Unlearn16: Class is in Session - The one where we build an international school

00:00:00.000 classes in session hey everybody and welcome to unlearn 16 classes in session and i'm here

00:00:09.360 i told you i'll probably start doing my podcast from inside the halls of metro prep and i'm going

00:00:15.920 to gradually shift a lot of what we discuss and a lot of what i talk about to educational content

00:00:22.400 now don't get me wrong i'm still going to infuse like some pop culture in some movies listen i'm

00:00:29.160 going to teach just the way that I teach in the classroom and on here. But today, I want to discuss

00:00:35.980 the latest, let's say, controversy or issue that's kind of been filtering around Canada for the last

00:00:44.020 little while, including Ontario politics, and that is international students. Now, a lot of people

00:00:52.020 have some big issues with international students. There's a lot of misinformation. There's a lot of

00:00:56.460 misunderstanding. Nobody's really having an honest conversation about what the entire situation and

00:01:05.160 system needs, what it is doing, and what we need it to do in order for Canada, our students,

00:01:11.980 international students to all blossom and actually get the best of all the worlds that we have to

00:01:18.900 offer. All right, so let's start at the beginning. Not that far back. Here we go. International

00:01:26.520 students. Let's start with high school students, because I know that right now, a lot of the

00:01:32.960 federal government is talking about and have limited international students coming here for

00:01:38.200 post-secondary education. I'm going to deal with that in the second part of this. I'm going to

00:01:43.500 first deal with what I know, which is international students coming to Canada from all over the world

00:01:49.720 in order to get a secondary education, predominantly at a private school, because that's what I work

00:01:55.880 at. Now, at Metro Prep Academy, we have students from all over the world. I've taught students

00:02:02.220 from Kenya. I've taught students from Ecuador. I've taught students from Argentina, from China,

00:02:07.640 from Korea, from Turkey, from Israel, from parts of the United States, England. I've taught kids

00:02:16.760 from everywhere. And there is a diversification beauty to it. So before I get into the technical

00:02:25.360 details about what it's costing and how it works with the system, I want to say this.

00:02:32.300 having kids come from different parts of the world to experience our education system is

00:02:38.680 beneficial to them and beneficial to us me sitting and teaching in a classroom and I'm teaching about

00:02:44.740 world history or I'm teaching about politics or I'm teaching about world religions or society

00:02:49.860 or whatever and to have a class where we can have discussion and debate and understand listen to

00:02:58.600 each other's personal stories and these stories come from all across the globe that is education

00:03:04.500 that is brilliant and to be honest it makes both them me and my students more aware more intelligent

00:03:12.800 more educated all right now when these students let's talk about the money part because when

00:03:18.920 these students come to Canada they have to apply for a student visa even to do secondary and I'm

00:03:25.800 assuming elementary, although I don't know as much about elementary education.

00:03:29.800 And when they go to private school, usually there's a higher cost associated with them

00:03:35.220 coming to private school.

00:03:36.340 It depends on the school that you're talking about, right?

00:03:38.860 But a private education is open for domestic and international students alike.

00:03:45.300 So if you look at any school, any private school in Ontario, whether you're talking

00:03:49.940 about Branksome or Havergill or St. Mike's or Upper Canada, it doesn't really matter.

00:03:53.940 they all have an international student body that comes there. Now, some schools, they come and they

00:03:59.160 board at the school and other schools, they'll have like mine, they'll have homestays where

00:04:03.160 they'll stay with families in order to have somewhere safe to live, where there's a level

00:04:07.820 of accountability. And they also have guardians here. Now, if they are to go into public education,

00:04:16.280 and this is something nobody talks about, if they're to go into public education,

00:04:21.480 what they have to do is they actually have to pay which they can do they have to pay the public

00:04:29.760 system for example i believe in ontario if you're going to go to secondary school in ontario

00:04:35.520 it costs thirteen thousand dollars a year and that money goes to our publicly funded educational

00:04:41.620 system so for those people who are stipulating these kids are costing us money and they shouldn't

00:04:48.580 be allowed to do that and they're taking away spots, you have to understand that they're not,

00:04:53.620 that they're actually putting into the system, right? That yelling, that is just students being

