Nostalgia doesn’t represent all
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Dear Editor,
I usually enjoy reading Colleen Palumbo’s regular “Turning Back the Pages” column. However, I feel some of the nostalgic sense of last week’s article about remembering days gone has missed the mark of her usually informative pieces. The problem with nostalgia is that it paints a picture of a time that may have been true for some, but doesn’t represent the experiences of many. For example, when Mrs. Palumbo says, “You couldn’t get to the 7th grade and not know how to read,” she is probably right. What she doesn’t mention, though, is that the students who struggled often dropped out and moved ahead into the world without basic literacy skills. Many students who couldn’t meet academic requirements because of disabilities or other impairments were shipped off to institutions. Many Aboriginal learners were still being sent to residential schools, away from their parents, culture and support community. I don’t think many of those people remember their schooling experiences so nostalgically. In a 2005 research report by ABC Canada, an independent body that advocates for adult literacy programs, 80% of Canadian seniors over 65 were characterized as having “low literacy”. 42% of Canadians between 16 and 65 were similarly characterized. As our population ages, and more people who went through school at the time described by Mrs. Palumbo move into their senior years, I am sure this low literacy number will continue to drop.Mrs. Palumbo infers that the skills of teachers today don’t stack up to those of our esteemed colleagues of the past. I appreciate Mrs. Palumbo for recognizing the work of our colleagues, but I am also hoping that she is aware that teachers today are highly trained specialists working with a wide range of students in a much changed world. Have we been successful? More students graduate from secondary school now than have ever before. We push students to stay in school and develop their skills because we know that the days of plentiful work for adults without literacy skills are gone. Our retention statistics in School District No. 6 are among the best in the province, and our graduation rate is one of the highest. Having a sense of nostalgia is fine. I would hope, though, that we can take a step back and place our experiences into context, and reflect more accurately about where we’ve been, and how far we’ve come.
Yours in Education,
Bob Wilson
Golden Teachers’ Association
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