It’s a good time of year

Commentary by Jeff Burgar
Express staff

A measure of a community is the quality of its schools.

As it happens, this is a great time for parents, business people and brothers and sisters to get at least one opinion just how good some of our schools really are.

Why? Because right now, many of the kids off to college are home for the summer. Spend time with these young adults. You might get an earfull exactly what they think of our hometown schools, teachers and the whole system.

Did the system prepare them well for the big outside world? Have their eyes been opened perhaps a little too much how well off, or how poorly off, we are here in Northern Alberta? Are they coming home with ideas what needs to be enhanced, changed or tossed?

You bet they are.

There are huge, huge issues well known in rural Alberta. A monster is the quality of workshops and labs. It’s often said big city schools throw out better equipment than what small town schools work with. It’s true.

Another issue is the depth of the bench, so to speak. Too many schools across rural Alberta just don’t have teachers trained, especially in math, to properly teach budding engineers, scientists and business people. There’s more.

To keep it simple, things lacking shouldn’t be tolerated, never mind accepted year after year. As one returning student told me last week, ‘’It’s good to see some of those dinosaurs finally gone. You have no idea how bad an impression they left on me.’’

The sad truth is, we really don’t listen much, if at all, to what these young adults have to say. Every year brings a new crop of graduates. Every year at graduation time, some dignified fuddy talks about how these students are our future. Then we totally tune them out.

How we treat students is similar to asking cooks, or owners of a restaurant, what they think of the food they are serving. Ask the customers? Heavens, customers have no clue the hoops, loops and troubles it takes to put a meal in front of them. It’s absolute foolishness to ask them! They just don’t understand!

So, here we are. Many students coming home are two, three and four years out of high school. Some are brand new. Between them all, how many have the same or similar issues?

And how many of these issues are the same as ten, twenty or thirty years ago?

Ask these young adults. You will soon find out.

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