Richard Galloway

Change is a permanent human condition

George Bernard Shaw wrote, “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” We all agree progress is good, unless suggested reforms in the name of progress result in regression. The latest Provincial Task Force in Alberta has made several recommendations that are being lambasted as anything but progress. Especially if we consider progress as “the development of an individual or society in a direction considered more beneficial than and superior to the previous level.” This all under the leadership of Jeff Johnson the Minister of Education who recently got a thumbs down from the ATA with a vote of no confidence at their annual meeting in Calgary.

The road back from Skagway looking towards the Canadian Boarder. Photo © Richard Galloway

All this is happening just as I am writing my first essay titled, “Outline the ideology that you think most exemplifies the attitude toward education portrayed by your own provincial department of education. To what extent can you identify a shift toward a more neo-conservative perspective?” So I’m all read up on ideology, neo-liberalism, neo-conservationism and what this means to educators. I should say getting my head around these concepts is taking a lot of work and I’m not entirely there yet. But one of the main ideas that drive the neo-liberal agenda is that of ‘Human Capital.” The subject of Human Capital is a complex subject, (just check out the London School of Economic papers on the subject), but put simply, it is where people are thought of as products needed for economic success. Therefore, schools need to produce people who are able to work effectively in business and industry which allows them, the businesses, to compete globally. There is a much more eloquent explanation here on Joe Bowers ‘for the love of learning blog.’

Possibly one of the reasons there is such an outcry from the teaching profession about the proposed reforms, is that they are taking the neo-liberal agenda too far. If implemented the changes will continue along the path of turning education from something that is about developing ‘the whole’ person into something that produces another product, ‘educated people,’ necessary for the economic success of the province.

Of course, I am all for being in a position at the end of your schooling to find meaningful employment if that’s what you want. But education should be more than just that. How tedious would it be for education to be just about getting a job. A healthy society needs artists, poets, dissenters, philosophers, dreamers, people who won’t necessarily be adding to the GDP of the province, but who are necessary non the less.

The cynic in me thinks that these reforms are an assault on democracy. A democracy that fully engages the population needs people who are educated, can think for themselves and are participants. I’m not sure that the current crop of conservatives currently ruling our country think that is necessarily a good thing. They seem to be hellbent on changing education, among other things, to suit their vision of what ‘good’ democracy is.

What does it mean to me? I just want to be in a classroom and teach to the best of my ability. But I do want to be allowed to try and develop ‘the whole’ person, so that means being able to teach, and for children to be exposed to; drama, art, history, geography, music and PE alongside language, math, technology and Science. As a parent, I know a broad curriculum is what I want for our little guy at school. The sad fact is unless parents make some noise about current reforms, I’m afraid that our children will miss out on the education that they are entitled to.

Course Work Begins

Sociology is one of ‘those’ subjects. Arguably it doesn’t directly benefit society. Not like Doctors, engineers and dare I say it teachers. But the work they do, it turns out, is very, very relevant to creating a harmonious and functional society. My first course looks at some of the most important sociological questions facing education today.

Sociology. Is it Relevant?

As part of my prescribed ‘rehabilitation’ back into the teaching profession, I have recently started a program from Athabasca University. Most of Athabasca’s courses are delivered online and it is geared for people who need a flexible schedule and are typically juggling several things at once. I have signed up for Education 302; Educational Issues and Social Change. Basically, a sociology course. My father, when he was alive, was never a fan of the ‘ologies. In his mind, they were useless, a waste of time and energy. I’d never considered it and certainly didn’t have enough energy or experience at the time to dispute his argument. But having started this course I do believe he was wrong.

Sociology is the study of human social behaviour. It is more or less a science based discipline that endeavours to answer questions about social behaviour. A topic which and has, as you can imagine, a massive scope. As an educator sociology asks some of the most fundamental questions we need to consider.

There is the big picture questions like, “How does education impact society and visa versa?” Then at the other end of the scale, micro questions such as, “what are the most effective ways to communicate with my students?” As a class teacher big picture questions, while vitally important for policy makers, have little impact directly. But the questions that address behaviour and relationships, the micro questions, is key information that will help us become more effective at what we do.

