes to a teacher’s ability to create an environment that contributes to these factors.
Still, with twenty students, even twenty students who are between 18 and 28 years old (who have much greater behavoioural control than school-aged children), delivering the quality of education I aspire to is a huge challenge that requires an enormous amount of hard work on my part. To think about the challenges that our public school teachers face on a day to day basis makes me weary.
Perhaps it is overly idealistic to think that we can offer a universal primary and secondary education system with class sizes small enough that teachers can effectively tap into the needs of each child - it is far more expensive, after all. But if we care about the future - not just of our own kids but of society and our planet as a whole - I’m not sure we can afford not to invest in more in education.
So while breathing a sigh of relief about the long-awaited return to the classroom is absolutely legitimate, I think the next breath we take should be taken in preparation for all the hard work that lies ahead. Let’s make sure that schools not only stay open, but also deliver and give our children the education they deserve.
