I’m told that at a time long, long ago, Ontario’s curriculum was actually the envy of the world. We were a province which always outperformed the Englands, Japans, and definately the United States of the world. Today, the results are far more mixed. Strangely enough, today’s crisis in education lies at the feet of all three provincial parties: the Progressive Conservatives, the Liberals and the New Democrats. Education is one of those issues though where the real blame, like that of municipal government mismanagement, lies with the unions involved. In this case, the culprits of the OSSTF, OECTA, ETFA and their ilk have constructed a system that today serves the union bigwigs more than it does the teachers in the classroom and especially the students. I’ve (thankfully) been outside of the government education system for over five years now but I still have memories going back to the early days of school when union policies either tried to abuse my trust (my grade 3 teacher had us sign a petition to the school board asking the trustees to give the teachers a better raise), indoctrinate me (grade 9’s “religion” class dealt with “moral issues” as the teacher put it like why the Harris government’s Bill 160 was socially unjust) or simply deny me the education that I kept hearing from these unions that I deserved (pretty much the entire experience aside from an outstanding teacher here and there). We now see our students regularly out-performed by upper-crust areas like New Jersey, Eastern Europe and poorer parts of Asia. I know first hand how our current education system fails students, having attended government schools for 15 of the last 25 years and seeing many fellow students’s potential being squashed by union interests.

Meanwhile, I have a few friends in teachers colleges across the province who have reported back that specific unions have come into their classes to tell them the names of Liberal candidates in the local areas that they were expected to vote for “if you want a job after school” or how there are now classes dedicated to teaching how great a man Pierre Trudeau was (even if he were a great man, a controversial statement in itself, should we not teach the students to judge history for themselves?). As they say, your tax dollars at work.

I found this video on YouTube today that brought me back to these issues and reminded me of just how intellectually bankrupt our system is, and ethically destitute the unions which brought it about are. The United States has many good things, and many bad but one constant in the latter category has been its education system which has been a point of grief in that country since at least the time of the civil rights movement. Watching the video, it really depressed me to notice how much of the show could be cast in Ontario these days — particularly the part around the 22 minute mark. John Stossel is a personal favourite, and 20/20 (like all TV investigative journalism shows) should be watched with caution but aside from the fact that the network has a vested interest in not being sued for slander, Stossel makes his best point at the end of the show: a hope that this sparks a debate.