It turns out without people studying these types of questions we’d have little knowledge beyond anecdotes of what works and what doesn’t. We want to find out what best practice is, what that means and how to implement it. Sociologists help us do that. I’m looking forward to learning more about these subjects.

April Update

Well it looks like all is going ahead and I will be in Edmonton come the fall. The professional standards department have approved the plan laid out by my student supervisor at University of Alberta. I have one course to do at the University of Athabasca, which officially starts at the beginning of May. Once in Edmonton I will be doing a Math and Language course as well as the Teaching Practicum. So all being well I should be in a position to be certified in Alberta by Christmas. What happens after that who knows. But it will be exciting. I do have to say of all the institutions I have been dealing with The UofA Education department has been fantastic. It’s obviously a very busy job but communications have been clear and delivered when promised. I’ve been very impressed.

How to Develop a Caring Attitude in your Child.

As a father of a three year old I am constantly thinking about what sort of person I would like our son to be when he grows up. There are, of course, lots of things I want for him but in essence I want him to be able to live a full and happy life. That said, if there was one trait I would like to engender in him that would be for him to be a caring individual. So it was with great interests that I read this article by Adam Grant, Raising a Moral Child in the NYT this weekend. (Much of what is written below is from the article which you can read in it’s entirety here. )

It turns out I am not alone in these thoughts. Apparently success is not the number one priority for most parents. We’re more concerned that our children are kind, compassionate and helpful. This is true around the world. Having said that, it’s not as easy to do as you’d think given the importance given to those traits. Adam Grant quotes an Israeli Study of 600 families whose parents frequently failed to raise caring offspring even though they themselves valued compassion and kindness.

As a parent and a teacher these questions are of great interest. What is the best way to engender these traits in our children? And to what extent can we be expected to effect positive change and how?

Studies with identical twins have suggested that our propensity for caring and giving are to a greater or lesser extent inherited. This could be as much as 50% which means, even in these rare cases where it is 50%, that there is a lot of room for nurturing. But what is the best way to do encourage kindness and thoughtfulness in children?

Shame and guilt are strong emotions and were once thought to be synonymous. It turns out that one can be healthy the other not. (Research by June Price Tangney) Shame “is the feeling that I am a bad person,” and can make children feel small and worthless. Guilt on the other hand is the knowledge, “that I have done a bad thing.” Shame then, reflects the core of who someone is where as guilt is a negative judgement about an action and can therefore be rectified. As Adam Grant points out, “When children feel guilt, they tend to experience remorse and regret, empathize with the person they have harmed, and aim to make it right.” So if we want children to care about others we need to teach them to feel guilty rather than shame when they misbehave.

What’s the most effective way to do this?

There are a couple of techniques that have been researched and are mentioned in the article. One of which is the positive use of language to encouraging good behaviour. Indeed it turns out that praise is more effective than offering rewards. It also turns out that using nouns is more effective than verbs. Which means that it is more effective to encourage children to be “a helper” than to invite them “to help.” Another example was, “please don’t be a cheater.” which was more effective (by 50%) when used instead of “please don’t cheat.” We don’t like our character to be tarnished by our actions and so are more likely, apparently, to choose positive behaviours.

What then is the most effect response to bad behaviour? According to Professor Eisenberg and David R Shaffer, “parents raise caring children by expressing disappointment and explaining why the behaviour was wrong, how it affected others, and how they can rectify the situation.” This is so effective because it communicates disapproval of a behaviour not of the person. Couple that with high expectations of improvements in future behaviour and it can be a powerful behaviour modifier.

Like so many things about small children they model their behaviour from the adults around them. An experiment with elementary school children by J Philippe Rushton illustrates that fact very clearly. The short version of which is that the children were more influenced by the teachers actions than words.

So it seems, like intelligence, to some degree, many people have the belief that moral behaviour is a character trait. To some extent that may well be true but more and more research assures us that a caring attitude, like improved intelligence, can be developed by parents and teachers alike.

Adam Grant is the author of “Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success.” He is also a professor of management and psychology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Give and Take

By Adam Grant

Should you help you children with homework?

