The Price of Not Changing the Educational Narrative and the Students Who Pay It

I’m angry. 

I know … usually I come here and write about the bright side of things if I can, the #onegoodthing, the nature, the books and resources, the “kids are awesome” and all of that. 

I do that because it’s where I choose to direct my energy for my blog, our podcast and community. There’s enough of the other stuff everywhere. There’s enough of the other stuff in my own physical life and community. There isn’t more or anything original for me to say about the angst of the world as far as I can see, so I mostly use the space for the glimmers instead.

However, every once in a while, I feel drawn to highlight something that I feel I might have some unique perspective about. 

This is one of those times. 

A young person I’ve partnered with in his academics for almost 6 years texted me this afternoon. I’ve worked with him from the end of his elementary school years, through secondary school years and now in college. 

It is our Canadian Thanksgiving weekend – a long weekend. As a self- employed person, I don’t necessarily take conventional days off, but the level of intensity in my work is catching up to me, and I committed to myself that I would take these three days. No crisis would thwart me! I had set up safeguards ahead of time. 

So when the text came in, I replied and redirected it until Tuesday when he and I would have our regular meeting. Our time together is never “crisis” anyway. It’s one of the most enjoyable parts of my week. But it often, often, often takes an unexpected turn through no fault of either of ours. This weekend was to be no exception.

Following my text reply, an attempted call from him came in instead of a text, followed by a photo of a test that there was online today that had been “unlocked” at noon. (Gosh, I dislike the punitive language. More on the assumptions behind language in education at some point). 

“All good,” I reply. “This test wasn’t supposed to happen until later in the month and the professor has just opened it at noon today so I’m sure it won’t need to be completed on the weekend.” 

A photo arrives with a due date in bold text of Sunday (tomorrow) at midnight. 

“What??” I reply. “On Thanksgiving weekend? Ugh. Is it more of a prep quiz? Like has the professor said how much it’s worth?” 

“25%”

“25% of what? Not the whole course mark, right?”

Another photo arrives. And I see that yes, it is. It is 25% of the whole credit. 

On a Saturday to Sunday of an official long weekend. I can’t even. 

While students, many of whom might already be using the time to work on assignments, get extra work hours to pay for the ridiculously high price of post-secondary education, visit with friends or family, or simply rest, are doing a major test on the Sunday of the long weekend, I can only assume that the professor is probably enjoying a turkey dinner. Maybe she even travelled for a few days. 

“I don’t know what to do because we’re having my birthday dinner tonight and I work tomorrow (it’s a brand new job he has worked so hard to get). Can I please give you a call?” he asks. 

Of course he can. So we talk and we set up a way that I can send him a framework to study with early Sunday morning before he goes to work. It’s something we were going to work on together during our regular time this week because that is far more effective for the way he processes information than simply sending something. We thought the test was going to be another week away like it was stated it would be. 

I ask him for the umpteenth time in almost 6 years what the particular accommodations might be given his Individualized Education Plan and recognized right to extensions and modifications due to learning disabilities and/or differences. And for the umpteenth time, I sigh to myself, seeing that once again, the onus is on the student and parents (over and over and over again) to ask to have the IEP respected – to know what support they might need ahead of time, even though they don’t know what material is coming next – rather than for the teacher or professor to understand and plan ahead. 

So it’s not clear to me, and because there has been an accusation of “asking too many questions” in an attempt to understand what’s expected, we’re hesitant to push the test off and not just get it done by the date stated. 

It would be great if students who had been identified as qualifying for help could have some careful support with the test, but it’s a highly locked situation. Once the test is unlocked, it’s quickly locked in, so that the student is on camera and certainty is taken to catch anyone who might be using outside resources. (Because God knows it would be a terrible thing to honestly access tools and support for oneself – you know, the way that we do in real life when we’re learning something). 

What’s fascinating is that in having looked at the finished group assignments in the other courses in the program, huge amounts of plagiarism from Google and AI use seem to have been ignored to the point that it’s clear to me that very little could possibly have been learned, and yet entire credits in computer science and programming have been granted. So.much.inconsistency.of.expectations.

What’s even more is that in this English course, the number of typos and outright spelling and punctuation mistakes from the professor or whoever developed the material in both course practice questions and assignments is laughable. In some assignments, the same error is made in question after question, yet the student is docked for the same type of errors and “lack of proofreading.”

