Host Elena Huatko, with a trophy for Wexford Glee, of the Wexford Collegiate School For The Arts, winners of the first-ever National Show Choir Canada Championship at The Queen Elizabeth Theater in Toronto, in 2011. The competition brought high school students from Ontario. to show off their singing, dancing and performing skills.JENNIFER ROBERTS / GLOSS AND MAIL
The Toronto School Board’s specialized schools and programs are one of the hallmarks of Canada’s largest public school system. By educating students in everything from filmmaking and advanced academics to math and cyber science, they positively hum with talent and ambition.
Recently, however, they have faced stark control. Critics say they are havens of elitism and privileges, attracting children from wealthy, inclusive and disproportionately white families. In 2017, the TDSB Justice Working Group recommended that the board consider the complete closure of specialized schools. The parents revolted and the board rejected the idea, saying it would instead work to improve access to them.
Five years later, TDSB came back with a really stupid idea. This will preserve specialized schools and programs, but will change the way students are selected for admission.
Currently, most enter by submitting report card results, writing a test, or auditioning. The board offers to get rid of all this. Most students would simply submit a letter expressing interest in the program. Their names will enter the lottery and will be chosen at random. As stated in a board document, “Admission will move away from demonstrated strength and / or ability and will instead prioritize the student’s interest in a particular program or school.”
Essentially, any student who thinks it would be nice to be a dancer can try to get advanced training as a dancer, regardless of experience or ability. The problems with the idea are quite obvious: first, that valuable resources will be spent on students who do not have much chance of becoming dancers; second, that truly gifted students may be deprived of training, which may make them exceptional performers.
This seems terribly unfair to these impatient young people. It also seems terribly unreasonable for a city that is selling itself as a growing global center for technology and the arts.
The new policy may even fail in its goal of greater access. Wouldn’t motivated and ambitious parents be more likely to get their children to write letters with interest, just as many direct their children to French immersion to give them a leg up? The “upstream chain” that TDSB is worried about may continue as before.
The dashboard, let’s be clear, has a right to worry. A diverse school system such as the TDSB has a responsibility to ensure that all students have a good education and equal opportunities for special education if they deserve it. But there are other ways to react than just opening the doors, which will definitely change the unique character of these special places.
On the one hand, the board could do more to promote and promote special programs by making sure parents hear about them and that teachers are looking for promising candidates, especially in needy neighborhoods. Eliminating application fees, as suggested by the board, is a good idea. It is the same with the expansion of the arts and other special programs in local schools.
Selective schools should not be bastions of privilege. We have all heard of disadvantaged people who have achieved great things after winning competitive scholarships to high-end music schools, academies or universities.
Justice and perfection can coexist. Merit and justice are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the principle of merit – talent before influence, hard work before wealth – helps to level the playing field of society.
As it is now, students who want to enter a special school work on their essays and portfolios or spend long hours practicing for their auditions. It may be difficult, but racing is part of the game, just like in adult life. Many have spent years learning to play the violin or draw a human figure or design computer games. This is their moment.
If they are lucky enough to cope, they throw themselves together with other smart, dedicated, creative children of all backgrounds (because these schools are far from the homogeneous collections of spoiled children that their critics would make you believe). Inconvenient teenagers, who may have difficulty in public school, are finding their niche. Some kind of magic is happening.
It would be a pity to delete it in the name of equity.
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