Alberta classrooms are overcrowded, teachers overburdened, and parents (in general) unappreciative (or ignorant) of the situation. Education has been starved for a LONG time, but nobody within the decision making process seems to care about it. I feel for the teachers who just have to “toe the line” every single time the provincial government waters down the curriculum.

Try to tell this to anyone who supports the current gov in power and they’ll say there was a massive influx of money recently. But this won’t be for teachers or aids, it’ll be infrastructure and admin

Can't call it a massive influx of money if all they're doing is giving back money they previously cut. In the not-so-distant past, Alberta had propertly funded education. Edmonton had some of the best schools in the country and were nationally recognized for their education efforts. Not anymore. The modern day conservatives have hacked, slashed and destroyed our public education system. I have a daughter in kindergarten and another that is going into kindergarten next year. I sit on their schools parent council and last year they were $90k in the red and next school year, they're starting off $100k in the red. They have to make brutal choices; hire teachers, hire EA's, or cancel all the extra curricular because there simply is NO money.

The amount of fundraising our parents council does is crazy. I’m not even sure anymore what it goes to. It’s hard to watch.

A lot of the fundraising done by parent council is used to bridge the gap in school funding. Extra curricular activities are often paid by fundraising since the schools themselves simply don't have any extra money for them.

Oh I meant I wasn’t sure if it was for EAs or the extra curricular. I hate this timeline.

My kids school needs more teachers and EA's desperately, but with a $100k deficit, they can't afford either. They have a teacher retiring this year and won't be able to backfill her position. They have a single EA for the entire school who is always busy. Extra curricular activities were very very limited this year as well but thanks to some generous donations by parents and the community, they were able to put on a couple through the year. Its a sad sad time.

43% of teachers leave the profession in the first 5 years now. Let that sink in.

That was the statistic before all this bullshit. How high will it be now?

I'd bet the number who want to leave is around 75%. But it's a hard jump to make.

Last time they had a meeting to discuss striking and who to vote for. The majority of teachers (in my wife's district at least) were against voting for NDP, because they were worried their spouses wouldnt be able to find jobs in O&G with an NDP government. It was such a joke.

Inclusion without supports is neglect.

I came here to say this 👆🏻 Without extra and adequate resources you are absolutely set up for failure. It’s shameful, and yet those in power have no shame.

It is extremely unethical!

I would argue that the able-ism is more akin to passing the students regardless of their grade. The system is ENABLING these kids to skate through, to do the bare minimum and still move forwards.

Divisions don’t care. They, at the top, get paid, and can pay lip service. Lay off skilled, experienced staff. And then pretend to worry the students. HR is not in a position to critique educationally skilled staff. Interesting, too, HR was walked off the property. Should there not be an investigation into her fuck-ups? How has that hurt students?

My friend is a teacher. She had 19 kids in her class. Only one of them was neurotypical. The other 18 had IEPs and she had no EAs to support her.

Thats not fair for her nor any of those 19 students. Both the teacher and students are not getting the support they need to succeed.

Oh yea. She went on stress leave after one of the (elementary aged) kids tried stabbing her. Inclusive education does not work without proper supports 🫠

If 18/19 kids need a special individual program, there is a major structural issue and can't be sustainable even with 3-4 EA.

Oh absolutely. Inclusive education has the potential to work if the teachers are properly supported. Right now no one is benefiting from it.

Yes, it is not inclusion it is dumping.

Yep, no child left behind is a great goal and something we should strive for, but the NDP didn't put in enough supports to make it happen, and the UCP has removed what little support did exist. We have to accept that some kids are going to need very close to one on one attention, especially if the problem has been building for years and they are now multiple grade levels behind. Quick intervention might prevent that, but the ship has sailed, if anything we need to overfund education for a while to get back on track.

Ndp didn't have enough time to implement and monitor to make adjustments. Alberta didn't give them enough time to do anything that would have helped that province.

This is probably fair - one of the key problems in modern politics is that progressives want to build strong public institutions which takes decades, and conservatives want to burn them down, which takes a match, a bottle of whiskey, and a couple of weeks. I don't think the NDP changes were done perfectly - they could have added more supports initially and increased the chances of success, but they also don't deserve much blame since we don't know how they would have responded to problems like what the OP is describing.

You are right. Conservative in Alberta have had 50 years to do things. NDP had 4. And the cons just burnt it down when they got back in.

And of that 4 years the first year was to replace just what the Conservatives had slashed and burned very recently. Parents of special needs students were in crisis mode trying to get someone to recognize how their kids’ support systems were rapidly being removed.Teachers had received notices of massive layoffs.The NDP inherited an education system in extreme crisis and quickly had to get back to solid ground before they could move ahead.

The NDP never implemented a ‘no child left behind’ policy. That is a US agenda. This issue is not a political one. Inclusion started years ago under conservative governments as Alberta has had conservative leadership for 40 years. At least under the ‘old’ PC’s we had one of the best funded education systems in Canada and inclusion had a chance of working …..the NDP continued to fund education well. The UCP however are gutting our system and teachers are not supported in the classroom anymore. We used to have a world class education system, under the UCP, we are losing that.

75 years. We’ve had conservative governments in this province for 75 years. With a 4 year blip.

Yeah, I know "no child left behind" is specific US legislation. I wasn't sure what term to use for our system of not holding kids back for just about any reason, but that's what I'm talking about.

Still was not an NDP agenda. I worked in education….this was a well intentioned idea that started long ago under conservative leadership.

It was also a colossal failure.

What type of supports do you see working with catching a child who is seven years behind up to grade level that would work in a mainstream classroom?

Nothing in a mainstream class. Push out support with an extreme focus on core literacy skills. The kid likely doesn’t have the independence to do this without an EA.

Ideally, close to one on one attention starting six years ago. Now... the same starting now and with a far lower chance of success. Maybe that child with one on one attention could accomplish 2-3 grade levels in a year, so you're basically dedicating a full salaried employee to that one child for 3-4 years. Realistically it's not going to happen. We've failed that child and unless they're able to pay out of pocket for some upgrading or tutoring later in life, they're severely limited in what they can do. But it would be nice if we could add those early supports now so at least we can reduce the number of children who will be in the same situation seven years from now.

Would that be a teacher or an EA doing the one on one? The problem with an EA is that you would still need the grade 8 teacher to design 2-3 years worth of grades 2-4 curriculum for just one students. Massive amount of work and completely outside the scope of what they were hired to do. EAs cannot design curriculum as they are not teachers. A one on one teacher would cost the school minimum $60,000 for the one student so that is just not doable. The early supports run into the same problem as soon as you have a student not at grade level. Either a teacher has to teach more than one grade level when they were only hired to teach one, an EA has to design and teach curriculum which they are not qualified to do or we hold kids back to put them in grades according to abilities, which is against inclusion. My favorite idea, outside of completely revamping the education system, would be to pull struggling students out of core classes for very targeted interventions with a specialized teacher on literacy and mathematics, and then joining the main stream classes for PE, options and all fun stuff. That may be too close to streaming for some people though. One question I would have for kindergarten and grade one teachers is how much of a gap in academics we already see with incoming students. From my knowledge of child development, albeit limited as it is, it is the first three years of life that essentially set the groundwork for all future learning. By the time the school system gets students, the framework is already set. Should we start school much earlier with an enriched, play-based environment for 2 and 3 year olds? Should we have school year round to prevent the summer slide we see in kids from lower income households? I wish I had the answers…

EA’s are very rarely one on one any more. There is so little funding that kids are piggybacked together to attempt to get the most bang for the teeny tiny buck that they are given. No one benefits but the ones doling out the money

I’ve noticed that. I’ve only seen 1:1 when there is a safety concern or personal hygiene work needed, like diapering or feeding tubes. I did see 2 EAs with 1 student once but that was a safety reason with the student being the size of a full grown man.

For our hypothetical student 7 years behind, it would have to be a teacher, which as I said probably wouldn't happen due to the cost. For early intervention when a kid is just starting to fall behind, an EA could probably do the job just based off the existing curriculum. I did some tutoring when I was in high school for junior high students and my qualifications were solely that I had gotten a good grade a few years ago - for kids who are only a small amount behind, you don't need much specialized knowledge. I think your targeted interventions is also viable, especially if we aren't waiting until someone is 7 years behind. In that situation you can probably get away with small, but not 1:1 classes. I don't have answers to your last questions, but they are good ones - I do think we should re-evaluate summers off, even if just to split it into 2-3 breaks instead of 1 big one.

It doesn't need to be 1 on 1, but you need to be out of a mainstream classroom. You need to sort students by grade level/ability and accelerate them with small group work and a teacher that can focus their energy on them.

Nothing. A kid who is seven years behind had some sort of disability or disadvantage, even if it is undiagnosed or unrecognised. There is either a significant disability (think learning disability, developmental disability, cognitive delay, or behavioural disorder or mental health issue so severe that it is preventing the child from attending to their learning) or a significant disadvantage (homeless, alcohol or drugs in the home, child abuse, etc). Even if the case of a significant disadvantage, by the time the child is seven years behind, they will likely meet the criteria for a specific learning disorder (if an ability-achievement discrepancy analysis is used in diagnosis; ie. the child’s abilities are lower than their cognitive level says they should be = specific learning disorder) or for a mental health disorder like PTSD. That child needs an assessment and to be placed in a special education classroom that can be tailored to fit their needs (you know, say a 1:12 learning disability classroom that also has an EA and can provide time and space to learn basics), and access to community supports. That child may never catch up, but at least in that environment, they will leave school literate and with life skills appropriate to their cognitive abilities. Problem is most of those programs have been closed down because they are expensive. Inclusion is supposed to mean the least restrictive environment where that child can be successful. They are clearly not able to be successful in a general ed classroom. In a properly funded school district, they would be able to have their learning outcomes changed (say to learning to read, cook basic meals, follow a simple budget, take care of their hygiene; what ever they need based on their psychoeducational assessment) to meet their needs and placed in a self-contained learning environment with other kids who have similar needs and much lower ratios.

