OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to our recent article titled, 'Most Orillia schools get failing grade from Fraser Institute,' published Jan. 16.
Oh, the joy and satisfaction we adults feel when we quantify children (or groups of children, as in a school). It makes children so much easier to understand. She’s a 2, he’s a 4, oh and that young one is a 10. Put them in order. Rank them. Best to worst.
I’m a touch envious to be honest. If I could run a classroom in the likeness of the Fraser Institute, things would be so much less messy. I could put all my energy into the numbers, instead of the complexity of the child.
Did they eat breakfast that morning or have a good night’s sleep? No matter, she scored low.
What is the financial and emotional stability of the family they live with? Well, a math score really is just about math.
Have they been exposed to addiction, abuse, or other trauma? Reading level — low.
How sad we do this to our children, our educators, our schools — the people and places that many kids go to for warmth, safety, food, and yes, to learn math, reading, writing, and pretty much everything else about life.
The world is not treating our children well and it’s showing with each passing year. The Fraser Institute is not helping. When the institute creates an overly-simplistic “good school/bad school” narrative, it becomes a distraction from the many serious issues impacting children, and how we might help. They don’t use those words, but that is exactly the message that comes through as they send out their results.
I would like to counter their ranking list with this assurance. Numbers are only numbers. Children are precious, complicated creatures and in every school in this city, they are being taught, cared for, supported, and listened to. I wish I could give you the scores. But compassion has no number.
Sandi Bisset
Orillia