Apparently helping your children with their homework has no measurable difference in standardized test scores.

I have always thought that children whose parents were interested in their school work did better. Admittedly it’s not something that I had any proof of, it was a gut feeling. It also seems that this is an area of study in education that has been neglected. Until now. Keith Robinson and Angel L. Harris combed through three decades of information pertaining to different ways that parents help their children at school, and what they found was surprising. They found that amongst other things,

The Broken Compass

By Keith Robinson

Most measurable forms of parental involvement seem to yield few academic dividends for kids, or even to backfire—regardless of a parent’s race, class, or level of education.

In fact they go onto say, once children enter middle school parental ‘help’ when it comes to homework actually hinders not helps.

Their book “The Broken Compass” talks about lots of other data which deals with more than just test scores. If you haven’t time to read the book then there’s a great article in the Atlantic Magazine that summarizes nicely the main points of the book. The article ends with what a pertinent point. That those parents who are involved tend to do things that benefit the whole school, not just their own children.

When I coached swimming our head coach always said that achievement in the swimming pool depended on a three way relationship. the relationship between the athlete, the coach and the parent. Of course competitive swimming is a little different from school but I still think that the advice is sound. Parents may not need to be involved in the minutiae of their child’s schooling for them to do well. That said, I believe, parents need to value education. If it’s important to them then more likely their children will value it as well. They need to be interested in how their children are doing. Admit it or not, consciously or unconsciously we all strive to please our parents. Last but not least, parents need to support their child’s teachers and school.

So while it may be true that parental involvement doesn’t necessarily help children improve their test scores I am certain that ambivalent parents could hinder performance at school.

Are Parents Overprotective of their Children?

My childhood was in many ways idyllic. For a child. Of course there were downsides but mostly I remember freedom. Running around outside, in the woods, through long grasses with other children away from adults. Even once at boarding school there were times when we were allowed to go out and play. No supervision, well visible at least, and play involved building sod damns of earth and big ponds of water. But I digress, I know for a fact that my childhood was not unique. These days though that’s not the case. Children are supervised at all times it seems, and I have often thought they don’t have any real freedom to be children and explore the world from their prospective. So it was great to read this article The Over Protected Kid by Hanna Rosin in The Atlantic. In it she discusses this very issue and how it is damaging our children. One quote stood out for me. Kyung-Hee Kim found after researching Torrance Creative Thinking Tests discovered over the last decade (from 2011), that American children’s scores had dropped across the board. They were,

“less emotionally expressive, less energetic, less talkative and verbally expressive, less humorous, less imaginative, less unconventional, less lively and passionate, less perceptive, less apt to connect seemingly irrelevant things, less synthesizing, and less likely to see things from a different angle.”

I’m a father and still new to having a swiftly growing human living with me. One of the reasons we moved to the Yukon was in the hope that our little guy would have the same opportunities to play that both his parents enjoyed growing up. It’s a long read for an article but well worth your time. Perhaps the pendulum is swing back to common sense?

How to get Certified a Teacher in Alberta

Finally after just shy of 6 months waiting I have the letter from The Professional Standards Agency in Alberta. There’s nothing in it that’s a surprise as I’d had lengthy conversations with various individuals before hand. But this letter does three things. First it tells me and more importantly Universities what I need to do in order to gain certification. They can now advise me on the best way forward. Second it will enable me to apply for positions (an outside chance at best, I realize) with the hope of getting an exemption letter from the province or territory because my degree has been recognized as a valid degree. Third and by no means last it should mean that I am able to claim an extra $30/day as a substitute teacher here in Whitehorse.

Finally after just shy of 6 months waiting I have the letter from The Professional Standards Agency in Alberta. There’s nothing in it that’s a surprise as I’d had lengthy conversations with various individuals before hand. But this letter does three things. First it tells me (and more importantly Universities), what I need to do in order to gain certification. They can now advise me on the best way forward. Second it will enable me to apply for positions (an outside chance at best, I realize) with the hope of getting an exemption letter from the province or territory because my degree has been recognized as a valid degree. Third and by no means last it should mean that I am able to claim an extra $30/day as a substitute teacher here in Whitehorse.