00:04:59.460 loud, but welcome to Metropath. So they're actually putting into the system, they're covering their

00:05:04.860 own costs. There's a point to that. They're actually helping float a system. Now, what you

00:05:11.220 should be interested in is how big our class size is and how is that servicing the domestic

00:05:18.000 population. So if we're allowing classrooms to get absolutely huge, both with domestic and

00:05:26.140 international students, and we're not actually teaching because it's just this simple funding

00:05:31.600 model cost ratio. If I can have one teacher with 35 kids, cool, have at it. And then I'm just going

00:05:37.580 to, you know, hand out those worksheets and manage to my maximum capacity, because what

00:05:44.840 the government has done and what boards have done is because of economic constraints, really

00:05:50.180 created almost frustratingly useless class dynamics that teachers now have to overcome.

00:06:00.640 All of that being said, the problem we should be talking about isn't international students, but that's what the government is going to redirect us to.

00:06:12.780 The problem is, how are we teaching? Now, a rational person would say, OK, Joanna, but what about ESL?

00:06:20.520 So let's assume for a minute that students that come from other countries, English might be their second language and they might have to take more courses in order to better their English language.

00:06:31.700 So what's the problem? What's the problem with providing ESL classes that they are contributing to all the while growing their English capacity for language, growing their educational model?

00:06:50.120 And here's the real bottom line. Guess what? We're a country of immigrants. If we do not have a strong immigrant population coming into this country, we will fail to grow and fail to succeed, both socially, culturally and economically.

00:07:06.020 I know there's a lot of rhetoric out there about blocking immigrants, but that, to be honest, really just is founded in xenophobic tendencies, because in actuality, Canada needs these people.

00:07:20.120 And wouldn't it be great? Wouldn't it be fantastic if a lot of these individuals come over here, get educated here, both in secondary and post-secondary, and then stick around and become doctors, engineers, teachers, lawyers, business owners?

00:07:39.480 isn't that a good thing? Aren't we then engaging in educating a population and people that now

00:07:49.920 have a vested interest in staying here, building a family, making those connections, actually

00:07:55.920 contributing to the society they are now a part of? Doesn't that make sense? And by the way, it

00:08:01.920 makes a lot more sense because usually our immigration laws say you have to have this

00:08:07.120 point system checklist and you need to be highly educated but when you get here we don't actually

00:08:11.520 count your education because you weren't educated in the country what you become a doctor at the

00:08:17.280 university of new delhi in india which is an incredible institution and we're not taking that

00:08:22.480 educational content into account we're going to dismiss it and say well you're going to have to

00:08:27.840 retest and re-educate yourself here when we are in desperate need of doctors what an absolute

00:08:34.160 disaster so doesn't this model where we're allowing students to come here become educated here grow 0.99

00:08:40.720 roots here develop friendships and connections so they don't want to leave so they want to use their

00:08:45.520 skill sets here doesn't that make sense now let's move on to post-secondary because university is

00:08:53.280 a big problem right university i believe they have cut international students by 45 percent what

00:09:01.120 And a lot of argumentation is made. A lot of people argue and say, well, if these international students are taking the place of my, of a domestically born Canadian student, are they?

00:09:19.620 And it's a genuine question, right? Are they taking the place? Okay, let's go down a couple

00:09:27.820 roads. Let's say they are. Let's say the cutoff is 85, 88. And actually, because international

00:09:35.180 students have gotten into U of T, have gotten into Queens, have gotten into Western, let's say

00:09:42.880 that some domestic kids aren't reaching the academic bar in order to compete.

00:09:50.820 Is that the problem of the international student? All the reasons that Canada needs to attract and

00:09:57.280 build and grow our immigrant population with brilliant, amazing people that want to contribute

00:10:04.960 to our society. And you're telling me we found a bunch who want to come here, get educated,

00:10:09.080 possibly stay, have families, grow businesses, and we don't want them to come

00:10:14.140 because they kicked out or they blocked your kid from getting into school

00:10:19.540 because they didn't have high enough average?

00:10:24.440 I have a question for you.

00:10:28.520 Are they good enough?

00:10:30.320 That's a genuine question.

00:10:33.040 Right?

