Sexual Education in Schools

Sexual education has always been a tricky subject among youth and incorporating it into the curriculum, as I mentioned before when talking about religion. This sort of education becomes necessary as youth get older and begin to become curious about their bodies, whether it be from the school or from their individual’s parents becomes the snagging point for much of the controversy. There are a number of reasons pro education and con education and they are as follows:

Homeschooling and Curriculum

Despite not being an overly popular method of educating, various reasons drive parents into home schooling and even though they are not in the classroom, students are obviously still expected to meet the traditional methods of evaluation. The Canadian Homeschooler is a website that is designed to help educators in the home schooling environment design new lesson plans and keep their activities fresh and interesting.

Religion in Schools

This video contains three short commercials, which are part of a political campaign for the Freedom party of Ontario. It starts out singling out certain schools that allow their students to practice religious faith in school. It goes on to say that the Progressive Conservative party aims to use taxpayer’s money to organize religious public schools.

Canada's Sports Hall of Fame

he Alberta school board has introduced a new aspect to their curriculum involving Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. Not only will students have their day-to-day physical education but also the schools have initiated a program in September 2011 that involves a two-hour visit to the institute where the students are given the opportunity to explore a part of Canadian history, experience a stories of iconic athletes and participate in work shops aimed at different learning programs

Nova Scotia changing school curriculum - CBC News

There has been a lot of controversy revolving around education cuts in Nova Scotia, talks of teaching jobs being cut, schools being closed and the number of teaching aids being drastically reduced. With these budget cuts on the horizon it is hard to imagine that the Nova Scotia government has approved 6.7 million dollars to be spent on reviewing and changing the current curriculum, yet that is exactly what has happened. CBC news reports

Goldstein’s “Snakes and Ladders” as Critical Pedagogy

The performed ethnography, “Snakes and Ladders” by Goldstein is an interesting teaching tool; used not only to raise awareness of the major societal issues of homophobia and racism but also the interior conflicts and workings of a school institution. This piece of work is absolutely an example of critical pedagogy, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the medium of this ethnography is more engaging than a simple study and article, making it more intriguing for the student body.

Foucault on early education

Despite Michel Foucault not having study the processes of education it isn’t such a far cry to use some of his theories in relation with education. Deacon’s article “Michel Foucault on Education: a preliminary theoretical overview” exemplifies this. In the article he talks about several ways in which Foucault’s ideas can be accurately used to describe the development of the education system and its affects on society. It is through his concepts that many different techniques and aspects of schooling have been developed, one of which Deacon discusses which he calls “moral orthopedics”.

Paulo Freire’s The Pedagogy of the Oppressed and its Effect on Society

In Chapter two of Paulo Freire’s work, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he discusses and compares different methods of education, the banking method and the problem posing method and how they are either oppressive or beneficial to the student body and man kind as a whole. The banking method consists of teachers depositing the information into the student’s minds, allowing them to memorize it and then withdrawing it at will, leaving the student merely a shell that is to be filled and emptied on call. The method of problem posing education is far more beneficial to the student. It challenges their thinking and just as the name suggests, poses problems

George Dei’s Revision of the School System

In George Dei’s article on education, “Schooling as Community: Race, Schooling and the Education of African Youth”, he suggest a concept he calls community schooling. He argues extensively that this is the solution to the discrepancy between black and white students and their success rates. He defines it as an inclusion of all aspects of a student’s life, rather than just the educational processes. Dei says that one of the most important aspects to focus on to achieve a more diverse success rate in students is their culture, background and identity. He also stresses though, that as important as the community is to the process of education, one must remember that it is not actually the community’s responsibility to educate its youth. “While no one

Gender and Class Based Cultural Capital

Class and gender-based cultural capital is an impacting factor on many students. They not only influence the outcomes of classes, but they also influence the overall outcome of a student’s educational experience. In my experience, gander based cultural capital was not a negative thing but for the most part, very equal opportunities. Class based cultural capital on the other hand is a little more of a sensitive subject. The difference in class was very abrupt in some situations regarding our educational experiences.