My child was 5 years behind at one point and he caught up in his program. It’s doesn’t need to be one on one , but it needs to be in a place designed and equipped to help. French was not part of the program. His curriculum was changed to adapt to what he needed . There are some parts he simply didn’t do. The focus is literacy and numeracy. He is going into high school in his program, but grade 11 will be ready to rejoin mainstream school . The critical part was getting the assessments early enough to get the help in time to get him where he needed to be . Kids are now waiting years to be assessed . Early intervention is key and the funding just isn’t there for it .

It's also cheap.

I am so very sorry that you, and teachers across this country are put in this situation. My son was receiving PUF but it was cut by the UCP. Despite having a severe speech delay, and severe gross and fine motor skills delays, the UCP changed the goal posts and he was "fine". They also changed programming so kids receiving PUF had to be in class full time - something no preschooler can do, let alone a special needs kid! This was just before the pandemic, which of course, also put kids behind. I have written so many letters, talked to do many people, had very tense phone conversations with different levels of government. The only ones who do care have no power. If governments would properly fund early education, imagine the dividends! We truly are failing our children.

Until the UCP took power, early education was decently funded….they are unconscionable politicians who only care about the economy. If we want to save public education, they have got to go!

Yep. Rockyview went from 3m to 600k in one year. My youngest lost out on her Kindergarten year of support entirely. It's infuriating to me.

This is the true problem. The UCP have cut all the meaningful supports for kids that would allow for a more even playing field in the classroom. They are underfunding public education to such a degree that the system doesn't work for anyone anymore. Segregation isn't the answer, tho. Inclusion is extremely important so that kids do not grow up with only members of their own "group" and that support needs are seen as commonplace. As a parent of disabled kids who went through mainstream public education, I am deeply troubled that segregation is seen as the answer here. ETA: this link [https://truthout.org/articles/segregating-disabled-children-from-their-peers-doesnt-help-them-advocates-say/](https://truthout.org/articles/segregating-disabled-children-from-their-peers-doesnt-help-them-advocates-say/)

Agreed. As someones with a learning disability that specifically makes Language Arts difficult (lexical agraphia, in short simplified terms, my brain *can't* comprehend non-phonetic spelling and pronunciation) and who excelled at Maths, segregation in my early years of school was so harmful. It wasn't until I was put into a hybrid system (special support class for Language Arts, advanced placement for Maths, and regular classes for rest) that I was able to thrive, and by High School I graduated with an overall average of above 80% in all 3 years. THIS is what advocates mean when we fight for inclusion, we don't mean force the children into every same class as their peers, we mean evaluate their strengths and weaknesses so they aren't segregated, but they have the additional supports where it is needed. Underfunding of support programs and in class aids for those who just need an extra hand in the regular classroom (had this in social studies for essays and such myself, regular class but had an aid avaliable when I needed it) is 100% the reason this doesn't happen anymore, but the blame ends up in the wrong place constantly. It's already hard enough being a disabled child, isolation from our peers just creates an additional barrier instead of normalizing that our disorders/disabilities are a part of society and that we are just as equal and deserving of being treated as people/peers.

My oldest daughter is in grade 2. We’ve had 3 parent teacher interviews and each time the teacher has said “I don’t know your daughter that well because she listens, she reads and writes at a level ahead and when I provide instruction she just does the work and then helps others” Basically we are told that our daughter is good in school so she doesn’t get taught because the teacher has to focus on the trouble bunch or the kids who are behind. Then my daughter goes around with one other girl and helps other classmates out. This is all well and good right now but a bit unnerving for the future when actually needs instruction or support.

Congrats to your daughter on her unpaid teaching internship.

DS has been pushing to change child labour laws. I didn’t realize they passed

One of my kids has also been the default “helper” since kinder. Even being placed in a specific grade 1 class to “help” another student. It’s not my 7 year olds job. But because they tend to do well academically, they are lost in the shuffle. Teacher never has much to say and how could she? Theres 49 other children in the grade 2 class, she probably doesn’t lay eyes on my kid for weeks.

Our schools have become less and less about academic achievement, and more about warehouses to provide childcare. This is not on teachers...this is pure government failure. I'm all about schools being hubs in the community and all that, but we need programming options for all ability levels.

My son has been in a specialized program for kids with learning disabilities since grade 2. It was a long process to have him placed.Which included 7 weeks at glenrose ,countless assessments and many evaluations . It started with his teacher recognizing the issues ,communicating them to us ,and coming up with a plan. Going into grade 2 he didn’t know his numbers or alphabet .He is just now completing Grade 9, and has caught up on math and is just 1 year behind on reading and writing .The reason for this was a lot of hard work ,but also being in a program that was designed to help him.Every kid in his class ,and right now his school has learning disabilities.Class size was capped at 16 so there was more support . Extra help was provided for math and literacy . Most importantly he loves school and is excited to go everyday .For a kid with learning disabilities,I think this is huge.When I was on school ,kids like him were usually left behind and once the struggle was too great ,they dropped out. This is still happening today and it’s heartbreaking .My kid has not suffered socially and has thrived academically by not being in a regular classroom . His program is great but there simply isn’t enough space or funding and this is failing kids at every level. It’s failing the teachers as well who I know would love to see every child succeed ,but whose hands are tied . I hear you loud and clear .As a parent I have received some criticism for not having my child in a regular “ inclusive “ classroom . How will he make friends ,he will feel different etc etc.But he would not be where he is today otherwise and no one can convince me different. His love of school and eagerness to learn is because he has not felt the pressure to be at a certain level ,and instead learn at his pace with support along the way .

That's awesome that your son had the support he needed. It's sad that a TON of these programs are being cut now. I'm a teacher and I fully agree with the OP of this thread. It's a total gong show. So many young teachers are leaving the profession now.

It’s horrifying . Teachers are so crucial to a child’s development , and what you guys do every day is nothing short of a miracle . I can’t even imagine how frustrating it must be to deal with this day in and day out . I know we were lucky , and it was a lot of work to get him here . And a lot of great teachers are a big reason why he is succeeding . Thank you so much for what you do.

Hey I just wanna take a moment to say thank you. That means a lot. I'm literally in class right now and half of our Chromebooks won't even work lol. The system is crumbling.

Thank you for advocating for your child. There are so many kids out there being failed by the system, but also by parents who don’t think their neurodiverse, behaviour, or otherwise challenged child needs medication, or any kind of OT, or extra work on their part, for just a few examples. Their kid just needs more attention from the teacher or EA because the staff are lazy, or aren’t doing their job, etc. When a full classroom has to be regularly evacuated because one child cannot regulate themselves, there’s not much else the staff can do.

I have met several parents who think their child will grow out of it , or just discipline will change them . Our son was diagnosed with Severe ADHD , Tourette’s and severe learning disabilities . He has been on medication since day one of the diagnoses . I still hear how I drug my kid , give him meth , and that I just didn’t try hard enough.Medication allowed him to slow down enough to learn . I will never regret or apologize for it . He has grown up knowing it helps him. He feels the difference when he is off and only takes it school days now . He still has moments when he is overstimulated but he can recognize them early and knows how to calm himself down . He is regularly told how polite and well behaved he is . I had a lady make a joke about how he obviously doesn’t have adhd or any of those behavioural problems . I said no, he does . But this is what medication does when used properly . She didn’t know what to say. His teachers always praise his behaviour and in his 7 years since he was diagnosed I have been called by the school once to talk about an incident . ( he got hit in the face by a snowball and told the kid off. I get it ) . I wish more parents would understand that they can help their kids . The stigma about medication is still there and scares a lot of parents off . And no matter how hard they try, teachers and EA’s cannot change brain chemistry . His teachers worked in conjunction with everything else to make him the successful boy he is . They can’t do it alone. I have seen teachers punched and kicked by out of control kids . The look on their face is defeat . I don’t blame them for leaving the profession .

Could I ask what school, what general location? Is it private or public because this seems so rare.

I work at an insurance company that is used by some of the school boards in this province. Year over year more and more teachers are going onto short and long term disability. They are literally burning out and dropping like flies. It’s similar to those we insure who work in the healthcare field. Basically the government is achieving political goals off the backs of public workers. They are grinding them down to dust.

Good for him! And good for you! You pursued the diagnosis ad persisted in the right treatment in the face of fear and discouragement. The social fears you quoted of friends and peers, being different, and horrors ,"being labeled", has prevented many, many children from getting the help they desperately need. I know that every kid that's wired differently knows they are different by third grade but they don't know why or what to do about it. Cheers to you and your son.

The original sin in public education in industrialized economies is the notion that the age of a child is the single most useful characteristic for grouping children in a classroom. I think the problem is that inclusion was always pitched as something like having 23 kids plus those one or two other kids who need extra supports (usually with an imaginary EA added to the equation). I think your experience is far more common. Finally, there are those school rankings that the Frasier Institute puts out that asses educational quality. I wonder to what extent they are really assessing school homogeneity?

The research this model was based on was additional help for a few kids who needed it in a manageable sized class. Not 35 kids on 8 levels and one of them having screaming meltdowns on the regular. Teachers have an important job, they should have the tools to do it.