00:10:33.680 It's a genuine question to say, is your child academically confident, the best, the most forward-thinking, progressive, intellectually-driven individual to get that seat in that school?

00:10:52.620 Or do you think you should be handed it just because you happen to be born here?

00:11:00.280 I have a bit of a problem with that.

00:11:01.980 I have a bit of problem with that for two reasons. Number one, if you can't learn to compete for university internationally, how are you going to compete in the job force internationally? Because I promise you folks, it's all changing. It's all changing.

00:11:15.540 I also promise you that developing one particular skill and not having transferable skills or not understanding that the workforce is changing at an ever, like, insanely high rate of speed pace, if you don't understand that, then you're not preparing your kids for the workforce they're about to jump into because it's changing every second.

00:11:39.260 let's also say this if your kid isn't hitting those marks is it their capacity or and now we're

00:11:50.820 going to go back to the original conversation we were having is it because our educational model

00:11:57.300 for elementary and high school in this country has been gutted has been stripped down has been

00:12:06.940 forever weakened and limited by the way in which we try to consistently push students through so

00:12:17.600 it doesn't cost us more money to actually get them educated? Is that possible? Because if that's

00:12:24.300 the case, I really don't want our domestic students building the bridge because I'm not

00:12:31.800 too sure if it's going to stand up. We have watered down our educational system, and it's 1.00

00:12:39.640 not the teacher. I want to be crystal clear. Every teacher I talk to is talking about how they are

00:12:47.340 consistently forced to capitulate, to push through, and to ensure that kids get a pat on the back and

00:12:55.300 a participation ribbon and they get the credit anyways. What? What are we doing? And then the

00:13:01.400 same is true as they get up in years, right? So when you hit grade 11 and 12, it shouldn't be easy.

00:13:08.800 You shouldn't be handed a worksheet and asked to fill in the blanks. You should be challenged. You

00:13:13.420 should be pushed in academic courses because if you're not getting challenged and you're not

00:13:17.120 getting pushed, you're not going to be competitive. And in order to do that, what we need desperately

00:13:24.240 is a whole restructuring of the educational system.

00:13:27.240 We need to understand that if we're just going to sit them down

00:13:30.840 and write tests left, right, and center

00:13:32.520 and never actually challenge them and give them innovative thought

00:13:35.600 and allow them to progress in a multitude of different ways

00:13:39.060 and attack problems in a different line of thought,

00:13:41.840 we are not building the kids we need in order to be successful in the future.

00:13:47.320 Now, all of that is going to cost money.

00:13:50.220 And in the university system, let's also be aware of this.

00:13:54.240 We have a publicly funded university system.

00:13:56.960 I realize that we pay for university education, but in Ontario,

00:14:02.780 and I know this is going to be a surprise to a lot of Americans,

00:14:05.480 in Ontario, tuition to any, any university in the province is approximately $7,000.

00:14:16.920 Why? Because it's being subsidized by tax money.

00:14:20.100 Heavily subsidized.

00:14:21.220 Want to know what else is subsidizing it?

00:14:22.820 The international students. 1.00

00:14:24.240 The international students that pay at least triple of what our domestic kids are paying.

00:14:33.780 Those international students that the federal government has just cut by 40 percent have been subsidizing university budgets for years.

00:14:44.760 For years. Where do you think that money is going to come from?

00:14:49.280 Where do you think those students are going to come from?

00:14:52.440 How are we going to watch these institutions grow both economically and, let's be perfectly honest, academically and intellectually?

00:15:02.340 If we do not have a university system where we're taking the best and the brightest from the world, why don't we want to be that?

00:15:09.540 Don't you want to be that?

00:15:10.880 Don't you want everybody in this country to say, I want to go to Canada to get educated because they have the best,

00:15:18.840 because they pull from every country, because they pull from every background, because they

00:15:23.980 have think tanks and intellectual groups that draw upon a wide breadth of educational models,

00:15:31.460 philosophical models, educate. Why not that? Don't we want that? And if we don't want that,

00:15:39.180 I need you to ask yourself why. Because if you're interested in just perpetuating mediocrity,

00:15:44.780 then fine. Let the 30% be the new zero so your kid can never fail a class ever again.

