Posts tagged with class.
All-boys’ school may get more young men past high school
I've always had a keen interest in education policy. While still in high school, I sat on four public school board committees and ran for public school board trustee. I've stay connected with my local school ever since.
It's for this reason that I wasn't surprised to learn Dr. Chris Spence, education director of Canada's largest public school board, is proposing the creation of an all-male school and more "boy-friendly" classrooms to address male underachievement.
I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Spence during his time as director of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, the position he held prior to taking over the Toronto District School Board. During his time in Hamilton, he initiated many programs in our underachieving elementary schools and reached out to the community for support. I noticed increased engagement among the children in my home area of East Hamilton and have heard, from my former peers raising their own grade-school age children, much positive feedback about these initiatives.
I lived in the poorest areas of Hamilton growing up and went to some of the least-achieving, as measured by standardized tests and drop-out rates, schools in the public system.
The accessibility problem among the lower socio-economic classes is not tuition fees; it's a lack of educational achievement in primary and secondary school. Most members of my peer group with the marks and desire to enter university have been able to do so. Many choose not to. I chose to not attend post-secondary education immediately following high school for numerous reasons reflective of my background.
An all-boys school has the potential to address many of the socio-economic barriers that are preventing the lower classes from obtaining a post-secondary education. The problem with "accessibility" for the "poor" is not tuition fees and lowering fees will have little impact on solving the problem.
If we as a society are serious about class mobility, we need to be investing and innovating within our elementary schools. Here's hoping Spence's proposal is approved, properly funded and we start seeing the results in a few years time.
Tagged with
school,
men,
post-secondary,
mobility,
socio-economic,
accessibility,
all-boys,
barriers,
education,
class
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JOEY COLEMAN