The eudcational system that is being proposed for the US here -- two
years of community college between 10th grade and university -- is
effectively the system that has existed in Quebec for decades now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/15/education/15school.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/15/education/15school.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin>
or
http://tinyurl.com/uecrh
As a product of that system myself, I strongly recommend that they look
closely at the Quebec experience before going there. In theory, the idea
of having students gradually ease into the freedoms and electives of
university is a good one. Where it falls down is in the quality of the
professors in the CEGEPs (as the equivalent of community colleges are
known in Quebec). All too often they are either ABDs who couldn't finish
their degrees, or frustrated PhDs who were unable to land jobs in the
university system for one reason or another. Some eventually settle
nicely into the role of a CEGEP teacher, but many do not, as it is a
role that they never sought, nor that they were specifically trained for.
Of course, many will tell me that the US already has a fine community
college system, and it is just amatter of expanding it to include, well,
everyone. That may be true, but imagine attempting to expand it by, say,
5-fold in one fell swoop. Where would all those new teachers come from?
From the pool of people currently NOT being hired by community colleges.
What one really needs to make such a system work is a class of degree
that doesn't (yet) exist -- somewhere between the topic specialization
of the PhD and the emphasis on teaching of the B.Ed. degree.
No doubt Stephen Black, Stuart McKelvie (who both have a CEGEP sharing
their university campus) will have interesting insights with respect to
this proposal. (Are their any other Quebecers on theTIPS list? Was our
resident Klondiker, Jean-Marc Perreault, educated in Quebec?)
Regards,
Chris
--
Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada
416-736-5115 ex. 66164
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.yorku.ca/christo
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