00:15:50.620 Let them get passed along. Let them get false inflated marks because as a parent, you want

00:15:57.300 to complain about it until they get it. Let them go off to university and write pretend papers for

00:16:02.840 profs that give it to them anyways because they don't want to kick them out of school because

00:16:06.060 they need the business in order to keep the school open. And watch what happens to our

00:16:11.260 intellectual credibility. Watch what happens when we cease to be the progressive,

00:16:18.700 incredible, diverse country that we are. Don't we want something better?

00:16:26.080 I think by stopping these international students from coming, we are in some way, shape, and form 1.00

00:16:36.080 propping up educational institutions that right now don't have enough money, don't have enough 0.59

00:16:44.480 drive, and don't have enough freedom to ensure that we are demanding and we are helping,

00:16:49.980 encourage, and empowering students to become the best students they possibly can be.

00:16:55.980 I'm a firm believer that there's many different learning styles. I am a firm believer that kids

00:17:01.880 need many different, and adults to be honest, need many different roads to get to the same end.

00:17:07.260 I am not a believer that we should change the goalpost lines based on capacity. I think different

00:17:17.100 people have different capacities. I think those capacities can grow. I think you can always become

00:17:23.600 more aware, more educated. I think you can always get better in every single discipline. I do not

00:17:30.460 think that just because you like something, just because you think you're good at it makes you the

00:17:36.420 best in the field. I love art. I'm not good. Does that mean I should never take art? No. Actually,

00:17:44.700 I think that means that the educational system that I'm a part of should actually encourage

00:17:49.280 and promote me taking more art classes so I get better at a skill that I wasn't good at to begin

00:17:54.500 with. I think that's what education should be about. It shouldn't just be about making them

00:17:58.500 great in things that they were already good at in the first place. Because I think we're failing to

00:18:03.520 make well-rounded students. I think we're failing. And a lot of people think we're failing because

00:18:08.740 they'll look at other countries and a lot of people will speak about China, right? And they'll

00:18:12.960 say, yeah, but they have classes of 60 and they just sit there silently. I don't like that.

00:18:18.460 I think that's a failure within that country. You want to know it's not a failure?

00:18:22.840 A lot of these kids coming over here, you know, they all have a musical talent.

00:18:27.060 They all have a sport they play.

00:18:29.880 They all have artistic ability.

00:18:32.060 Why is that? 1.00

00:18:34.160 Why are we seeing these tiny little renaissance humans?

00:18:38.820 Because in different parts of the world, they understand and they have decided it's not just about one skill.

00:18:45.520 It's about a breadth of skills that you becoming good at art and becoming good at math and figuring out how to play the guitar.

00:18:52.240 That works your brain in a more holistic way.

00:18:56.160 And if you can work your brain in a holistic way, you become smarter, more intellectually driven in all capacities.

00:19:03.860 We're not doing that.

00:19:05.340 I'm watching us cut the arts, not not Metro, but I'm watching schools cut the arts, cut vocational training, cut music programs.

00:19:13.540 Why? Because they're expensive.

00:19:14.460 And all we really need to do is sit down, be quiet, learn how to use a computer.

00:19:18.000 What?

00:19:20.380 What a waste.

00:19:22.220 And when a kid struggles, we pat them on the head.

00:19:25.160 And rather than investing money and time so that they can struggle through, we've set up a system that has been so incredibly gutted that that teacher teaching 35 grade nines has no time to invest in that kid.

00:19:40.240 they only have time and they're expected by the way to pass them along give them a 50 and move

00:19:47.300 along regardless of aptitude and regardless of of focus and actual determination and personal

00:19:55.380 responsibility garbage absolute garbage and a lot of people will say well Joanna what if a kid 0.77

00:20:02.620 spends a whole semester in a hospital do they do they deserve to fail well no they haven't failed 0.98

00:20:09.880 but they haven't done the work they don't they shouldn't be grant you spend a whole semester in

00:20:15.720 in a hospital that is horrible i hope you get healthy let us focus on that but you don't get

00:20:21.160 grade 9 math if you didn't do grade 9 math because when you get to grade 10 math it's going to be an

00:20:28.040 absolute disaster what a disaster if we are not teaching cumulative skills as they move up the

