Change of Focus
The Vision 2020 by 2020 project has been put on hold in order to devote resources to the Ottawa Public School Reform Initiative (OPSRI) which promises to produce more immediate results. Please visit the temporary OPSRI site for more information.
Following are quotes that give a taste of the thinking behind these two initiatives.
From Alternatives to School, December 2014 newsletter Quote of the Month |
“We destroy the love of learning in children, which is so strong when they are small, by encouraging and compelling them to work for petty and contemptible rewards, gold stars, or papers marked 100 and tacked to the wall, or A’s on report cards, or honor rolls, or dean’s lists, or Phi Beta Kappa keys, in short, for the ignoble satisfaction of feeling that they are better than someone else.” -John Holt |
From John Gatto, Dumbing Us Down, 1992 |
“It is the great triumph of compulsory government monopoly mass-schooling that among even the best of my fellow teachers, and among even the best of my students’ parents, only a small number can imagine a different way to do things.” |
From Diane Ravitch blog post January 19, 2015 http://dianeravitch.net/2015/01/19/in-honor-of-dr-martin-luther-king-jr/ |
“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles; Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances. Courage breeds creativity; Cowardice represses fear and is mastered by it. Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency ask the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular?But conscience ask the question, is it right? And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.” |
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