So why am I so bloody angry? This is definitely not the most frustrating situation we’ve faced by a long shot – the unfairness of his Grade 10 English class experience almost took me out! ☺️ 

I guess it’s the straw that’s broken the camel’s back. 

I’m angry because it’s been years of the two of us, along with his parents, trying to set up the best way to get through and possibly even thrive over the past few years. Silly us. 

Except that he has thrived as a person. He has thrived in his own way in spite of  many years of his life in a system that does not reflect what he has to offer.

Years of this nonsense with the other two schools, with us sitting down to get organized together and being ready for the schedule of assignments and tests, only to have the teachers change things over and over with no respect EVEN ONE TIME given to his IEP. I’m not expecting perfection – I know things are not perfect and teachers are overloaded, but I’m so tired on his behalf of his incredible earnestness and willingness to flex for the system’s schedule changes and spend almost all of his non-school hours as well, slogging through hours of areas of least interest and most weakness. 

I’m angry at the irony. 

At years of supporting someone with their big picture organizing and “executive functioning skills” when the system is too big and clunky to manage its own. 

I’m angry that a family came to Canada and was sold the story that our school system had great supports in place, only to have to pay privately, as people new to the country, for multiple supports, while the whereabouts of the promised tax-paid “supports” remain a mystery to us all. (Except it’s not fully a mystery – the high school resource teacher sat in the corner of his special room waiting for kids to come to him with “any help they might need.” Anyone with any experience in special education, or any education where work is assigned to students for that matter, knows that students don’t always know what they don’t know and also instructions aren’t always clear, so for Pete’s sake, get out of your chair and check in with kids. (I have so many stories about my attempts to see if using the resource teacher, who he was seeing every day, for help in high school could offset some of the money being paid by family for private supports).

I’m angry that this story is so familiar to me from other people I’ve worked with who have bumped their way through the system, believing it’s them who are broken.

I’m angry that both elementary and secondary school guidance counsellors made the unrealistic recommendations that they did for both high school course choices and college programs. 

I’m angry that college, which is supposed to be the place where students, now adult learners, finally have some autonomy and respect, is often operating with the same top-down disrespect and inflexibility, when students and families are paying so much money to buy knowledge and accreditation from them. 

I’m angry that a 3-year college program, charging a chunk of money and happy to keep charging again per individual credit each time a course isn’t passed, doesn’t really have the decent tutoring service that it professes to have because how learning actually happens for various people – certainly for many neurodivergent people – is not understood. Not understood – at an institution of higher education. 

I’m angry that I’m so much angrier than the young person and the many others I know who are the actual people who have been on the receiving end of this. 

Why aren’t they as angry? It’s their normal. They’ve internalized that it’s them who must be wrong. School dictates. They react. They think they have a bit of time off for family or self, are told they don’t, and pivot – again. Big bureaucracy over self-care and respect. 

Which brings me to my final and greatest point of anger … 

… that we, as a world, lack so much understanding and imagination about education, learning and life, that we just keep funneling kids and young adults through systems that are shown over and over, in country after country, not to meet the needs of SO MANY learners. 

And what’s worse is that we pretend that we do. 

Our systems have wording that talks about “igniting learning” and “leaving no child behind” and “helping each child meet their potential” and “setting students up for success” while that is far from the truth and everyone knows it, especially the people in the system! 

Many of the teachers and professors working in these system are talented and well-meaning and are often crying out about the realities, but they can’t be everywhere all at once and often have their own creativity and resourcefulness shackled by the system. 

Post-secondary education institutions can be a different beast because they don’t have the same kind of public responsibility as schools since the students are adults, but so many young people are not well-served by the way they are structured either. Somehow we treat it as the only path and a path that has to be taken at a certain age. 

Are there good things about schools and colleges and universities? Of course, if they suit the learner, but we need to shift the narrative that they are the best way for all to learn because it’s not just untrue, it’s often damaging at worst and a colossal waste of a student’s precious time and money at best. Not small amounts of time and money – substantial amounts. 

I’m feeling a bit better now – not about the system, but just to have processed this.  Thank goodness that the awesome young person I’m navigating the test study with is much more settled than I am today. I guess. Complacency has its benefits sometimes. 

But goodness, what can we do, but keep spreading the word about different ways of doing things, different ways of thinking, different possibilities? 

If you want to listen to some thoughts about high school, college and different paths in adulthood, please tune into a recorded conversation, High School Diplomas, College Degrees and Future Careers: Is There More Than One Way?between myself and Missy Willis from Let ‘em Go Barefoot.