[biggie]

I find it interesting how much of a focus there has been of late on raising literacy in this country. We hold a literacy rate of 99% according to the CIA world factbook - lower numbers i've seen suggest 97%.

I for one am not alarmed about 3% of the population being unable to read. Again we have the NDP and liberals crying about a tiny portion of the population. It is questionable as to whether that percent of the population is even able or willing to learn to read/write.

Are the answers to the literacy "problem" in this country ensuring proper government funding? Or is it a matter of fostering a better educational experience?
I for one think that the Education system in this country(province by province obviously) needs a serious revamp from the ground up. There needs to be some sort of attention paid to the way that teachers teach children - We need new methods to bring children into learning and get them excited. I think we also need more charter schools and the like(I attended one in Sherwood Park - although there were some issues, the educational experience was extremely good).

In Highschools I think there needs to be more confidential feedback from students - Right to the highest echelons of the public school system.. Speaking from personal experience, there are many things that happen in the classroom that people other than principals should be privy to.

I think there needs to be barriers to corrective action broken, our education system is much too important to be allowing things like this to happen.


Any thoughts?

[torian]

let me tell you a story...

My kids are in the primary grades. I volunteered to help out with a project that had teachers sending me text written by both teachers and students. All I was supposed to do was format these files, but I could not just do that.

I was appalled by the many grammatical errors made by both groups. Not knowing the diff between its and it's, to, and too, students unable to write a complete sentence, you name it. I could not leave these files as they were.

It saddened me that our public education has come to this. Whatever happened to emphasizing the basics: reading, writing, math, science, arts. Now we have "character education" and special interest groups demanding students be taught about gay figures in society. No wonder kids come out not knowing how to write a sentence. And it kind of helps if the people teaching knew a bit about the information they are teaching, too.

[kwlafayette]

I know a guy who cannot read. He does not want for work though, because when he is on the job, the calves always live, the fences are always good, and things go generally well.

He does need help with taxes and other documents though, but he has friends and family for that.