"Dear fellow petitioners,
Before I forget again, my email address is mrgranthd@yahoo.ca in case you have further thoughts and suggestions. Please continue to CC a copy of your MLA letters to myself, as Mr. Manegre is tabulating the letters.
If I may put a few things into perspective:
1. I've been told that each signature on this petition likely represents 10-15 individuals who are in agreement with us but haven't yet signed. So 11,000 signatures may actually represent over 100,000 people. And because of your efforts, the signatures continue to mount to show Johnson exactly how we feel about the "new math" curriculum.
2. Each signature may represent 2-3 children in the system, and so potentially, we are the voice of nearly 2-300,000 children.
3. There are nearly 11,200 signatures today. Alison Redford was elected in Calgary-Elbow with 11,181 votes and Johnson in Athabasca/Redwater with 7377 votes.
This past week has been tense.
On Mon, Mar 10th, the Globe and Mail published my blog:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/alberta-education-reforms-ignore-kids-parents/article17390684/
And by Tuesday, Mar 11th, Johnson quickly jumped on the terms "partners in learning" and "self-directed learners", two descriptors I had used in my article, and called them "rubbish".
http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2014/03/12/is-redford-government-backing-away-from-its-radical-curriculum-rewrite/
Of course those terms aren't "rubbish" at all, as they are in-line with the goals of discovery-based learning. But, as you can read in Staples' blog, it seems that with all the criticism of their redesign plans, the ministry may be back peddling a bit. You can compare Johnson's current comments to the ministry's previous statements of transforming the schools through the "Inspiring Education" vision. Even the fact sheets on the current Revised Math Program of studies state the following:
YESTERDAY's classroom - Teacher showing students how to solve questions and students copying steps from the board
TODAY's classroom - Students working together on genuine math tasks receiving guidance from the teacher WHEN NEEDED.
Also on Tues, Mar 11th, with the help of the passionate Wildrose Education advocate Bruce McAllister, we had a press conference with Dr. Troitsky (UofA mathematician), Jerry Manegre (retired school trustee), Jeanne Manegre (retired teacher), Dr. Marion Leithead (retired Education doctorate), Bill Leithead (retired engineer), Maurya Braun (environmental consultant), and Debra Hoover (parent representative) in attendance.
We then sat in on the Legislative Assembly's Question Period to "confront" Minister Johnson (from the balcony) with the request, through Bruce McAllister, to meet. Despite all of Johnson's grandiose talk about listening and being responsive, Johnson once again avoided committing to a personal meeting with myself and the team by stating that "WE have met three times". In fact our team has met with the ministry only twice, for less than an hour each, and neither time was Johnson present. It is, therefore, a clear misrepresentation of the situation, and as we realize now, the two times we had met with his staff (Greg Bass and Thomas Bradley) were mere public relation gestures, as Deputy Minister Greg Bass stated in his letter that they see no immediate need for change (despite the thousands of reports of harm to our children). Of course, Johnson got heckled in the House for uttering the blatant untruth.
On Mar 12th, Johnson felt the need to form solidarity with the teachers by sending out an important message to the association with the following statement:
"IN SPITE OF RECENT CRITICISM BY SOME, let me assure you that our Premier and government are incredibly proud of educators like you that have made our education system one of the best performing in the world. "
You know that from the very beginning we have not once criticized the teachers, only the curriculum.
Then on Thurs, Mar13th, Johnson emailed myself to tell me that he had "great concerns over your continued depiction of Alberta's Curriculum Redesign initiative....Let me be clear, Alberta is not moving to discovery-based learning." Instead, the redesign goal is for "Inquiry-based" learning, which he claims there is evidence for.
On Mar 14th, Staples quote Johnson saying he "doesn't know where that crap (regarding discovery learning model) came from."
The issue extends much deeper than just having our children memorize the times table, but he is not willing to sit down, to collaborate to find a solution. I just don't understand the reluctance to meet, to perhaps clear the air between the two sides. Though he states he is listening, I have little trust or faith in Johnson or the ministry right now. Johnson has yet to come forth as a leader.
We are truly feeling that we are exhausting many avenues, and a mass peaceful demonstration is becoming more of a reality. Let us tentatively aim for sometime during the week of Apr 14-17th. It is not something we take lightly because there is only one chance for us to get it right. One chance for us to show them that we stand united for our children's education.
Again, LIKE our Alberta Math Petition facebook page in case there are last minute developments or changes to our plans, since I can only email you once per week through change.org.
Thank you again for your tremendous help so far. I am grateful for your strength and passion in this matter.
