Separate Sexual Abuse
I would like to object to the College
misconduct regulation definition of abuse, to wit: "abusing students physically,
sexually, verbally, psychologically or emotionally." Lumping all of these together is
prejudicial and unfair because people usually assume the worst. A teacher charged with
"abusing students physically, sexually, verbally, psychologically or
emotionally" would almost automatically be considered a sex offender. Even if he or
she were eventually cleared, suspicion and doubt would linger.
I do not condone abuse of students in
any way. But a teacher who strikes a student or humiliates or intimidates one is a much
different offender than the teacher who sexually abuses one. I think the College should
consider making sexual abuse a separate category to protect the reputations of teachers
accused of non-sexual offences.
Brian McKenzie
Brian McKenzie teaches at Patrick Fogarty Secondary School in Orillia.
Don't Lower Standards
The proposed changes for technological
teacher candidates say, "people with one year of work experience plus a degree will
be eligible for the technological studies program." Work will also include co-op
experience. These lowered standards are a slap in the eye for all tradespeople,
technicians and technologists. The average tradesperson fulfills 8,000 hours of
apprenticeship time before becoming a journeyperson and more hours after that to become a
master. The hours are a combination of work experience and school.
A technician or a technologist has two
or three years of college, which stresses practical application. When the audience is
comprised of restless 16-year-olds, the person with the practical examples holds their
attention longer than the person who can perform a chalkboard’s worth of
calculations.
I realize that tech teachers are a rare
find these days, but these changes would make the standards too low. The door would be
open to all those who can’t make it in their chosen field. Is this what we want in
our schools?
Judith Little
Judith Little teaches technological design at Preston High School in Chatham.
Evaluating Professional
Practices
The late Justice James McRuer, who
chaired the 1968 Royal Commission inquiry into civil rights, set out the philosophy that
has guided self-regulation in this province for the last 30 years. He wrote: "The
public must be able to rely on the judgement of those who are empowered to decide that
persons licensed to practise a profession or engaged in a self-governing occupation are
qualified. That being so, the responsible and experienced members of a profession or
occupation on whom the power of self-government is conferred should be in the best
position to set the standards to be met and the qualifications of anyone who aspires to
enter the profession or occupation."
The Education Minister should heed the
recommendations of Justice McRuer and let the College carry out its mandate responsibly
and professionally, without political interference. Ontario teachers should defy any
attempt by this government to evaluate their professional practice until they are given a
clear mandate from the College to comply. Teaching is inherently extremely complicated and
thus difficult to assess.
The closest analogy to teaching may be
emergency room medicine. These physicians never know what will come through the doors. All
their expertise must be constantly ready for recall and deployment, in any number of
predictable and new combinations. They must decide instantly what to do, what not to do
and when to change.
All those qualities are true of
teachers’ engagements with their students. Teachers operate under other
disadvantages, too. First, while all humans share a common anatomical structure, no
child’s particular combination of personal, intellectual, physical and social
qualities is the same. The combination, just in one student, may change dramatically from
day to day. And teachers, unlike physicians in the emergency room, work with many students
simultaneously in need of diagnosis and instant prescription. And the teacher is alone in
the classroom.
How do you evaluate that?
Barrington A. Morrison
Barrington A. Morrison is a convenor at Elia Middle School in North York.
