Read the Column Canadians have long entrusted their children’s education to public schools. Unfortunately, new data suggest the vast majority think government-run K-12 systems have lost their way and need to return to their roots. Article content A new poll conducted for SecondStreet.org by Leger shows 53 per cent of Canadians believe the K-12 system has gone in the wrong direction over the past 20 years, with only about one in four confident we’re on the right track. In 2020, only 32 per cent of respondents thought the system was headed in the wrong direction — a clear indication things have gotten worse. Why? The latest numbers show Canadians are concerned about both the way core subjects like reading, writing and math are taught and the safety and discipline of the environment in which students are asked to learn. The data also show the public is interested in more choice — in particular, in copying a successful education model currently in use in Alberta. Since the 1990s, Canada’s public schools have shifted away from “structured literacy” based on phonics (sounding words out) toward a “balanced literacy approach” that uses cues and clues like pictures to guess words. This shift, which was formalized over the past 20 years, has led to a documented decline in literacy rates. Over the same period, public schools also changed how they taught math — moving away from explicit instruction and rote memorization (e.g. times tables) to “discovery math.” As the name suggests, this method encourages students to discover their own approach to math problem-solving without first explaining basic arithmetic and math facts. It turns out kids aren’t good at discovery, with some data suggesting current students are now testing two school years below where students were in 2003. Understandably, the majority of respondents to this year’s poll (56 per cent) think schools should get back to basics and use more traditional approaches to teach core subjects, with only one in four supporting continued use of the new methods. Canadians also believe that before proceeding to the next grade students should be able to demonstrate they have learned what they were supposed to learn. That’s not…​Read More