Les Bonnes Choses

Update: There's been a lot of talk about this next post. Maybe too much talk... so I updated it.

Fortunately, there is at least one person that I know and trust who is bridging the knowledge gap between the impenetrable musings of knowledgeable but poorly written researchers who study education, and the policy makers that need to know this research in order to avoid doing something stupid. Unfortunately, one is not enough.

When I was in high school, courses came in three flavours: basic, general and advanced. And after your first visit with a guidance counselor, you knew that if you wanted to go to university, you should take advanced courses (and only advanced courses); if you wanted to go to college, you should take general level courses; and if you liked to eat the paste, you might find the basic level courses to your liking. Now, I won't get into the complex rules of how judicious course selection could be used to manipulate your standing in the social hierarchy (hint: advanced grade 12 phys. ed. trumps advanced gr. 13 calculus in many social circles), but it should suffice to say that your social caste was and certainly still is largely determined by your timetable.

Over the Christmas holidays, I learned about the curriculum streams in Ontario high schools from my youngest sister. Since I left high school *mumble mumble* years ago, they have done away with simplicity in favour of a more "PC-up-with-people" streaming system. Prior to 11th grade, students enter the academic, applied, or locally developed streams. In their senior years, students transition into university, college and workplace streams. As these streams have exactly the same functionality as the system in place mumble-mumble years ago, I can only guess that the label change stems from the same sort of thinking that gives us little league where everyone wins a worthless trophy just for showing up.

First -- actually, no, first, what the hell does "locally developed" mean? Second, switching terminology halfway through high school seems completely unnecessary and like something that could only lead to confusion. Third, because there are not too many workplaces you can get into without going to college or university, the workplace stream seems somewhat misleading. Finally, and most importantly, no matter what the heck you call these streams everyone knows who eats the paste and who you should sit beside during the math exam, but ignore every other day of the year. You want to do something about the stigma attached to labels? How about a stream called "sure he doesn't know what Othello was on about, and doesn't know what a cerebral artery is, let alone name them, but he rebuilds car engines on weekends, and you can't even change a flat.".