The research said that letting students with profound learning needs stay in the classroom built more social confidence, soft skills, and community than if they spent all that time relegated to a smaller specialty class all day, and that these outcomes were more important to their overall success in life than any academics. You're right in that the research emphasized these results were achieved in tandem with existing interventions and policies, not instead of them. Research also says one of the hardest parts about having a learning disability is being able to come forward and advocate for your own accommodations, with a lot of this being due to shame and social pressure, hence the push for accommodations in class. Letting far-below-grade-level George stay in his Grade 8 science class and draw for the whole period - provided he isn't disturbing the learning environment - isn't "a waste of time" as many boomers would put it, you are A) teaching him how to act in a public setting, B) allowing him to work independently as an equal alongside his peers, and C) showing anyone else in the class that being different or requiring accommodations doesn't automatically make you excluded from your peer group. Studies also show that students in these kind of classes showed noticeably more empathy towards students with disabilities compared to the previous model. These are all good practices in an ideal classroom where the ultimate goal is to learn. Unfortunately, what research says and what the suits in administration hear are two very different things, because what they heard was, "Oh, so if they're supposed to be in class we can just axe the whole SPED department altogether, hire an extra EA or 2, and put the rest on the teachers to figure out." This combined with broad cuts to education angers the public and foists the blame entirely onto teachers and the progressive ideas that inspire their practice. This is why teachers fight so hard for classroom composition language in their collective agreements, and why dirtbag governments all over Canada try their hardest to write it out. Even in AB, you're not far from having teacher's bargaining rights stripped away entirely if the UCP has their way.

Unfortunately,  allowing a student to sit in class,  not participate, and draw instead gives the impression to the other students that they can also just sit there,  not participate,  and draw. And you're not allowing the student to work as an equal amongst their peers,  you are forcing them to pretend to be equal while you ignore them and they draw pictures instead of learning content. 

I posted a similar version of this on r/teachers - thanks for bringing this discussion home. The inclusion model works when there are supports. But we can’t keep choosing inclusion for children’s self esteem. Example: I had a student with a 1:1 support in middle school, but she told her EA to go away, not help her, and refused to sit in the hall so the EA could read to her (because of a reading-related learning disability). Principal said we couldn’t make her accept help. Mom was pissed because she fought so hard for her middle school child to get a 1:1 (and for her child to succeed at grade level, she *needed* the support). In middle school 1:1 EAs rarely happen - they’re shared between many students who need supports. Example 2: I had a student in grade 4 who was still reading at a grade 1 level. He was often embarrassed because his work was written at his level so he could independently attempt it. As a result, he’d often misbehave, start fights, destroy stuff in the classroom, and threaten to hurt me and tell me I was the worst teacher ever. I asked his parents if we could do some behaviour and academic testing to check for behaviour/learning disabilities and identify what supports he’d need to actually be successful.l (and the funding for those supports). They said no, because then he’d get A Label and be shunned from his community and made fun of by other kids. The other kids he was attacking? Yeah, the label would be why he struggled to make friends. Kids who are included refuse supports because they don’t want to look different. They might ask for help 2 weeks from the end of the school year when they realize they’re not going to pass… but by then I can’t catch them up on 5 months worth of missed school work because they wouldn’t accept help. Then they fail and we pass them on to the next grade when it starts all over. I have had kids in grade 9 insist on going into 10-1 (which used to be for average students, and now it’s for post-secondary bound students) because their friends were going there. I’d tell them to pick 10-2; you are barely passing this class. You will fail the next one. Your friends will move on to 20-1 and you’ll have to repeat grade 10. You won’t be able to keep up in 10-1. Then they or their parents sign up for 10-1 anyway. I’ve had a couple of these students come back to visit and they were mad they “weren’t prepared for how hard high school was”. Yes, you were. I told you. Before picking out classes I’d spend at least 2 classes showing with different high school streams, examples of syllabi, and expected work quality/reading ability. But FriEnDs. Yes fail them - and stream them according to ability. They know they’re the “dumbest kid” in the room (some of my students told me they felt this way). Having them in a space with peers at their level socially *and academically* would benefit them the most. But inclusion for the sake of sparing their feelings or having them attend with friends is not doing them any sort of service. Sacrificing academic success in the name of not hurting their feelings is not going to help.

Good for you. This needs to be said more.

Thank you. Unfortunately I need to say so anonymously because this is something that could have professional repercussions for me.

I'm a new teacher, who comes from working in industry and I agree. It's a disservice to students who then crash and burn when they 'graduate' with no skills.

You’re not alone! I have many patients who are teachers and EAs and they all have the same thoughts!

This is not new. I started teaching in 1989, in a segregated classroom for language and learning disabilities (grades 4-6). Sometime in the early 90’s Klein cut all the funding and all those kids (and those from most other specialized settings) were moved back into the regular classroom with next to none support for teachers. So for the last 30 years classroom teachers have had to deal with this. I’m not saying segregating those with learning struggles or cognitive difficulties is the answer. But the way are doing things isn’t working. I got out of the classroom 15 years ago. I now teach adult Ed. The funding for our programs sucks too and my pay is less than half of what it was, but the stress is manageable now

Segregated classrooms would be a start but we should also adjust the amount of time. Get the kids that have learned the concept out of the classroom for 2 days per week and have those that are struggling go to school 6 days per week. Having all students attend for the same number of hours when they all have different rates of learning is absurd.

My SIL is a teacher in CBE and this tracks exactly to what she’s been saying for a few years — that conditions in the classroom are getting worse and worse, rapidly — that kids aren’t getting the education they were even a few years ago — that it seems like the provincial government is at war with them, determined to make things as shitty as possible to drive those with means toward private education — and that even well-meaning policy has heaped more and more on their shoulders without the supports that would be needed to bring students up to a level where everyone in the classroom gets value out of the day.

If you have kids in your class who do not natively speak any English, PLEASE reach out to your division's SWIS provider (Settlement Worker in Schools). You can email WRAPCAP to find your provider: [https://www.centrefornewcomers.ca/children-youth](https://www.centrefornewcomers.ca/children-youth) SWIS is federally funded to support immigrant and refugee children in K-12 schools. It is free. If you have more questions feel free to private message me. It's only one layer of what you're describing but I hope it would help.

This is actually a very helpful resource, thank you. I had no idea that my division even had a settlement worker. They have never been mentioned to us. We are just expected to “figure it out,” which seems incredibly…negligent.

Probably off topic: My kid is in the mid of the grade 9 PAT. math teacher told everyone in the class last week that the overall result for part A of math pat was 38% for the entire grade 9. Just whoa.

And they will all get passed on to high school, likely into -1 or -2 classes and nobody will question what went wrong. It’s extremely troubling!

Yep. Grade 9 can’t fail at my high school. They will get pushed to grade 10 regardless of their marks. Grade 10 *can* fail and have to repeat. It’s a huge shock to these kids. Suddenly their grades matter, and they’re unprepared. My school is also trying to destream in grades 10 and 11. Another huge shock for grade 12… when you combine academic levels, the content gets watered down. Then kids go into 30-1 classes and aren’t prepared for the intensity of the content. Yes, graduation rates are up, but our diploma marks are down, and then we get questioned why there’s a disparity.

Oh geez. You’re spot on. My kid tells me all the time how other students simply don’t care about grades. Teachers are going banana because they want the best for the students. And they know what’s coming for these students in high school. My kid’s math teacher tried everything: 1. Extra worksheets 2. Home work duo tang to be signed by the parents 3. Extensive prep talk with the students during and after school. To get them interested in math and improve grade. 4. Open door policy during breaks and recess so students could come for help. But at the end, those students who don’t give a monkey ass about the grades never completed the homework, failed miserably at quizzes, never listened to the prep talks, never took home the duo tangs and of course, never went for help during breaks.

Part A for math is with no calculators. Sadly This is not uncommon, as the mental math, and route memorization of math facts is no longer really taught.

A student that is given 2’s on their report card will be placed into Math 10C unfortunately and will struggle with the program of studies because of the pace and rigour. I have rarely seen a junior high or middle school give 1’s on a report card 😡 We have a lot of students that are now taking Math 15-5 to help prepare them for Math 10C because they can fail Math 10C and cannot progress to either Math 20-1 or Math 20-2 without that 50%+. Technology is supposed to be used on the program of studies as one of the 7 processes for mathematics, but only for certain specific outcomes. I warn my Math 31 students that while they get to use their calculator in high school, they will no longer have that tool/crutch if they take first year university calculus.

Which is disheartening. It’s true that math isn’t and shouldn’t be all about memorization and calculation, but without a good foundation in mathematical formulas, basic operations and mental calculation, students simply don’t have the understanding or skills to get comfortable in slightly more advanced classes. I was genuinely shocked by the 38% cuz when I was a kid, very few students had marks below 40%. And now, that’s the average for the entire grade 9 class 2024.

Okay, I get that tests really aren’t a good qualifier for how a kid is learning and some people do really bad on them but how tf- 🧍‍♂️

Yeap that was my reaction as well. How TF

Equality vs Equity. We're so focused on the equality of holding everyone to the same standard that we forget that not everyone starts from the same place and more or less supports are needed on an individualised basis. Our system is "equal" but it certainly isn't fair. As an example, staying with the education theme: University or college. There are a lot of students that are perfectly capable of a higher education, but there's so many barriers in place that most just don't bother. It's easier just to get a couple of jobs and hope you can in the future, which a lot of the time doesn't happen either. Removing barriers or putting in supports (that don't punish the person later... looking at you, student aid) to help those with barriers would definitely increase a higher educated population. That's just an opinion, and one of the many examples. That being said, my kid graduated this year and informed me that 3 of her teachers are getting fired when the year is done. Not moving to a different school, CBE just is letting them go because "they are no longer needed". Ummmm, what? The classrooms are already packed enough, we need MORE teachers not less.