So what’s required

nine semester hour credits of coursework in Education at an advanced level;
nine weeks in a supervised student teaching placement; and,
three semester hour credits of coursework in Canadian Studies.

The course work I have been led to believe is something that could be done online from the right University. The teaching placement would be waived if I could get a position (this would make a massive difference to our families financial situation, obviously as nine weeks without any money coming in would be a challenge.) Apparently if I do the Canadian Studies within the Faculty of Education that can count towards my nine semester hours of coursework in Education.

I should say for those of you who don’t know me, most of these requirements are because I have been out of the classroom since 1999 when I left for sea. I suspect if you were coming to Canada and had been teaching full time there wouldn’t be so many hurdles although it would probably take as long.

Next step to find out where the best place to do the required course will be.

Getting Certified to Teach in Canada

March 2014 Update

Big news. Last week I was feeling a little beleaguered, working full time, a great thing but being paid as on the lowest rung with no degree acknowledged and certainly no certification available, was starting to get me down. “What if they don’t acknowledge my degree,” had started to permeate my thoughts, which would explain why it was taking so long. (They have had my papers since September 29th last year.)

March 2014 Update

So in-between teaching lessons I phoned the professional standards team in Alberta. The lady who has been helping me wasn’t in. I left a message indicating, in a friendly way, my frustration about the length of time this process was taking. Before I was content to wait. The machinery of government turns very slowly, I know that, but now it was costing me $30/day, which since I have been substitute teaching in Whitehorse equates to about $900 in lost earnings, my patience was at an end. At lunchtime I received a call. It was the professional standards branch – and finally it was good news. The letter with the information I have been waiting for since the end of September was on it’s way. My degree had been acknowledged and the steps I needed to follow to get certification included. Now I just need to receive said missive and I’ll be another step closer to a full time job as a teacher. Exciting times.

Quote of the Week

Words of Wisdom

I came across the following quote while teaching the other day. It was on a G4 classroom wall. Staggering really to think that in three hundred and twenty odd years since so little has seemingly changed.

Go placidly amongst the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself to others you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him to be, and in whatever your labours and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.

Found in old Saint Paul’s Church, Baltimore

Dated 1692

Substitute Teaching Full Time

My last post was three weeks ago and a busy three weeks it has been. The experience has been interesting on lots of levels. A week with G7 followed by a week teaching G5 and latterly three days with G4. First and foremost I am now confident that not all my teaching skills have been lost. Though I am well aware that my curriculum knowledge needs updating I find myself hankering for more. A week is long enough to begin to form some sort of relationship with students but not long enough to make any difference. But it is great to know that having my own class is something that I look forward to.

That’s not going to happen until my qualification is validated. Waiting for Alberta to recognize my qualifications from the UK takes on an urgency that wasn’t there before. Not only can’t I apply for positions which would see me once more in a classroom full time but every day I teach I am loosing $30, which, over the course of a month adds up quickly. Spring break is fast approaching and I will be following up with renewed vigour.

Working full time has has meant that after family admin, which involves picking up the little guy from day care, driving home, cooking supper and putting him to bed means I am not finished until 8pm. (My wife has started her flight attendant training, which is INTENSE, so I am getting a taste of being a single dad for the month.) So once I am done I am ready for some RNR rather than blogging. Blogging necessitates writing, which is challenging for me at the best of times and so not something I like to do when fatigued. That said I was reading a great post by Dean Shareski on his blog “Ideas and Thoughts“, which inspired me to make the effort this evening. In his latest post he articulates, amongst other things, why he blogs. (He also laments that he’s been too busy to blog lately.) I think for many educational bloggers it is the same. That is too say a place to reflect. For me my initial idea for getting this blog up and running was to create a place where teachers educated in other countries, who immigrated to Canada, could find useful information on how to go about getting certified. While that is still a goal my primary reason for blogging has changed. I now use it to reflect on what I have learned in the classroom as well as addressing questions related to that experience. Of course I realize now that isn’t going to happen in any meaningful way without a lot of effort. And so I need to make the effort. My intention is from here on in to blog once a week. Let’s see if I can make that happen.