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National awards to staff at Eastview Middle School and Hunting Hills High School for dedication to students

Published

2 years ago

8 minute read

Red Deer Public staff honoured with National Inclusive Education Award

One of Red Deer Public’s priorities is equity and ensuring fairness for all students through excellence in instruction, support for students, and reduction of barriers. As a result of this dedication, staff at Eastview Middle School, as well as a long-time Learning Assistance Teacher at Hunting Hills High School have been honoured with a national award for their commitment to inclusion of all students.

The nomination for Eastview Middle School named Teachers Hanna Delmont and Isaac Terrenzio, Learning Assistance Teacher Lynn Lawton-Paquin and Educational Assistants Jen Gouldie and Barb Yost. Hunting Hills Teacher Lesley Young was also a recipient.

The National Inclusive Education Award for Alberta is provided jointly by Inclusion Canada and Inclusion Alberta to honour a teacher, school or school division whose commitment to inclusive education is exemplary and deserving of recognition.

Lesley, who has worked in Red Deer Public Schools for 28 years, was nominated by a parent of a student at the school, and said she feels honoured to be a recipient of the prestigious award.

“I was shocked and humbled,” she said. “Our school operates under the idea of collective responsibility, so all of the students are the responsibility of all of the adults in the school. I am just a small part of the day of that particular student. I asked this student to be the manager of my rugby team, and he came out in a managerial role all of last year and was involved in every practice, every game and every team bonding activity. I have felt strongly about inclusion at our school and have worked hard to support that initiative in our school. I want all students to have access to the array of amazing opportunities offered at our school.”

Darwin Roscoe, Principal at Hunting Hills, said Lesley is deserving of the recognition.

“Lesley has been a massive contributor to student success throughout the duration of her career,” he said. “Her child-centered approach has always been front and centre of her practice.

Her work with inclusion spans well beyond students and their families and deep into our teacher’s pedagogy at the school.”

Kevin Robertson, who was Principal at Eastview at the time of the nomination, said he is proud of the entire school team. Eastview was also nominated by a parent of a student at the school.

“’It takes a village’ certainly rings true, and in this case, I am so proud of the work the school team has done and continues to do in partnership with parents. It really is a whole-team success,” he said.

Hanna said as a fifth year teacher, she has had the privilege of working with a variety of diverse students.

“When we received this award, I was extremely proud of the collaborative connection that Eastview staff takes to help meet students’ needs,” she said. “Providing a safe, caring and inclusive school environment allows all students and families to have a sense of belonging where each member can flourish in their own way.”

Isaac added receiving a national award in inclusive education is a tremendous honour.

“Being recognized for the dedication and hard work our staff puts toward ensuring that all learners, regardless of their abilities or backgrounds, have equal access to education and are supported to reach their full potential is very humbling,” he said. “Continuing to strive towards equity and inclusion in education is important in creating a welcoming learning environment for all.”

Lynn said she feels Eastview Middle, like so many others in Red Deer Public, supports all students with their academic, personal and social needs.

“I am proud to work in a school with talented, hard working and caring staff that go above and beyond to ensure that our most complex students are having a positive experience at school that includes learning curriculum, developing meaningful relationships and building skills to develop independence,” she said.

Barb added she was thrilled to hear of the award as Eastview is very deserving.

“Students with special needs should have the opportunity to learn, play and make friends with their peers,” she said, of why inclusion is important. “The whole school benefits and learns from having all students included.”

Jen, who said she feels overwhelmed with emotion after receiving the award, agreed.

“Inclusive education is important because of the moments of empathy, compassion and acceptance that our students are able to witness and be a part of everyday. It is when a student needs to draw to get their story out of their head. Then randomly, a fellow student sits down beside them and word by word, marker by marker, draws out the story. It is when a student reaches out to another student for a hug and the embrace is accepted. It is when a student is curious about what is happening in the classroom next door then they are warmly welcomed with a ‘hello!’” she said. “These types of inclusive moments impact how students view and experience the world as they walk through their lives.”