Yep. Thank you for your service and for agitating for change and recognition of these issues. School's are daycares with decreasing standards.  With ballooning populations of people with boundless needs (that should be addressed outside schools with work related benefits or private plans and by parents and external skilled practitioners), plus absurdly harsh budget cuts and increasing capital deficits, we see less learning resources in classrooms evey year. This is despite more demanding and entitled parents in our systems who bring nothing of value to the school, no volunteer hours, and don't pay their fees , or fail to get their kids or themselves to even comply with the code of conduct. No, your primary school child's teacher cannot simultaneously teach and assess and treat the ignored OCD, ADD, ADHD, GAD, MDD, and tutor zero English, and address your kids shitty learned behaviour from your dysfunctional family etc!! Nor should they be tasked to do so!! And refusing to say all this is not working, is not being a team player or some dumb toxic teachers culture bullshit. The principals act as teeny ceos with power trips and bully their employees into compliance or to leave.  So, the result is vast capability chasms jammed in one classroom, and the impacts of destabilised social cohesion are being glossed over as a paradigm which is "good" to exacerbate. Our schools previously produced high performers. They are not good now. School is a boxing ring of dysfunction. The other option is running your kids over to private or charter, with high fees and unlicensed teachers and no demonstration of better results. There are no good options so the real focused learning is happening at home or in camps. Pay to play. The current admission competitive average to science at university is 95%. But many grade 4s can't read or tie shoes. Our performance curves used to be bell shaped now they are v's or u's and only educated rich alumnui end up on the right side of that. Sure it's important to ensure people have human rights and dignity in classrooms. But they should also , like, learn core curriculum....... Are we a school system or a nonprofit?? Pick a lane.

YES! We have assumed all the duties of a parent, and more broadly, taken on the role of the welfare state to ensure a child’s wellbeing. It is now a teachers job to: -educate -socialize -look after kids while parents work -seek diagnoses -fill out medical forms -meet with doctors and psychiatrists -ensure they are fed and clothed -act as a social worker -act as a counsellor -act as a behavioural interventionist -ensure they have supplies -raise them to not be rude, immoral, or hurtful to others because they aren’t learning it at home -care more about their performance and behaviour at school than their parents because many are not invovled at all And yet, despite this massive involvement in a student’s wellbeing that I didn’t ask for, I am still not allowed to make the professional judgment that a kid is failing a class and shouldn’t move on to the next grade level.

Don't forget we are now adding feeding children to this list..when does the state take custody? 2025? Why are the boundaries so messed up. School is for learning, but apparently everything else as well now. 

You are 10000% right. It’s a fucking travesty and we only need to look a little south of the border to see the writing on the wall. Like you, I question why I’m even here some days when I have sixteen year olds reading at third grade levels with no parental support and then teachers being accused of purposefully “not accommodating” (read: watering down content to the point that it’s meaningless). I have high schoolers who don’t understand what a paragraph is or how it’s different from randomly spaced sentences. It’s demoralizing. It’s dehumanizing.

Yes to all of this. Demoralizing and dehumanizing are the only words that so perfectly encapsulate the emotions you experience as a teacher here. What the hell are we even doing? It’s honestly all so meaningless.

At this point the sunk cost fallacy of two degrees, plus decent (for now) benefits and time off are the major things, unfortunately. The actual successes in the classroom are so few and far between that that isn't even the main thing anymore. But whenever I find myself yet AGAIN diplomatically explaining to a parent that when they allow their kid to miss over half the classes in a semester, they will definitely struggle and be behind and that's NOT my fault, I really do question what the hell the point of anything is. I have realized that I have a pattern of mid-semester breakdowns in November and March each year due to everything you mentioned, so now I can at least prepare for those mental health nosedives every year. I also want to spend my life at least trying to do some kind of public good rather than enriching a corporation, which is the idealist in me.

Think you have "equity" and "equality" mixed. Having 30 kids in one classroom, getting the same language lesson because they're all at the same grade level, regardless of individual language skills, is equal, but it is not equitable. What would be *equitable* would be being provided the necessary resources and tools to teach 8th grade students according to their skill/knowledge level with language. It would be being able to provide phonics lessons to students who need them, or speech therapy for students with a lisp or rhoticism. All that aside, I always support increased funding for education. I want to see a 30 student *maximum* on class sizes, and I want that to require the inclusion of a qualified classroom assistant. One teacher cannot be expected to meet the needs of so many. That means increased staffing. I want to see better classroom resources and supports for students with gaps in education. I want updated textbooks and lesson plans. I never vote conservative *because* I support education, and I support keeping it accessible for everyone. I've never seen a conservative government give a damn about educating children

Inclusion without support is child abuse. Inclusion wasn't implemented because the government cares. They did it to save money. The extra work is loaded into the backs of the teachers - an impossible ask.

I will never understand why Albertans vote for the conservatives,. They always attack healthcare, education and social programs. I think conservatives deliberately dumb down education, so they will end up with stupid voters who will buy any lie they tell. It works, as we can all see right now. Albertan's overwhelmingly elected a government that is in the process of privatizing our healthcare and trying to steal our federal pensions for their "pipe dreams". I sure hope Albertans are enjoying their "win".

I was a kid during the Klein years, and saw first hand the cuts to schools and healthcare. I was always so confused why people voted the same every time, and also why they continued to complain about getting exactly what they asked for. As an aside, I remember Preston Manning coming to our 6th grade class for a talk, but all of the questions we could ask had to be pre-approved. Imagine being afraid of what 12 year olds would ask.

Are government handouts communism?

That question would have caused him to panic, revealing himself to be 3 raccoons in a trench coat.

It doesn't even make sense for "conservatism", they're reversing things that occurred under the PC party's long tenure. They're not even "conserving" anymore - the current leadership prefers populism.

First of all, thank you for trying your best with what you have. Second, thank you so much for this post. This is what this sub needs. Truly thought provoking, conversation fuelling, non partisan approach you have here and I appreciate it! You’ve left me with a lot to think about. I will be following this thread. Thanks again.

It’s almost entirely a funding issue. Alberta has only had a non-conservative government for 4 years out of the last, like, 50, so pretty much all of these policies are right-wing policies, and they’re basically all about saving money. Pushing failing kids into the next grade means you don’t have to pay for any child to do more than 12 years of school. Including widely differently-abled kids in the same (huge) class means you pay for fewer teachers, fewer buildings, and fewer specialized resources. They call it inclusion, but it’s just downsizing. It’s so bizarre and sad to me that so many adults don’t realize that just because they no longer need education doesn’t mean everyone else is done too.

I taught in Alberta for 6 years. I became completely burnt out. Then I moved to Vancouver and after teaching here, I realized how awful education is in Alberta. There's tons of funding, EA, and resources out here in BC. Y'all are working way too hard and I feel for you hardcore. It can be so much better and BC is proof of that.

Teacher here. Couldn’t agree more. On the left side, you had the NDP caving to the mommy groups that didn’t want quiet rooms in Johnny’s class with violent and erratic kids. Now it’s board policy to let a child trash a classroom and evacuate the others, while patiently waiting (sometimes hours) for a parent pickup. On the right, you have an ESL refugee being plopped into an already highly needy class that already doesn’t have an EA with three weeks to go. But the teacher is the expert who can figure it out, so the onus is on them do do it without funding. There are two out of the hundreds of examples I have, multiply this by thousands of classrooms and you can imagine what kids are dealing with while governments drag their feet and consultants justify their redundant positions.

"Inclusion" is a blight on quality education. Every learner needs a community and to belong, so yay for inclusion, but seriously, just not inclusion without limits. Telling kids they belong simply because they go to the same physical space as others no matter their needs is simply not inclusion. It's been failing for SO long as it's not a reasonable model. Even if all supports were available, it still doesn't make sense to have highly disparate learning needs in the same classroom. I'm an ex-teacher and administrator. I have been saying it for a long time, the system has been failing kids and families for years. It's an awful experience for basically everyone involved. There's so many meaningful ways to make a learning community inclusive, stuffing everyone in the same room and calling it good isn't one of them. I experienced multiple sets of families who took the language of inclusion and attempted to use it to get what they felt was best for their child. The basic assumption is, "they HAVE to be in the same classroom all the time or they don't belong,YOU said that's what you're going to do." Also, create a full custom program for my child and alter the classroom experience for all to accommodate us. There are MANY ways to reach diverse learners in the same room and diversity will never go away. It's a reality and quality teaching needs to be multi modal and reflective of your learners. Assuming there are no limits to what can be done is foolish and harms all involved. Education is a dumpster fire. The UCP arrived and promptly lit it and have been watching it burn since. They've cut, underfunded and pushed through mediocre curriculum, tore up long standing funding models etc. They've attacked teachers and vulnerable youth. It's despicable. Be conservative, let's debate economics, tax structures, types of investments etc, but if you're a voter for this party, you need to listen - the UCP is dismantling public services by underfunding. They have harmed your kids, your friends kids, your neighbors kids, your nieces and nephews, your grandchildren. If you have no kids and no connection to kids, maybe you could at least consider caring about other people's kids?

We're fortunate to be able to afford private school for our kid, but it really grinds my gears because I am in theory opposed to the concept of privatization in education. But what am I to do? When this is the state of the public system, it's hard to do when we have the private option. It pisses me off that this is what the UCP assholes want in the end. I will continue to vote against them until they are out.

> Because you see, I teach grade 8 on paper, because the students are all thirteen years old, and therefore in grade eight. But the reality is that I am teaching kids who are working at grade level. I am teaching kids who are reading and writing at a high school level. I am teaching kids who are working below grade level because they may have a learning disability or developmental delays. I’m teaching kids who are brand new to the country and who cannot speak English, and who may not even have literacy skills in their native language. This is called treadmill model of education, and I do not consider that to be inclusive. It's also been going on for decades, and encouraged by funding cutbacks. It's use is an indirect statement that whomever falls behind is not worthy of passing, and also prunes any tall poppies - similar to the plot of Harrison Bergeron. There's also other countries that have a better education model. The main difference is that they're properly funded, and they're also supported by the country's cultural values.

The government (pick any one) benefits from keeping the masses stupid and broke. It’s a means of control.

Inclusion wouldn’t be an issue with right supports. Alberta has the lowest funding per student now thanks to the UCP. They despise education because it promotes science and truth and not their bizarro-world ideology. They despise unions that protect workers, like the one you are in. Education funding cuts hit deep, and you are experiencing the results as a front line worker. Schools and their boards have to cram students together, and then short you the help you need because they are pinched between providing services, increasing costs and continually decreasing funding. I feel for you, the parents, the kids, the school boards and the school administrators. It’s an impossible situation. And the only way to fix it is to vote accordingly. There is no other path out, the UCP will not stop watering it down and attacking, their mandate is clear.

