The State of the System: A Reality Check on Canada's Schools

by Paul W. Bennett

Over the last fifty years, Canada's public schools have been absorbed into a modern education system that functions much like Max Weber's infamous iron cage. Crying out for democratic school-level reform, the system is now a centralized, bureaucratic fortress that, every year, becomes softer on standards for students, less accessible to parents, further out of touch with communities, and surprisingly unresponsive to classroom teachers. Exploring the nature of the Canadian education order in all its dimensions, The State of the System explains how public schools came to be so bureaucratic, confronts the critical issues facing kindergarten to grade 12 public schools in all ten provinces, and addresses the need for systemic reform. Going beyond a diagnosis of the stresses, strains, and ills present in the system, Paul Bennett proposes a bold plan to re-engineer schools on a more human scale as the first step in truly reforming public education. In place of school consolidation and managerialism, one-size-fits-all uniformity, limited school choice, and the "success-for-all" curriculum, Bennett advocates for a new set of priorities: decentralize school governance, deprogram education ministries and school districts, listen to parents and teachers, and revitalize local education democracy. Tackling the thorny issues besetting contemporary school systems in Canada, The State of the System issues a clarion call for more responsive, engaged, and accountable public schools.

Genres: Education

256 pages, Hardcover

Published September 23, 2020

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

How has the increasingly bureaucratic and top down structure of education in Canada affected not only the quality of schooling but also its responsiveness to the needs of students, families, and the professionals who are called on to teach them? This is the fundamental question posed by Paul Bennett in his new and provocative book, “The State of the System”. A longtime teacher, administrator, trustee and educational critic, Bennett makes the case that it is time to “right-side” the system “placing students, teachers, and parents at the centre of the whole enterprise”. He has built his thesis through meticulous research and engages the reader to follow the path to its logical conclusion that the system must be reclaimed from the bureaucracy that has crushed its spirit and undermined its effectiveness for student learning. For anyone wishing to understand the current state of the education system in Canada, this is a must read!

[Clive Packer · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this well written exposé of Canadian education, Paul Bennett succinctly captures what many of us have known for a long time but haven’t been able to pin down: Canadian education has become a top-heavy monolith. Designed to appeal like Jello, but actually made of concrete, the system exists primarily to serve its architects rather than its students, teachers and parents. This book should be read by everyone with any stake or interest in education in Canada, which is really to say every Canadian. Those of us parents who have been trying to mould the Jello a little - for example by advocating for math curriculum reform - now realize we’ve been bringing a spoon to a fight that needed a jackhammer. Bennett’s solutions need to find the ears of governments across Canada. A great read and an important one.

[Ken Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his provocative and engaging style, Bennett traces the origins and development of the many pressures on today’s school systems across Canada. With forthrightness, clarity, and evidence, he challenges many deeply embedded conditions in schools, and offers critiques of educational philosophies and practices underlying matters such as school busing, inclusion, child-centred classrooms, teaching of literacy and numeracy, school choice, and student assessment.