Darrin DeMale, Principal at Eastview, gives credit to his whole school team. “We have some incredibly special adults that love being with our students on a daily basis. We feel fortunate to have a group of individuals that value their presence at Eastview and value being with them and growing life skills.”

Sue Merry, Vice Principal at Eastview, added it is an honour to receive this award as a whole team. “We see this award as recognition of how our school values inclusion in the forefront of the work we are doing with our students,” she said. “It generally reflects the work of everyone at the school from our custodians to the principal. We are so proud of our teamwork.”

Lesley, as well as the staff at Eastview were honoured at the 2023 Inclusion Alberta President’s Reception last week.

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DEI

TMU Medical School Sacrifices Academic Merit to Pursue Intolerance

Published on November 12, 2024

By

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Susan Martinuk

Race- (and other-) based admissions will inevitably pave the way to race- (and other-) based medical practices, which will only further the divisions that exist in society. You can’t fight discrimination with more discrimination.

Perhaps it should be expected that a so-obviously ‘woke’ institution as the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) would toss aside such antiquated concepts as academic merit as it prepares to open its new medical school in the fall of 2025.

After all, until recently, TMU was more widely known as Ryerson University. But it underwent a rapid period of self-flagellation, statue-tipping and, ultimately, a name change when its namesake, Edgerton Ryerson, was linked (however indirectly) to Canada’s residential school system.

Now that it has sufficiently cleansed itself of any association with past intolerance, it is going forward with a more modern form of intolerance and institutional bias by mandating a huge 80% diversity quota for its inaugural cohort of medical students.

TMU plans to fill 75 of its 94 available seats via three pathways for “equity-deserving groups” in an effort to counter systemic bias and eliminate barriers to success for certain groups. Consequently, there are distinct admission pathways for “Indigenous, Black and Equity-Deserving” groups.

What exactly is an equity-deserving group? It’s almost any identity group you can imagine – that is, except those who identify as white, straight, cisgender, straight-A, middle- and/or upper-class males.

To further facilitate this grand plan, TMU has eliminated the need to write the traditional MCAT exam (often used to assess aptitude, but apparently TMU views it as a barrier to accessing medical education). Further, it has set the minimum grade point average at a rather average 3.3 and, “in order to attract a diverse range of applicants,” it is accepting students with a four-year undergrad degree from any field.

It’s difficult to imagine how such a heterogenous group can begin learning medicine at the same level. Someone with an advanced degree in physiology or anatomy will be light years ahead of a classmate who gained a degree by dissecting Dostoyevsky.

Finally, it should be noted that in “exceptional circumstances” any of these requirements can be reconsidered for, you guessed it, black, indigenous or other equity-deserving groups.

As for the curriculum itself, it promises to be “rooted in community-driven care and cultural respect and safety, with ECA, decolonization and reconciliation woven throughout” which will “help students become a new kind of physician.”

Whether or not this “new kind of physician” will be perceived as fully credible, however, is yet to be seen. Because of its ‘woke’ application process, all TMU medical graduates will be judged differently no matter how skilled they may be and even when physicians are in short supply. Life and death decisions are literally in their hands, and in such cases, one would think that medical expertise is far more important than sharing the same pronouns.

Frankly, if students need a falsely inclusive environment where all minds think alike to feel safe and a part of society, then maybe they aren’t cut out to become doctors who will treat all people equally. After all, race- (and other-) based admissions will inevitably pave the way to race- (and other-) based medical practices, which will only further the divisions that exist in society. You can’t fight discrimination with more discrimination.

It’s ridiculous to use medical school enrollments as a means of resolving issues of social injustice. However, from a broader perspective, this social experiment echoes what is already happening in universities across Canada. The academic merit of individuals is increasingly being pushed aside to fulfill quotas based on gender or even race.

One year ago, the University of Victoria made headlines when it posted a position for an assistant professor in the music department. The catch is that the selection process was limited to black people. Education professor Dr. Patrick Keeney points out that diversity, equity and inclusion policies are reshaping core operations at universities. Grants and prestigious research chair positions are increasingly available only to visible minorities or other identity groups.