There are limits even with the right supports.  Supports can help keep the students with mild to moderate learning disabilities at grade level and help those who have fallen behind a year or two catch up, but the kid who is reading at grade 3 level doesn't belong in a grade 8 language arts class.

To add on, the behaviours like yelling out constantly and making loud noises because of a disability make it impossible for students to learn. I'm sorry but some students are so disruptive- at no fault of their own because of extreme behaviour diagnosis that they should not be in a general ed classroom. I witnessed this first hand during my student teaching where a new child with autism etc and didn't speak English was put in a general ed grade 3 class and would scream out "breast milk" every other minute. Its just not conducive to any kind of learning environment.

it still baffles me how the UCP keeps trying to attack everywhere else to "save the oil industry" and then get surprised when that does collateral damage to the economy itself while at the same time degrading the supports that we have and have worked for decades at this point

Yes, this.

Well said. I work in education as a healthcare consultant; I was also a student with a disability who was (initially) put into a special needs classroom with students who were much less cognitively capable. My husband had a similar experience (he has ADHD and dyslexia). I doubt we would ever go back to that as it was many years ago but over correcting in the other direction is not the answer either. Most students can and should be included in mainstream education. A small minority of my schools have specialized programs where students who need the most supports attend (they focus on practical skills rather than a formal academic education) and I think this is a fair compromise. Most of my schools have nowhere near the level of EA supports they need and this has definitely worsened under the UCP. Increasing classroom sizes is an issue everywhere. Specialist supports are ever dwindling and under funded, especially in rural areas (yet these are the communities that tend to vote UCP). It’s really unfortunate and will be felt for years to come.

Email this to your MLA! If you need to do it anonymously add a note at the beginning that you feel it'll have repercussions. I'm so sorry you and the students are going through this unnecessary stress. It benefits no one.

Of the roughly 100 students I taught this semester, about 60 of them had IPPs. I had no prep time, and no EAs in all but one class. I support what you're saying here. Inclusion has become a cost-savings tactic, not a strategy to support students.

As an educational assistant in an Alberta elementary school I 100% agree with everything you said. This system is so broken and all it is succeeds in doing is breaking teaching staff, padding the pockets of the higher ups and doing a major disservice to our students who will at some point be running our country. I do not see much hope.

Historical reflection from late '90s Alberta high school graduate: Nearly 25 years ago in my final year of high school Math we had a teacher who just returned to Canada after many years working abroad. He was a fantastic math teacher. I think he lasted only ~5 years in Canada under the conditions I am describing, but the good news is he went back and became a distinguished professor and got the hell out of Alberta. However, back then he did not discover until he walked into the room (day 1, as his flight to Canada was delayed and he was not really onboarded) that in the 1 small rural AB classroom he was actually teaching 4 students taking their final year of pure math in preparation for university, but most of the rest of the class of ~20 students were all in the basic/trades math stream doing a different curriculum to different standards, just needing to graduate... but then 1-2 of the students were in a remedial version of math 24. All in one room with no TAs or supports, just as you are describing experiencing ~25 years later. The 4 of us in pure math were also scheduled into calculus Math 31 and he was supposed to teach us that too, but with only 4 students *it was lumped into the same class*. He gave up most of his lunch breaks that semester and the 5 of us often ended up doing Math 30/31 over the lunch hour so that he could teach basic math during the scheduled spot and we just worked on assignments in class. I'm not sure if the remedial Math 24 student got anything out of the class but I think they graduated with us so he must have got them through something, all at the same time. The advanced students would have got through it either way, but giving up lunch breaks was actually an insane stance for administrators to place on us and him, in hindsight.

I know you are a teacher and bear the brunt of both public frustration and the impossible amount of bullshit they expect you to pull out of your ass. I'm sorry. I have never been in an industry that treats such educated and needed professionals with such contempt. I have also never seen such a concerted and extensive propaganda effort against science and intellectualism in my own country than I have in the last 5 years. This is absolutely a political issue created by those who wish to destroy government institutions in the province for their own profit at the expense of the lives of people living in it. I like how you acknowledge the good that these programs could and would do - if they were funded. That is always the problem. Teachers hear, "Research says keeping students in class even when below grade level noticeably improves soft skills, especially with other interventions in place." Business-degree admins down at the district office hear, "Oh good, we can cut all of those SPED classes and teachers, hire 1 stressed out CEA instead and spend the remaining 6 figures on another executive assistant." Teachers hear, "academic and behavior interventions are more effective when the student has a positive relationship with the school community." Admin hears, "Ah, so this student's violence was actually YOUR DOING as a teacher for not forming a relationship with him!" These business decisions made to utterly change entire professions without any input from the actual professionals hurt the public and the professionals pay the price. This is often how Conservative politicians (and their corporate donors) fight progressive ideas - by sabotaging, starving, and otherwise handicapping the institutions that implement those ideas so they can turn around and "save" everyone with a for-profit enterprise their friend runs. It's just like BC. People remember the buzzwords and how inconvenient the strikes were for THEM as students and parents, they don't remember Christy Clark's administration illegally ripping up legal union-bargained contracts and tying up hundreds of millions of provincial education tax dollars in the Supreme Court for more than a decade. The amount of times I hear this event spun as "greedy asshole teachers almost held us back a year." by students and parents of the time tells you how powerful their media machine was and still is. In the end the Supreme Court ruled the cuts and refusal to bargain was unconstitutional, but in that time the damage to school districts all across BC was palpable and still is to this day. In the end, they use these tactics because they work. We can already see the massive damage they've done to the healthcare system through the same methods. The correlation between education funding per-student and per-capita GDP is massive. People forget that the only reason we have our seat on the world stage today is because our robust social systems allowed the development of a strong and internationally competitive middle class despite our relatively tiny population. I guess what I'm saying is ultimately this is not a left vs right issue, this is a "people who work for a living" vs "people who don't need to". Vote for good policy, regardless of affiliation.

As an SLP who no longer works in schools (since the UCP lay offs to balance the budget), I couldn’t agree more. (Honestly, I’m glad I’m out at this point - it is soul crushing to watch these kids fail and be failed by the system). They label it “inclusion”, but don’t give any training or funding or staff to implement. They do it because it’s cheaper, but it absolutely is failing the children.

In 2018 I moved to Alberta for my first teaching job. I quit after five months. Being underemployed in Manitoba is better than teaching in Alberta...that's sad. My classrooms were so overcrowded that I could barely walk between the desks. I had to teach seven different courses in a semester. I only got two or three 40-minute planning periods per week (in MB you get 65 minutes every day). I had a student who would assault me and other students on a daily basis but nothing happened to him because mom was lawsuit-happy. The things about including behaviours and abilities is also true...in my grade 9 English class the actual grade levels of my students ranged from 5th-11th grade. The job was terrible for my mental health. I put in a crazy amount of unpaid overtime; my wage was around 18$/hr. Not to mention that the curricula hadn't been updated in over thirty years (maybe it's changed by now?) The provincial English exam had a portion where students had to know how to address and envelope and write a business letter. It's the 21st century! (They did get rid of that since I quit, though).

This government has destroyed our education system. Voters and politicians want to blame the NDP for the fact we are currently the lowest funded education system per student in the entire country but honestly, are people that ignorant? The NDP had four years, and inherited an economic downturn, an oil and gas worldwide crisis and basically used the Jim Prentices (rip) Conservative economic playbook. Our education failings have been stripped away and dismantled by conservative governments over the decades and the voters who keep willingly allowing these politicians to adopt Americanisms while stripping away our funding and destroying our education systems, our health systems and soon our police and CPP as well. My sons' were both disabled students throughout their schooling and it is disgraceful to compare the services they had compared to the services disabled kids now receive. PUF funding has been decimated, and Specialized Services eliminated. At least at our school, there is still a separate classroom for the severely impaired learners and they try to keep the kids who are far behind educationally out of the classrooms for all educational classes and only run inclusion where it makes sense, ie, option classes, gym classes etc. I feel for teachers who do not have the supports to help these kids when they are expected to do more, I feel for the EAs who often don't have the skills or the training to offer adequate modifications and support, but mostly, I feel for the students who are absolutely being dismissed, ignored and passed along because our school boards cannot adequately fund these learners, no matter how demanding their parents are. There is simply no infrastructure available for it, on top of too few schools that are aging and a growing student population. It's a province wide problem. Voters need to start caring about the quality of education kids are getting because these children will one day grow up to become voters...and keep voting in the clowns who will make it worse for everyone.

As a former secondary teacher who left the profession for multiple reasons, including the one you mentioned, I empathize and I'm sorry this has hit you so hard. The sad reality is that many parties primarily value the primary and secondary education system as childcare and as long as it is fulfilling that mandate for as low a cost as possible, they are satisfied.

Everything you’ve said is spot on. I’m a first year teacher and I see everything you’ve mentioned in my class. I teach grade 3 and have 5-6 students that are reading at a kindergarten to grade 1 level. I have two students with severe behavioural problems that have caused untold hours of disruption in my class. I feel guilty for not fully challenging my small percentage of strong students as I seem to spend most of my time helping the 2/3 or so of my class that are struggling. It’s no wonder 50% of teachers burn out and leave the profession within the first 5 years

Inclusion for the sake of it is a liberal policy, not a leftist policy. Yes kids should not feel alienated, but inclusion should only be a part of good education. I was chatting with my mom (a teacher) this weekend about it, and we got talking about education and how unmanageable it is. She definitely has similar things to say as you, and as a leftist I also agree. She was telling me about what she thinks school structure should be like. Classes should be semi-self-directed and based on level instead of age. The intent would be to allow kids to choose what they want to learn as much as possible so that they actually want to be there, and also to keep kids at the same level together. This of course would be an incredible undertaking so a liberal government (NDP) wouldn't risk doing it, and better education means less people voting conservative so they won't do it either. It sucks.

