With some upcoming elections in Vancouver I figure now is as good as time as any to discuss indepenedent schools in BC. For those that aren’t clear, “independent” is synomomus with “private.” There’s my first beef with the idea. Everyone knows that people don’t like the term “private school” so they changed the name. It reminds me of how fundamentalist Christians weren’t allowed to teach Creationism in public schools anymore so they changed the name to “Intelligent Design.
Yesterday afternoon I attended CBC’s open forum which sought to discuss the topic “is public education in BC broken?” It was moderately interesting to attend and some of the comments and questions raised were very interesting. Some of my favorite moments included Chris Kennedy responding to a Little Flower Academy student, saying that it is not public education’s job to sort students for universities. I couldn’t agree more. Another comment that was inspiring came from a French Immersion teacher from Burnaby who told of the creative, engaging and differentiated learning that happens in her classroom - learning that happens without input from the private sector.
