A Conspiracy of Doubt

There are three new pretenders in Manitoba education, Mr Clifton, Mr  Long and Mr Narth (Winnipeg Free Press October 12th 2021).   In an article, they argue that with the death of bill 64, we must revisit Manness/Mackinnon report or as I call it call it 64 Lite.

 

The pretenders seem to assume there is something wrong wth Manitoba schools and there is,  the curriculum does need updating, there is a lot of useless information.  In some case, there is subject matter only  useful to a child in the 1960's.

Rigidity in the curriculum and a reduction of the tyranny in the system are both required, but we'll take that up another time.

Let's start with mathematics.  The pretenders panic when they see that the gods have not seen fit to make Canada rank higher in the world rankings.  One institute that puts out such a list ranks Canada as 10th out of 72 countries (may have slipped to 11th)  while the USA is ranked 35th (may have arisen to 28)  Canada is doing well but we are not number 1 ( Singapore is #1).

We Canadians would like to be higher in the rankings, but not by Asian methods.  (look them up)  The pretenders think the answer somehow is found in standardized testing.  The don't say how tests will help but they recommend using those developed in the USA.

Hmmmm.....Canada 10th........USA........28th.

Want to explain how those tests are going to help?????