Non-academic considerations are given priority, and funding is contingent on meeting minority quotas.

Consequently, Keeney states that the quality of education is falling and universities that were once committed to academic excellence are now perceived as institutions to pursue social justice.

Diversity is a legitimate goal, but it cannot – and should not — be achieved by subjugating academic merit to social experimentation.

Susan Martinuk is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and author of Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health-care Crisis.

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Education

Too many bad ideas imposed on classroom teachers

Published on November 12, 2024

By

From the Fraser Institute

By Michael Zwaagstra

The Waterloo Region District School Board recently announced it would remove garbage bins from classrooms, before suddenly reversing itself.

Strange as it sounds, the school board planned to replace classroom waste bins with larger bins in common areas outside of classrooms, ostensibly to reduce the amount of waste produced by schools. Apparently, the facilities superintendent and senior facilities manager (the people behind this idea) think garbage magically appears when garbage bins are in classrooms and disappears once you get rid of these bins.

Of course, reality is quite different. Students still must dispose of dirty Kleenex tissues, empty pens and used candy wrappers. The aborted plan gave students a ready-made excuse for extra hallway trips. To prevent this from happening, teachers would have to provide makeshift garbage bins of their own.

This is a prime example of administrators trying to impose impractical directives on teachers for the sake of virtue signalling. No doubt Waterloo school board officials wanted to be recognized as environmental leaders. Getting rid of garbage bins in classrooms is an easy and effortless way to look like you’re doing something good for the environment.

Indeed, teachers typically bear the brunt of bad ideas imposed on them from above. As another example, British Columbia K-9 teachers must now issue report cards with confusing descriptors such as “emerging” and “extending” rather than more easily understood letter grades such as A, B and C. A recent survey revealed that most parents find the new B.C. report cards hard to understand. While most had no trouble interpreting letter grades such as A, less than one-third could correctly identify what “emerging” and “extending” mean about a student’s progress.

While the B.C. Ministry of Education claims these new report cards are built on the expertise of classroom teachers, its own surveys found that 77 per cent of teachers were unhappy with the grading overhaul. Of course, their feedback was ignored by education bureaucrats, which means teachers must implement something most disagree with, and then bear the brunt of parental frustration.

And one can never forget the nonsensical “no-zero” policies imposed on teachers in every province, which prohibit teachers from giving a mark of zero when students fail to hand in assignments or docking marks for late assignments. The reasoning behind no-zero policies is that zeroes have too negative an impact on student grades.

Fortunately, no-zero policies have become less popular in Canadian schools, particularly after Edmonton physics teacher Lynden Dorval was fired for refusing to comply with his principal’s no-zeroes edict. Not only did the public overwhelmingly support Dorval at the time, but the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld an arbitrator’s ruling that Dorval’s firing was unjust. In the end, taxpayers were on the hook for paying Dorval two years of salary, along with topping up his pension. But this doesn’t mean no-zero policies have disappeared entirely. Plenty of assessment gurus hired by school boards still push them on gullible administrators and unsuspecting teachers.

Finally, there are the never-ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training sessions—possibly the worst fads ever imposed on Canadian teachers. In an obvious desire to justify their jobs, DEI consultants provide many hours of professional development to hapless teachers who have no choice but to attend.

When teachers push back, as Toronto principal Richard Bilkszto did during a DEI session a couple years ago, they’re subjected to harassment and derision. In this case, the social impact on Bilkszto was so negative he eventually and tragically took his own life.

The Bilkszto case had a chilling effect—teachers should go along with whatever they’re told to do by their employer, even when a directive doesn’t make sense. This is not healthy for any profession, and it certainly doesn’t benefit students.

Classroom teachers have far too many bad ideas imposed on them. Instead of making teachers implement useless fads, we should just let them teach. That is, after all, why they became teachers in the first place.

Author:

Michael Zwaagstra
Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute
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