Mr. Black also has jumped into the fray concerning Wilfred Laurier University and western education generally. And like others, I am sure , I appreciate his columns and ideas on the many subjects he covers. Including this latest one.
And rather than just criticize he tries to provide some solutions. I quote:’
‘I take advantage of Shepherd’s persecution( At Wilfred Laurier) to propose the outline of a radical plan for the resuscitation of Western education.
In addition to deunionizing the schools, testing all the teachers and students for objective competence levels each year and rewarding them all meritocratically, (i.e. those who fail do not proceed farther until they pass), we must get over our collective snobbery about skilled work and trades and produce people who can do the work society needs and will pay for, even if we have to call plumbers bachelors of sanitary engineering. Much of undergraduate university could be put online and the personnel could be thinned out accordingly. The untouchability of tenured professors must be revoked in cases of egregious abuse, just as the protection of incompetent or indolent teachers must be ended. Any strikes should be interpreted as acts of resignation. Abstruse university courses, which will include propagandistic examinations of very absurd and faddish subjects, should be cut back somewhat, and possibly made more expensive than more productive disciplines and curriculum. Any university that fails to maintain normal freedom of expression and encourage civilized exchange should have its charter revoked.’
Sadly , while these ideas are desperately needed the ‘ fix is in’ and has been for quite some time now where the public unions virtually control education in this country and Governments are afraid to take them on and explain to the people just what is happening.
Back in the nineteen eighties I was engaged in a bitter dispute with teachers in Newfoundland . It was during an election campaign and the opposition was fierce , but I found that when you explained the totality of the situation most voters understood and we still won the election .
Similarly, today we need strong leadership to outline the facts and stand by them. Many people just don’t know how much an average professor works each week and how much they get paid . How a University allocates its budget etc., for example , is seldom described in the media. A couple of years back the Auditior General in Newfoundland did a review of Memorial University and found all sorts of waste and poor allocation of resources. It was a one day affair in the media and that was that.
Health and Education have been sacred cows for far too long in this country. Hence, honest debate concerning them has been non existent , except for those championing more of the same with more and more money.
Mr. Black is to be commended for attacking these monsters but like so much today, it is likely to be forgotten soon after it is read.
And the mediocrity and worse will continue .
peckford42 