Doug Ford says the rationale behind his budget cuts is to save people money. But Rick Salutin wonders if one of the collateral benefits of the budget cuts is to make people stop thinking:
Doug Ford's tax cuts will lower provincial revenues by $22 billion, necessitating spending decreases. The goal is, allegedly, saving us money. But what if there's an additional effect: diminishing the level of critical thought Ontarians give to public issues.
I'm not saying that's an overt purpose. It's hard to picture Ford entertaining more than one goal at a time. But it could be a collateral benefit, perhaps "unconsciously," which only extended talk therapy might reveal.
Ford has hit education particularly hard:
Take this week's mind-bending announcement that Ford has appointed a failed Tory candidate to head EQAO, the office that runs standardized testing, at -- here's the shocker -- $140,000. That's up from around $4,000. A recent EQAO chair says he can't even picture what a full-time head would do. This doesn't seem consistent with Ford's stated goals, er, "goal."
OTOH, standardized tests are the antithesis to teaching kids to think: you train them to shut down thought in order to pass tests. You deduct classroom time from stimulating their minds to bore them with test-taking drills. Fine teachers have left the profession because this isn't what they signed on for. But if less thought is an objective, even unconsciously, Ford's guy may come cheap at $140,000.
Or take universities. Ford has thrown Ontario's students into panic by removing their financial supports, or converting them to loans -- just in time for the normal bedlam of midterms. Anxiety thrives. Calculating the affordability of remaining in school disrupts exam prep or writing essays. One pressure keeping them on is that student loans now come due instantly, if you drop out. Dorm sessions on politics or film turn into: who understands these new rules?
When students came to Queen's Park question period and shouted at Ford, he railed, "They should have their mouths washed out with soap. That's what they should have." He'd managed, momentarily, to get them onto his level, and teach 'em something.
Or take his scheme for autistic kids. It's meant to "clear" the claims in the system. (He should wash his own mouth out. We're talking about kids.) It's utterly inadequate, throws the burden massively onto parents, whose lives will be shattered. And tosses those kids back into regular classrooms without proper readiness, making teaching unmanageable. Except maybe, drills for tests.
I'm quite serious about the anti-thinking agenda. There are theories on how societies generate fundamental change and one is through public education: creating citizens who can't be manipulated since they think for themselves. Ontario has a noble history, going back to Egerton Ryerson in the mid-1800s.
Those who can think are Ford's enemies. They can do something he can't. And that gives them a distinct advantage.
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6 comments:
It was Harris who gave us the E.Q. testing in the first place. You as a teacher Owen and I as a parent of elementary school aged children remember the chaos all to well. The teacher strikes, the name calling by the incompetent politicos (Snobelton) ring loud and clear in this present day of creating a crisis in order to inflict ones will. I suppose we only have ourselves to blame, those that voted conservative that is. I for one learned my lesson in "84", federally speaking. Never again!
Snoblen said what he wanted to do was to create a crisis in education, zoombats. And that's precisely what he did. From where I sit, it looks like Ford is dedicated to the same policy.
"In Newspeak there is no word for 'Science.' The empirical method of thought, on which all the scientific achievements of the past were founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles of Ingsoc." - George Orwell
This is where the Cons are headed. We saw it with Harper closing libraries and research labs, and destroying StatsCan. We're seeing it now in Ontario under Ford. They want to destroy all means of seeing a different reality than the paranoid fantasy they inhabit.
Cap
I agree, Cap. Modern Conservatives read 1984 as a "how to" manual.
Owen, I will go to my grave puzzled as to why so many people fall for the crap that is spewed by politicians and the willingness to be fleeced by them. Guys like Ford are dumber than road salt yet people come out in droves to vote for them. I am often reminded of the greatest show in town phenomena in that people are drawn to entertainment and spectacle.
In some ways, Toby, human history is a long parade of con men. They can only thrive if people don't believe their eyes.
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