For me, going to school was always about becoming better. Moving towards becoming an expert in what I was studying. In part, this was encouraged by my parents who instilled the values of anything worth doing is worth doing well and partly due to being adept at learning new things and the satisfaction it brought.
As a teacher, I am more often than not frustrated by students who care little about their education. And, as I get to know some of these students better, I do side with them. A little. I can't imagine being 16 years old and still sitting in math class when math beyond simple numeracy will have no benefit to my career. For some of these students, the courses they are forced to take to earn their coveted high school diplomas are subjects that completely elude them. I can't imagine sitting there, struggling to learn. Until freedom at age 18.
And while part of me gets so angry that many students in high schools throw their gift of education away, what really makes me angry is when programs that honour gifted students are shut down. I stumbled across the following video made by students from Peterborough Collegiate Vocational Institute. Their school, along with arts program for gifted performers is being closed down. The artist whose song they are singing, claims she cried when she heard their rendition, sung in the stair well of the soon to be closed school. I truly don't understand how our society and education system can support imprisoning students in classes they don't want to take, throwing money at programs to, at any cost, find alternatives to get students credits they don't want or need for their careers, but close down a school and program that students do want. A program that fosters talents and allowed the creation of this....
