About

Education has fascinated me for three decades as a teacher, a learner and a parent.  We are fortunate that so much is studied and written about it.  However, each publication is the voice of a particular shareholder in the system.  There are the academic journals, union magazines and the publication of the College of Teachers (a construction of the Ontario Ministry of Training and Education).  While all these publications have merit, each one is constrained by the politics of academia, the taxpayer, parents, employers, educational superstitions and political correctness.  I propose to be a voice less constrained.

The Buddha above is to remind us all that this great teacher urged his followers to question everything, even his own teachings, before accepting them.  In this blog, I propose to explore issues, ideas, facts and ideals in education, at times questioning them with Buddhist devotion.

I Invite you to join me on this journey, questioning and expounding on my comments and suggesting topics that you think should be explored.  Together we may shed a clearer light on education in Ontario and education in general.

I am always happy to share my ideas but I do like to get credit for it hence this bit of legalese:© Sheila Diane Scaiff and Teachers Outside the Box, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sheila Diane Scaiff and Teachers Outside the Box with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Of course, where I specifically say something is for your use, please help yourself if it is useful.

Diane

Some readers may wonder what qualifications I have, besides experience, to comment on education.  My experience includes having children in the primary school system in France and teaching English as a second language for four years in France and Switzerland.  I have a diploma in teaching English as a Second Language from the Royal Society of Arts.  My Master of Arts in Education from the Ontario Institute in Education/University of Toronto was in adaptive education; my thesis was on the relationship between gifted grade eight boys and school.  I am also a specialist in special education, learning disabilities and giftedness.  My B. A. from McMaster was in English literature.

Over the years I have taken part in workshops and professional development in a variety of areas from educational testing to teaching mathematics to teaching reading.  I like to keep up with current ideas and philosophies, whether I agree with them or not.  I am always willing to try new methods on my students if there is any chance they might be an improvement on what I have been doing.

In addition, I have brought up three wonderful people: two sons and a daughter.  They are all grown up now.  One of my sons is married and has a two year old daughter of his own.  Naturally, she is the most amazing child ever born.  Each of my children have delighted me by becoming successful.  By successful, I mean that they are earning enough to support themselves doing work they enjoy; they have hobbies and interests that leaven their lives and they have a network of friends who share their interests, love them and make them laugh.

Did I mention the best thing about my kids is that they almost always come home for Christmas?

My personal hobbies and interests include knitting, learning about the brain, canoeing, wilderness camping, books, religions, Jane Austen, scratching the ears of a standard poodle named Mr. Darcy  and learning about the flowers growing around our tiny plumbing & electricity free cottage on a Quebec lake.  Eight years ago I married for the second time, proving Sam Johnson’s quip that second marriages are a triumph of hope over experience.