Today was the School Effectiveness Review at our neighbourhood school. Since it’s Monday, I was lucky enough to get to be at the school while this was happening. Teachers, and some students, have been stressing for weeks about this visit. I walk into school after lunch and am greeted by one of the junior high kids I’m connected to. “I don’t want to go to class” she says. “Why?” I question. “Because we have the creepy ministry people here”. Just as I’m about to say something about the ministry not being creepy she points a group of them out to me. I was speechless. They were creepy! Our school is pretty casual and they’re all dressed to the nines with fancy suits. The only “colours” I saw were grey, black, white and the occasional dash of forest green. They looked totally out of place… and the kids knew it. I question the effectiveness of an effectiveness review that scares children and makes them uncomfortable. I don’t think any of the kids would open up to one of these people in discussion so interviewing them is likely only going to get the results they feel they’re expected to give. Part of me wanted to laugh out loud… the other part of me was sad that “the system” continues to act in unconscious ways to isolate children.
And that’s my rant for today!