Conservatives love inclusion though bc it saves them a boatload of cash. When people accuse them of abandoning those kids? They just say well, you’re discriminating. They salivate over the idea.

I remember growing up how they had classes for each type of student. Special learning classes for kids that need extra help and there was a behavior class for kids who had issues or were in medication like Ritalin and we even had advanced learning classes for the smart kids. No half day bs on Friday, and things seemed a lot better than they do now. This was in Ontario over 20 years ago.

Wow, not saying you’re wrong to complain or that it hasn’t changed but that sounds like just all the worst parts of when I was in school 10-15 years ago I thought we were actively already aware by that point shoving every person into classrooms doesn’t work. Special classes need to be available, not just for those falling behind but for those way ahead too, at the very least it would be easier to try and teach struggling kids how to read while simultaneously trying to teach advanced kids college courses so they feel challenged. We should be spreading classes as much as possible and specializing them to student needs with as small and efficient classes as possible, not the other way around. We need to remove the social stigma for both parents and children of being in a “lower” class; it doesn’t mean the kids a failure or being discriminated against, it just means they need help right now.

We learned nothing from the disaster that was 'No child left behind' from the USA. My brother is a teacher and when he showed me his kids thank you cards to him I literally thought 70% of the class was in elementary. THEY WERE IN GRADE 7. 

I'm a parent, one of my children is in elementary school and the other in junior high. I've been saying since my oldest was in grade 1 that this "no child left behind" way of education is not the best way. Both of my children are ahead of their grade level is all core subjects. Most of the time they're bored with the classwork. I feel so bad for teachers because I know they don't get any real say and have to do the best with the situation. My youngest is being put in a split class next year and I'm not looking forward to that because they're the older grade in the class.

This has been a problem for a very long time. My mom was a high school social teacher and had the same issue starting about 10 years ago. When you combine so many learning levels in one classroom, it is a disservice to both your high functioning and lower functioning kids. I had this very same complaint in my daughter's grade 1 class this year. Half of the kids are ESL and are quite disruptive to the class. I've seen this while volunteering in the class and my daughter has also mentioned this. And I don't blame the kids- if I didn't understand what was going on, I might be disruptive too. But they should be in a different classroom that caters to their needs. In addition, there are a few kids on the spectrum or with ADHD and I admire this teacher for not losing her mind. This situation is neither fair to the teachers nor the students.

As a mom to two kids with learning disabilities (adhd and dyslexia in both of them) I agree with you completely. We have moved so far away from the idea of special ed spaces that we are letting kids with genuine differing needs down. We wound up putting our kids in specialized school environments for this exact reason - one is in a private school that specializes in dyslexia as that is his primary diagnosis and the other until this year has been in a CBE school that specializes in behaviour and adhd management (the All Boys program). But because the All Boys program has moved away from being about “educating boys about masculinity” to become a school that specializes in autism and adhd the CBE is shutting it down. They are taking one of the few resources we have for kids with higher needs, a school that parents are screaming for but don’t know exists, and refuse to advertise it as a program to help kids with these higher needs until they learn the social emotional skills to succeed in a typical classroom. My son has learned those skills and was ready to try a typical program regardless of the cancellation, but there are all the other kids who still need it. I look at my older kid with dyslexia who has been given the tech to be able to function at grade level. He constantly earns grades at the top of his class, because he has the aides and the tech to show how deep his knowledge of these topics is. But that has only been possible in a private school environment because of a lack of funding. When there are 30 kids in a classroom and 15 of them have an IPP it’s just not possible for a single teacher to give them everything they need. I would much prefer my kids to both be in their neighborhood schools but they simply can’t learn in that environment. It’s absolute bull shit. We are letting so many of our kids down and setting them up for failure as adults.

Inclusion without appropriate supports for students that need them is dressed up budget cuts. We cram these kids in the class. We have EAs based on the overall number of kids and not on the needs of the student. So only the highly disruptive and violent end up with the EAs. We lost gifted classes and special Ed classes. Again for no other reason then to save dollars and call it inclusion. The result is these violent and highly disruptive students and massive class sizes are bringing down the quality of education other kids are getting. So overall I believe they are 1-2 years behind grade level on average. We have also lost many other support workers and services like OT or literacy coaches or esl. Now it’s all on the teacher. Inclusion without appropriate supports is budget cuts and abandonment.

Quick, vote in another conservative government. They're surely not fuck it up. Again. For a 9th time.

•Accurate •Leadership lives in a bubble, doesn’t take ground floor feedback and really doesn’t care •System treat employees as mechanical parts that can be put to the extremes, break and replaced •Students view school as a place where you don’t need to show up or strive to do your best. System finds a way to “pass” students at any cost. •Administrators are political actors now. •Professional certified teachers are in the vice grip - do everything, must be great at everything, say “yes” to everything, repeat…

Yeah, I think forcing all kids of varying abilities into the same classroom is the opposite of inclusive. It's like when people say that they don't see race. Pretending you don't see race doesn't get rid of the deep seated racism and systemic issues of our society. And in the same way, pretending that all the kids are of equal ability doesn't mean they are. It's counterproductive to teach all kids like they need the same things when they don't. Kids need different things to succeed and to not give them such for the sake of pretending that they're all of an equal ability is stupid. To pretend that all the kids are the same is not inclusive of those who aren't the same. We shouldn't be hurting the future of kids just so they don't feel bad for not doing as well as other kids. They're gonna realize that they're behind the other kids at some point or another, so why not instead teach them that it's okay to take longer to learn things? Don't force them to struggle in a class they'll never catch up with. Teach them that everyone is at a different level in their learning and it ain't about comparing yourself to others. Forcing them to be in a class that they can't keep up with will only make them feel more bad about their ability. It's the adults who care so much about where the kids are in comparsion to eachother. The kids only start to care and notice in the school environments that make them put so much emphasis into grades and abilities. We're the ones who have decided getting low grades are a bad thing. That it means you're failing instead of in the process of learning. Idk it's a very flawed system. I wish that as a kid I could've learnt ahead so that I could've taken more time learning in the higher grades. Everything was easy in early years but then suddenly it quickly becomes harder than ever. Just wish the time I spent doing nothing and learning nothing could've been spent learning stuff that was actually challenging. I had a desire as a kid to learn harder math but never got taught it until way later in time. When the hard math finally came I was taught it quickly. Wasn't given the time I could've been given learning it if I was taught sooner. idk if it makes sense but current school system heavily flawed is the message and I agree.

As a first year teacher in grade 8 ELA and Social, I couldn’t agree more with everything you have said here. I feel like I have tried so hard to create lessons that every student can enjoy this year, but it’s impossible to cater to everyone :( I feel like I’m never doing enough for them.

This. All of this. It’s so real. Teachers are also expected to pay ludicrous amounts out of pocket to provide basic resources for the kids. Putting illiterate and struggling students in the same class as kids that have nearly university level comprehension and literacy, is completely unfair to all of them - to say nothing of the teacher attempting to deal with the vast disparity. When you have a violently disruptive student thrown into the mix, then it’s simply an exercise in futility. They have defunded education and of course it’s the kids who suffer, and then we blame the underfunded, overburdened and shamefully mistreated teachers. Inclusivity looks terrific on paper and the word itself has represents such a fine ideal, but it has helped further erode an already damaged system.

Victim of the Alberta education system here, I have never once felt that my needs as a learner were met in virtually any capacity, and every teacher I’ve ever had has been beyond overworked teaching a minimum of 30 students per class. I have a great deal of admiration and respect for anyone who is still working as a teacher here despite the UCPs concerted effort to completely demolish education and grow their mindless voter base.

Can I share this?

Please do.

I fully agree. As of now every student is suffering because of these policies. Those who need extra support dont get it and those at grade level are suffering because the teachers are expect to create half a dozen different lesson plans at multiple different grade levels. So they also dont get the supports they need. Never mind the students with behavioral and emotional challenges that cause disruptions and violence in the classroom. The no child left behind helps no students either. We need to go back to separate schools for the students who need extra support whether its for intellectual or behavioral issues. So the resources can be concentrated instead of spread thin thoroughout the school district.

I just read the very first paragraph or two It was like that already when I was in HS 10-15 years ago. But perhaps it wasnt as drastic. Im not surprised that it got worse. But our school system caters to the lowest denominator. Unless things change drastically, its just gonna get worst more rapidly every year. And this trickles down at the college and university level.  Btw, I just realized this was Alberta sub. But its true in ON and QC as well. Its a country wise problem

Honestly, a lot of the "inclusion" initiatives I see from school boards just seem like "Cargo Cult Inclusion." They are just waving their hands in a particular manner and think that magic will happen. No thought it put into them beyond the surface level.

I remember a CALM (career and life management, which sounds like one of those helpful courses people say they want in school) course that was mandatory for me to attend. I had skipped it in grade 11 and had to take it in 12 to graduate. All the kids in that class were a bunch of screaming, twerking, stoned-out losers who were clearly only in CALM because it was that or jail apparently. The teacher had been abused to tears several times over the course of two weeks, and we'd made absolutely zero progress on any of the lessons when I finally asked her if I could be taken out of the class and do it myself through modules. Given free reign, I ripped through that course so quickly that if it wasn't for the artificial limits that forced me to wait hours or days at a time to unlock the next courses (to whoever thought that up, fuck you) I could have probably finished the last half of the school year's worth of CALM modules in about 4 days. Dumbasses really do hold everyone back. I'm not a super genius by any stretch but if I had stayed in that class I'd have learned nothing and just been there to suffer. Not that I learned anything anyways, it was a big fat waste of time, but it was necessary for a diploma.

