Michael Zwaagstra: How Schools can Close the Gap

Picture a school in an underprivileged part of north London, England.

One-third of nearby families live in poverty, a significant percentage are visible minorities, and the neighbourhood crime rate is twice the national average. What kind of academic results would you expect from this school?

If you expected this school to score below average, think again. Michaela Community School is one of the top-performing schools in the United Kingdom. In fact, students at Michaela scored substantially higher than the national average.

With such impressive results, this school is definitely worth a closer look.

Michael C. Zwaagstra: More Canadian History Needed In Schools

Last fall, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario demanded that John A. Macdonald’s name be stricken from all public schools in the province. More recently, Halifax’s city council voted to remove the Edward Cornwallis statue that had stood downtown since 1931. Both decisions were vigorously debated at the time and public opinion remains sharply divided.

These are two separate events about two different individuals. Nevertheless, the underlying theme is the same. Both Macdonald and Cornwallis stand accused of crimes against Indigenous people.

Michael Zwaagstra: Brainwashed Students Aren’t Critical Thinkers

There is a fine line between teaching and brainwashing. Teaching informs students about the world around them and helps them become critical thinkers. In contrast, brainwashing provides students with heavily skewed information that leads to one predetermined conclusion.

It’s easy to mix these two things up if we aren’t careful.