00:20:36.920 ladder if we are not ensuring they're getting better with each course no matter what the

00:20:41.320 discipline they're in what's the point in teaching them anything at all so we're going to have to

00:20:49.400 focus on making sure that our kids get the right education the right pushes that when they stumble

00:20:57.960 either through a lack of ability which is okay it's okay to not be a math genius and to take

00:21:05.400 an extra lap in order to make sure you understand the content maybe if we stop shaming so many

00:21:12.280 students about failing a class and we stopped even using that terminology and just said listen

00:21:19.320 you don't get it enough it hasn't been triggered enough in your brain to move on because if you

00:21:24.120 move on now it's going to feel really overwhelming so let's do it again figure out how to do it

00:21:30.120 differently. So maybe this time you get a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit

00:21:35.180 more. Because if we were real honest as a teacher and an educator, so many kids need a little bit

00:21:42.100 more time. But we've now equated failing with being stupid, with being useless, with all of 1.00

00:21:50.060 these negative attributes. And we never want to fail a kid because it's bad for their mentality 0.99

00:21:54.100 and it's bad for their social standing. The only reason it's bad for all those things is because

00:21:58.640 A, we're not honest with all of the kids that probably need to repeat some stuff, number one.

00:22:05.040 Number two, B, I don't think, two or B, whichever one you want to do, but also if this kid hasn't

00:22:13.780 learned the necessary skill set, they are going to develop or not develop a level of confidence

00:22:21.420 and empowerment that will hobble them forever, that will make them second-guess their choices,

00:22:29.340 make them second-guess their ideas, make them second-guess every place they're going to stand

00:22:34.160 in this world. And it is that that is problematic. Now, if a kid chooses not to go to school,

00:22:44.700 again, for any reason or chooses not to go do the work, you don't get the credit.

00:22:52.280 And if there's something horrific going on at home, we got to figure that out.

00:22:56.760 Right?

00:22:57.460 We got to figure that out as a society.

00:22:59.380 Whoever needs to be involved in order to figure out what's going on in the house to stop them from doing the work,

00:23:04.160 that should be of utmost importance.

00:23:07.280 But that, again, still does not mean I hand you a credit for work you did not do.

00:23:16.100 We need to stop feeling shame when we don't do something great.

00:23:19.980 Do you know how many?

00:23:20.560 And I'm going to take something.

00:23:21.980 Let's talk about gym for a second.

00:23:24.560 Because it's like every gym class that kids take, they're like, well, I tried.

00:23:28.520 And if they try, they're just supposed to get it.

00:23:31.000 Do you understand no other classes like that?

00:23:33.960 Well, I know.

00:23:34.540 I realize I've said we've kind of done that.

00:23:36.660 But if you're horrible at sports, horrible, and you never get better throughout that whole

00:23:44.080 year, and you don't even, like you kind of try, you kind of come, and nobody fails gym.

00:23:48.720 Why?

00:23:49.520 you didn't get better at the skill.

00:23:55.380 We constantly undervalue physical education.

00:23:59.020 Now, do I think there needs to be reformations in that curriculum?

00:24:02.900 Absolutely, because I think it needs to change by in a different capacity

00:24:09.020 so kids are getting access points to different things.

00:24:11.880 Absolutely.

00:24:14.360 But I still say there are some kids that aren't good at it

00:24:18.680 and don't have the skill set. Just like there are some gym students who are amazing athletes

00:24:23.920 who haven't got math yet. Maybe if we were more honest, we'd stop talking about failures. We'd

00:24:30.560 start talking about skill sets. We'd start talking about the way in which we need to develop

00:24:35.620 a student, both within each discipline and holistically. We would start to talk about

00:24:41.740 personal accountability and time management. We would start talking about the transferable

00:24:47.480 skills that are necessarily to move on to each levels because if we're not doing that if we've

00:24:53.080 gutted the system so badly and and eliminated all of that amazing stuff then what are we doing

00:25:00.260 because we should be we should be progressing to a more integrated educational system we should be

00:25:07.160 progressing to a model that is more in-depth, that is more wide-ranging, that is more

00:25:17.620 connective to all of the different things. All those people that are like, we should go back

00:25:23.020 to what it was when we were a kid. When we were a kid, we didn't even have computers.