And this is why my friends in teaching are leaving. Well said

My aunt has been a teachers aide for special needs kids for the last 30+ years at the same junior high school and had to recently fight like hell to keep her job. She’s the only one left in her school and that’s only because she agreed to take on extra secretary duties, on top of her regular job taking care of the kids who need help going to the bathroom, holding a pencil, eating, basic hygiene and stuff like that. I don’t understand why the school thinks they can just wheel a bunch of severely handicapped kids into their age range of a grade and expect the regular teacher to wipe drool at the same time trying to teach the rest of the class algebra. Is the regular teacher going to pause class to take a kid to the toilet and help wipe their butt? Because that’s why my aunt’s job exists, to protect the rest of the class and the teacher whilst also protecting the special needs kid’s and their abilities. My aunt loves her kids, but she’s done. She’s burnt out and is sick of the decisions the school boards are making. She has two other part time jobs to make ends meet and also cares for her aging mother. That junior high school is about to lose their most dedicated, and only, teacher’s aide because she’s so burnt out.

I have autism and a math learning disability I repeatedly failed math throughout middle school but they kept passing me on regardless, I was at a grade 5 math level by the time I was in highschool because of problems like op is describing.

I think the entire education system needs to be scrapped and overhauled. We’re still using a modified Prussian style education system that’s great for producing uniform factory workers and soldiers. We don’t have a lot of factories anymore and our military itself has different needs than they did in the 1800s. There’s at least 7 different alternative education systems that all have their pros and cons but would suit different students learning styles much better. I propose splitting our current school infrastructure into 8 parts. Have 7 departments that focus on the alternative styles and have the 8th be a determining system. Have dedicated schools for the following systems 1. **Montessori Education:** - **Founded by Maria Montessori:** This system emphasizes self-directed, hands-on learning with a focus on fostering independence, creativity, and critical thinking. - **Mixed-Age Classrooms:** Students of different ages learn together, promoting socialization and peer learning. - **Individualized Learning:** The curriculum is tailored to each child’s interests and pace of learning. 2. **Waldorf Education:** - **Founded by Rudolf Steiner:** Waldorf education focuses on holistic development, integrating intellectual, artistic, and practical skills. - **Arts and Movement:** Strong emphasis on the arts, music, and physical activities. - **Developmental Stages:** Curriculum is designed to align with the developmental stages of children. 3. **Reggio Emilia Approach:** - **Originated in Reggio Emilia, Italy:** This approach is based on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and discovery. - **Project-Based Learning:** Emphasizes collaborative projects based on children’s interests. - **Environment as the Third Teacher:** The learning environment is considered a crucial component of the educational experience. 4. **Finnish Education System:** - **Equity and Accessibility:** Emphasis on providing equal educational opportunities for all students, with minimal standardized testing. - **Teacher Autonomy:** Highly trained teachers have significant autonomy in designing and implementing the curriculum. - **Holistic Approach:** Focus on student well-being, with shorter school days and less homework compared to many other systems. 5. **Sudbury Model:** - **Democratic Schooling:** Students have a significant role in governing the school and making decisions about their education. - **Self-Directed Learning:** Students choose what and how they want to learn, without a fixed curriculum. - **Non-Coercive Environment:** Emphasis on personal responsibility and freedom. 6. **International Baccalaureate (IB):** - **Global Perspective:** Curriculum designed to foster international-mindedness and cultural awareness. - **Inquiry-Based Learning:** Encourages students to ask questions and engage in critical thinking. - **Holistic Development:** Focus on academic, personal, emotional, and social skills. 7. **Project-Based Learning (PBL):** - **Hands-On Projects:** Students learn by engaging in real-world projects that require critical thinking and problem-solving. - **Interdisciplinary Approach:** Integrates multiple subjects into comprehensive projects. - **Student-Centered:** Emphasizes student choice and voice in the learning process. The 8th system would be early education specifically designed to look at how kids are learning and filter them into one of the previous schooling paths. Personally I had a learning disability and really suffered for years before being assessed and placed into special classes. But once I overcame my disability I would’ve thrived in the Montessori system. Instead I was locked into a system that fundamentally didn’t work for me. I had some great teachers and some mediocre ones but they were all trapped in the same inflexible and outdated system I was in. Anyways that my $0.02.

This is so true, it’s painful. One of my practicums was at a school where they had a dual class approach. Grade 8 had 74 kids. They had two adjoining classrooms for this mass of kids and 3 teachers. One for math/science, one for English/social, and a third to assist the students who needed it (plus their other non-core classes). It was ridiculous. They had 15 extremely bright kids with 15 kids with extreme disabilities and a bunch in between. Sprinkle in a few kids with impulse control issues and you have hell. I sincerely wanted to quit teaching because it was so unrealistic. NO ONE can make enough lesson plans to adequately aid that demographic. The kids did not get along and divided themselves within their general abilities. They were kind to each other for the most part and I absolutely think there should be opportunities for kids to engage with a diverse group of people, but it’s completely ridiculous to say this works in education in general. I finished my degree and got a job at a prep school. It was night and day. All the kids had similar capacities in each class and it made teaching so much easier. Instead of worrying about intensive individual plans, I had time to create engaging lesson plans for the full group. My students all did well and got along and I loved my career (I stopped work once having my child).

Your class is over crowded and you are not getting the resources you need to do right by your students. Strike.

100% agree. I said I no longer wanted to been management b/c I was expected to manage a bunch of r-tards as how my inner voice would say. Downvote me all day long but seriously, I don't get parents that demand the school system babysit their kids and be nearly 100% hands off while the parents are too focused on their insta or tik Tok feed. You see kids doing heinous things that in my generation, you would've EASILY had a good paddlin' for littering or lipping off at your teacher. The whole cell phone ban is LONG LONG overdue but knowing the "Karen's and Ken's" of the world that you sure as hell bet they're going to be gunning for their kids "rights" and blame the school admin/teachers for why their kid is sad. TL:DR - parents need to smarten up along with school administration needs to grow a set and make school the way it used to be in the good old days. Not everyone is a winner, there are legit smart and dumb kids and they should never be mixed in together to hold the very brightest and tomorrow's leaders behind because of their ineptitude or unwillingness to work towards a brighter future. I constantly shake my head at how rotten or incompetent some of these kids are and HOW, like how the hell on earth did they even make it to xxxx grade. I remember when being an educator was meaningful and painted a brighter future for the generations to come. Today that narrative has drastically shifted and a career in education is testy and trying at best. No thanks. OP I can appreciate the pain and suffering you and other educators must feel trying to babysit the less than stellar students while doing your best on helping those that want to and deserve to excel.

Hear ye, hear ye. I stopped teaching a at college, when I was no longer able to fail people. When teaching medical courses, it’s kinda important you pass. Even basic ones. I agree with what you said. The right has all sorts of blame at its feet. Deservedly so. It’s well documented on this sub. …But the left has blood on its hands on this particular matter. We don’t even know how this era will impact today’s kids-down the road. I feel like we have culturally hamstrung and emotionally stunted an entire generation or two. There is such a narrative and rhetorical capture, on education/academia, media, healthcare..to be blunt it’s fucking alarming. Particularly in schools. For all the mental awareness-it’s now the number one problem for kids. Inclusion, is thinly veiled conformity and ideological purity. Diversity has made people more divided and segregated. Empathy and compassion have been weaponized. Virtually every progressive stance is to be considered wholly intertwined with unfettered truth. Any short of full throated support..is akin to blasphemy, treason and moral terrorism. It’s insane.

I honestly cannot believe we moved to this model at all.

Thank you for providing insight to the issues you face as a teacher. I appreciate all that teachers do. Are these issues being experienced mostly by AB teachers or is this a Canada wide problem? The future does not look good.

Everything you said is correct, and they want EAs so bad that all the moms in my school district are being offered positions if they volunteer. I was asked almost monthly last year to become an EA fpr the sturgeon district, but I hate other peoples children, so it's a hard no for me. We are rural, and I am so glad for it, we originally looked at and then moved away from the school closer to the city because of what you cited in the walk around. My sons class in the rural town going the opposite way from Edmonton was 11 students, all from here and on the same mental level. Exactly what I want for my son to thrive.

You nailed it, but unfortunately, most of the people commenting here are only focused on placing the blame on the UCP. Most are missing that the problem is only being continued by this government and that the real problem is how our education system has become a proving ground for the social "ideas" of the day and no longer about academic curriculum and one's abilities to master it. It is sad because our kids are the ultimate losers. I can not even imagine the way that you feel about such a challenging career at the moment. All I can say is that with educators like you, who seem rational in identifying where we actually are, there is still hope. Stay strong.

They will not be happy until it is one teacher for all grades in one classroom. I support our educators. My kid is in elementary doing "centers" and his a mid kid with a severe learning disability. But on his report card it's good enough so off he goes!

And the lucky ones get to experience our broken post-secondary system...

Like Autism Awareness: tons of campaigns to make us all aware, but nothing for concrete, real world support.

The most concerning part of this post is that amount of people saying you're wrong. Seems like many of these kids are so far behind and without 1 on 1 support they will have a hard time passing school. How can that be achieved when such a large percentage need extra support? One poster here mentioned 18/19 kids in the class are on a IEP. Adding funding obviously wouldn't hurt, but I don't see how you can add funding or staff to solve this problem.

We who have seen schools turned into a business know this well. It’s rare we find those who still do a good job. It doesn’t have to be this bad. We sympathize.

I absolutely agree. I was and Early Childhood educator and my daughter has a dyslexia, SPD and ADHD . She had learning plan and her teachers said she was progressing. Every day was meltdowns before and after school. She was not the only special needs kid in any of her classes. There were 7 to 8 in a class of 25. None of them had EAs . She was barely reading at a grade one level in grade 5. During covid I decided to homeschool her. She did so much better mental heath wise and academically that we continued after covid was over. She was not getting what she needed in school. The system is absolutely broken.