Kindest regards,
Dr. Nhung Tran-Davies "
Before I forget again, my email address is mrgranthd@yahoo.ca in case you have further thoughts and suggestions. Please continue to CC a copy of your MLA letters to myself, as Mr. Manegre is tabulating the letters.
If I may put a few things into perspective:
1. I've been told that each signature on this petition likely represents 10-15 individuals who are in agreement with us but haven't yet signed. So 11,000 signatures may actually represent over 100,000 people. And because of your efforts, the signatures continue to mount to show Johnson exactly how we feel about the "new math" curriculum.
2. Each signature may represent 2-3 children in the system, and so potentially, we are the voice of nearly 2-300,000 children.
3. There are nearly 11,200 signatures today. Alison Redford was elected in Calgary-Elbow with 11,181 votes and Johnson in Athabasca/Redwater with 7377 votes.
This past week has been tense.
On Mon, Mar 10th, the Globe and Mail published my blog:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/alberta-education-reforms-ignore-kids-parents/article17390684/
And by Tuesday, Mar 11th, Johnson quickly jumped on the terms "partners in learning" and "self-directed learners", two descriptors I had used in my article, and called them "rubbish".
http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2014/03/12/is-redford-government-backing-away-from-its-radical-curriculum-rewrite/
Of course those terms aren't "rubbish" at all, as they are in-line with the goals of discovery-based learning. But, as you can read in Staples' blog, it seems that with all the criticism of their redesign plans, the ministry may be back peddling a bit. You can compare Johnson's current comments to the ministry's previous statements of transforming the schools through the "Inspiring Education" vision. Even the fact sheets on the current Revised Math Program of studies state the following:
YESTERDAY's classroom - Teacher showing students how to solve questions and students copying steps from the board
TODAY's classroom - Students working together on genuine math tasks receiving guidance from the teacher WHEN NEEDED.
Also on Tues, Mar 11th, with the help of the passionate Wildrose Education advocate Bruce McAllister, we had a press conference with Dr. Troitsky (UofA mathematician), Jerry Manegre (retired school trustee), Jeanne Manegre (retired teacher), Dr. Marion Leithead (retired Education doctorate), Bill Leithead (retired engineer), Maurya Braun (environmental consultant), and Debra Hoover (parent representative) in attendance.
We then sat in on the Legislative Assembly's Question Period to "confront" Minister Johnson (from the balcony) with the request, through Bruce McAllister, to meet. Despite all of Johnson's grandiose talk about listening and being responsive, Johnson once again avoided committing to a personal meeting with myself and the team by stating that "WE have met three times". In fact our team has met with the ministry only twice, for less than an hour each, and neither time was Johnson present. It is, therefore, a clear misrepresentation of the situation, and as we realize now, the two times we had met with his staff (Greg Bass and Thomas Bradley) were mere public relation gestures, as Deputy Minister Greg Bass stated in his letter that they see no immediate need for change (despite the thousands of reports of harm to our children). Of course, Johnson got heckled in the House for uttering the blatant untruth.
On Mar 12th, Johnson felt the need to form solidarity with the teachers by sending out an important message to the association with the following statement:
"IN SPITE OF RECENT CRITICISM BY SOME, let me assure you that our Premier and government are incredibly proud of educators like you that have made our education system one of the best performing in the world. "
You know that from the very beginning we have not once criticized the teachers, only the curriculum.
Then on Thurs, Mar13th, Johnson emailed myself to tell me that he had "great concerns over your continued depiction of Alberta's Curriculum Redesign initiative....Let me be clear, Alberta is not moving to discovery-based learning." Instead, the redesign goal is for "Inquiry-based" learning, which he claims there is evidence for.
On Mar 14th, Staples quote Johnson saying he "doesn't know where that crap (regarding discovery learning model) came from."
The issue extends much deeper than just having our children memorize the times table, but he is not willing to sit down, to collaborate to find a solution. I just don't understand the reluctance to meet, to perhaps clear the air between the two sides. Though he states he is listening, I have little trust or faith in Johnson or the ministry right now. Johnson has yet to come forth as a leader.
We are truly feeling that we are exhausting many avenues, and a mass peaceful demonstration is becoming more of a reality. Let us tentatively aim for sometime during the week of Apr 14-17th. It is not something we take lightly because there is only one chance for us to get it right. One chance for us to show them that we stand united for our children's education.
Again, LIKE our Alberta Math Petition facebook page in case there are last minute developments or changes to our plans, since I can only email you once per week through change.org.
Thank you again for your tremendous help so far. I am grateful for your strength and passion in this matter.
Kindest regards,
Dr. Nhung Tran-Davies "
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