00:25:28.720 It's the most asinite thought in the world to say, we need to go back to a day that we didn't have

00:25:34.860 the most powerful, amazing tool on the planet. Don't even get me started on ChatGPT and AI.

00:25:41.500 Because whether you like them or not, Bob, they are now a part and parcel of the world we live

00:25:47.720 in and our educational system. So we have to pivot. We have to shift. And education has to

00:25:53.240 shift with it. And if it doesn't shift with it, it becomes archaic. And if it's archaic,

00:25:57.620 it is useless. All of it requires money. All of it. And all of it requires sort of giving

00:26:05.960 breadth and space to different learning styles and different learning skills. Why is it all of

00:26:10.840 these child geniuses don't want to stay in school? They drop out. I'll tell you why. Because we've

00:26:16.760 decided that structure A is the only structure they need to become useful members of society, 0.98

00:26:23.840 but it's this stupid structure we've been using since the Industrial Revolution. Stop it. 0.99

00:26:29.560 Stop it. And if we're still going to use the same style as the Industrial Revolution,

00:26:33.840 you should let all the kids drop out that dropped out when they were 10, 11, 14 years old to go work

00:26:39.480 in the factory because they didn't necessarily have the right academic skill set to fit your

00:26:43.400 little tiny box. But they were brilliant forward thinkers that we just let go because they didn't

00:26:49.720 actually understand the structure we created to apply to them to give them some sort of objective 0.89

00:26:56.040 standard of how intelligent they are what a crock of crap standardized testing is being thrown out

00:27:01.320 the window for very good reason it doesn't indicate who that kid is what they can do and 0.96

00:27:08.120 how they're going to do it in the future all of these different kids now that have that are on

00:27:14.120 the spectrum that are all all of the kids that have different learning abilities and learning

00:27:18.600 styles and maybe, you know, some roadblocks away along the way, those kids used to be streamed

00:27:23.420 right out of school. So back in the day when so-and-so taught 60 students in 1987, guess what?

00:27:31.020 They were all academically charged students because the rest of them dropped out. We don't

00:27:35.660 let them drop anymore, which is a good idea. Keep them in school. But if we're going to have a room

00:27:42.440 full of kids with different learning styles, different learning abilities, some of them are

00:27:46.660 on the spectrum. Some of them learn this way. Some of them learn this way. We cannot jam-pack

00:27:50.780 35 of them in the same room and expect a teacher to teach 17 different ways in the same lesson and

00:27:56.060 the same hour and expect actual great results. We need to lower class sizes. We need to get

00:28:02.480 smarter. We need to have much more cross-curricular information. Everything needs to be more expansive

00:28:10.020 and more in-depth and more holistic.

00:28:13.300 We have to shift.

00:28:15.540 And you know what?

00:28:16.380 The bottom line is, guys, it's all going to cost us money.

00:28:21.000 But if you want to sit at home and complain about international students

00:28:24.160 taking your kid's spot where your kid spends more time on the video game

00:28:28.220 they like to play on their phone rather than reading a history book

00:28:31.460 or practicing calculus, then they don't deserve to be sitting in that room.

00:28:40.020 all of it needs to change all of it needs to move forward and it's going to cost us more money but

00:28:44.580 if we want to be at the head if we want to be driving this model if we want to be the educational

00:28:50.740 center of the world which we should be we should be looking for the best and the brightest kids

00:28:56.340 from all over the world we should be giving domestic students in our country the best possible

00:29:02.580 education we can pay for in order to make them competitive both academically and in the workforce

00:29:09.300 it at large. And if we're not going to do that, you sure as heck don't get to sit at home and

00:29:14.400 complain about how your kid didn't get into U of T because a kid from another country worked harder,

00:29:21.880 got better grades, understood it better, and was able to do magical things with the education

00:29:26.300 system that they fought for. And on that note, I hope you like the pod, leave any questions in

00:29:33.500 the notes, and I will see you

00:29:35.600 next week. Same bat

00:29:37.600 time, same bat 0.97

00:29:39.600 channel. Dismissed. 0.82

Unlearn16: Class is in Session - September 10, 2024

The one where we build an international school

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