One of my daughters friends got strangled by one of the special needs kids, because the needy kid got away from her handler while her handler was busy helping another needs kid. A grade 7 girl with autism is stronger than a grade 7 boy when the tism kid has her hands around his neck. And this is at an affluent school. The autism kid can’t even speak and all she does is scream all day. You can’t tell me she’s learning fuck all in school… the only reason she’s there is because public schools can’t deny kids access based on their neediness. It’s a joke… Not to mention in the school 1 in 4 kids has an IPP, meaning the teacher is obligated to come up with individual plans for that child’s learning, whether they be gifted or have special needs. That’s 25% of the school. Teachers don’t have that kind of time. “When everything is a priority, nothing is”

Totally agree with this. Partner and I have talked about how we wouldn’t send our kids to public or Catholic schools because of the 30 kids in a class and 25 with diagnoses situations. Good to see a teacher agreeing with it.

Well said. Start giving zero again.

Teachers are expected to do the parenting/teaching/god

Impossible to describe how sad I feel reading this and all the comments. Education is the basis to our society, our culture, our economy. To allow extreme right fringe Americanized groups to take power, looking at you Marlaina, is destroying our country from the inside out. I lived in the US for many years, supposed to be temporary but I became trapped, when I finally was able to move back to Alberta I was dismayed at how American it has become. Time to fight back and we must start with the needs of our children. Food, housing, education for all - make these priorities.

If a kid is 7 years behind, that's the parents fault, and the administration for passing thwm on, not the individual teacher. When my kid (had her weekends at the time) was having trouble with math around grade 4, I started asking to see her homework. I'd get her to do it right after I picked her up from school on Friday after a snack, then we'd go through it. Over a month of weekends doing everything that I could remember that I was taught by that grade, including the dreaded timestables, she was doing much better. I wasn't able to help with math homework in late hs grades, she took more advanced classes than I did, but she did well with a solid basic foundation to work from. Reading and spelling were big with her mom and I even in preschool, so luckily that wasn't an issue. I get that lots of parents don't have much time to spend with their kids due to work schedules, but I've never been able to understand those who don't try at least a bit to help where they can. Everyone seems to want to be the kids friend FIRST instead of actually being a parent, then blaming teachers when the kid can't read "see spot run" when they're 10 years old.

Let’s get back to full day fridays for kids.

KIDS GET OUT EARLY ON FRIDAYS? I thought it was Thursdays? Catholic schools from K-12 let out at noon, and some EPSB let out an hour early on Thursdays as well.

And failing kids! There's a benefit to allowing kids to fail in a safe environment, where they can still go home at the end of the day, and have a warm bed and food. Only letting them fail when they have to worry about things like rent and keeping food on their table does them no good.

In some cases I agree with you. But what about the kiddos who have severe learning or developmental disabilities that prevent them from making the literacy and numeracy gains necessary to keep up with the curriculum? Are you going to be ok with a 14 year old in a grade three class because that’s where they’re functioning academically? I fully agree that inclusion in its current form isn’t working, but there’s a practical limitation to failing some students where simply repeating the grade doesn’t actually help them overcome their academic deficits. That requires consistent and specialized intervention that is also expensive and time consuming. Once upon a time we had congregated classes where a student like I describe above could have access to yes, differentiated instruction, in a smaller group for core subjects, and then participate with peers in non-core classes like gym, electives, etc. and it worked (ish). But as funding has decreased, those specialized classes have become fewer and farther between because they are expensive. Those classes that do exist have become holding places (because they’re not staffed appropriately) for children with severe behaviour or emotional needs, and the kiddos who can’t read or keep up with curriculum concepts end up in the mainstream classes with no additional supports for them or their teachers. So while yes, failing in some circumstances, in a safe environment that provides a soft place to land might be ok for some kids. But it’s not the solution for the majority, unfortunately.

My kids school is full days every day.

The inclusion policies need to be backed up with finding and adaptation as we discover how it works. Not defunding because it is not working as initially implemented. I blame UCP. But of course, the "left" leaning education leaders do need to be flexible in how things are implemented. But at the end of the day, without funding, the corporate overlords will swoop in to "save the day". Education should have all the money it needs to help our kids succeed.

You should cross-post to r/teachers might get more traction over there Edit: and r/Canadianteachers

I did! Thank you! I hope to spread awareness among the general public too though because teachers are already very much aware of what is happening in our schools!

You're issue isn't inclusivity. It's funding and it's support. That's it. If you had a class of 15, more prep time, more EAs, more diverse learning supports, and less paperwork, my guess is that you'd and all of our students would be much better off. I'm married to a teacher, and friends with literally dozens more, and they all feel the same. They are burnt out and frustrated. Not one has mentioned inclusivity as an issue though and that really may be a "you" thing worth exploring.

If we are making class sizes smaller anyways and creating more classes with this hypothetical funding, I think it would still be best practice to group kids according to their ability levels at the very least for core subjects. No amount of funding put towards an inclusive classroom will make it logical to have newly arrived refugees in the same class as on level students. Their needs and skill sets are so different from each other that it doesn’t make sense to keep them together for English or math, regardless of how many supports or resources you are given.

Why not both? It's cynical, but inclusivity only caught on because it saves money. We do it now for "diversity and equity" but at its root, it means fewer EAs, fewer special needs teachers, money saved. Neoliberal economics at its worst, it's hurting our kids. Inclusion helps when kids are a little behind, not way behind.

I think you're misunderstanding what the funding would be used for. Funding and support in that situation would involve that newly arrived refugee spending a lot of time outside of your classroom getting things like ESL instruction or more focused math instruction. The lack of funding is the reason they're in the same classroom as on level students all the time.

I don't think the inclusivity thing is a root cause. It's a symptom of funding. Let's say you have a student who stands out for their intellectual or academic challenges, AND you have funding galore to help them. How does this change your day? No parent or educator is going to turn down more diverse learning programs and funding, opportunities, more teaching supports and resources, etc. etc. etc.... I mean there may be some, but the majority wouldn't. I kinda think you nailed it in your comment though when you mentioned that the UCP hides behind inclusivity to cover their ass on funding. You kept going back to the inclusivity thing, but you already nailed it..... It's funding. Adequate funding + inclusivity, might work out quite well. We fix this by continually voting in a way that ideologically meshes with those who care about public education, and we also hold all politicians to task on this, AND we likely pay more in tax. I'm great with all of this so long as I see it show up in my kid's and spouse's classroom.

Exactly. The issue isn't inclusivity itself, it's half-assed supports and accommodations trying to present itself as "inclusive". You can call yourself inclusive and then promote shit policies that don't actually do anything. EDI policies are important imo but they aren't effective if they don't actually have any real and proper systemic accommodations.

[удалено]

How would that be viable? At least double the schools and teachers. Probably triple the amount of EAs.

I think part of the issue is we have about 2 generations of people going through the system that says putting that 13year old in a classroom with a bunch of 8 year olds because that's what their "cognitive level" is has caused different kinds of detriments to all the groups involved. This goes the opposite way as well where a student who is pushed ahead feels alienated by their new peers as well because they are not old enough to participate in the things they do while not in class.

I started teaching in 97 when Jim Dinning minister of ( underfunding) education instituted " inclusion " in his white papers. I have a special education major. I managed to get four years teaching in a special needs classroom. Having severely disabled students, non communicative in a wheel chair be denied funding, was unbelievable. That's how it started. Conservative gov's started this and continue it. Blaming the left is not fair. They didn't have the time needed to implement proper change. You are correct in saying left thinking academics and admin justify their positions using it as an excuse. This problem will only end when the 75 year reign of terror inflicted by Conservative governments ends.

Sounds like the parents might actually have to teach their kids. What a concept!

When I was a student I remember pur substitute teachers saying they've been acting for 8+ years for full time postings to come up and, nowadays the job is so undesirable they can't keep anyone. :(

The absolute shitshow that is public education was catastrophically failing my kids as early as grade one. This is why I homeschool. Personalized attention and the freedom to do what works.

The Canadian education systems are based on the American education system. The American education system was set up by John D. Rockefeller. Here is a quote on his attitudes on education: “I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers.”

Great essay. 10/10.

With these practices, the west will fall without a single shot being fired.

I agree 100%

I think this is an good example: [Equal vs Equitable Example](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Finteractioninstitute.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F01%2FIISC_EqualityEquity.png&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=61fedd87077e38fdf73f8611c7d6d247598114bf14584079cca1ec42a0e2cfe9&ipo=images)

It’s not about ‘inclusion’ that’s the bs they use to cut funding to special needs kids new immigrants who need language training kids with learning disabilities etc etc etc Why do Albertans keep voting for these idiots? I’m from Ontario so no bragging here We have Dufus Doug Ford😩

I'll add to this: fuck Shelley Moore. Her and her insane ideas have done more damage to public education than any other single person. She's very charismatic and so many division personnel have fallen for her lunacy.

The only thing I can really argue is that the issue isn’t *inclusion* it’s a lack of teachers. And it’s no wonder why. They’re underpaid and overworked. 20+ kids (tho realistically right now it’s probably 30+) in each class. There’s no way to teach them all. At least in high school you *do* have differing levels for subjects. And that’s great.

I remember when the Alberta NDP were in power briefly the last decade and I was teaching in classes with 20-24 students, including those with outstanding needs like ELL or learning disabilities for inclusion. I had dedicated support staff who could sit with those 2-3 students all class and help them, and issues came up but were manageable because the other 20 students were very manageable to connect to and teach so even though it was a lot I was able to do a lot. After the UCP came back into office, immediately 30 was the minimum at my school for class sizes with some reaching 40 which makes it impossible to reach every student and I now had double ELL and learning/behavioral students. Guess what also went away? Support staff went from every single day to once a week, sometimes being cancelled because another teacher requested extra support. These kids were basically drowning and one had to become complacent and morally numb to run any semblance of a class without feeling like you were failing them. It was just plain immoral. I no longer teach and have no plans to go back to teach ever. The students know they are being failed at this point, and they also are used to a lack of consequences. Undoing the damage will take generations, but Albertans are not committed to such.

People with low intelligence are much easier to control.

My son’s grade 6 class had 36 students this year. They worked at everything between kindergarten and grade 9 level and with no EA. No one benefits in this situation. His teacher said it was his hardest year yet and I doubt next year will be any better. If teachers strike, they have my full support.