You can't always tell the winners from the losers when they're just kids

The topic of highschool destreaming is hot once again. The colleagues I left behind in the math department (good luck, suckers!) are coming to terms with that right now, as the province rolls out a new math curriculum designed to coincide with destreaming. That’s where the students who actually get math were separated from the ones who didn’t, and for the most part, didn’t give a shit.

It has been evident for some time that certain ethnic/racial groups are over-represented in the stream of those who don’t give a shit. This has repercussions down the road, because when you take the slow stream, most professional schools, be it engineering, business, law, or whatever, don’t admit you.

So, you’re stuck with a sociology degree from a second tier school, or, if you’re lucky, you turned to something you were interested in and learned a useful trade or something. (btw, all the construction trades in Toronto are paying over $100k/ yr; how you making out with that soc degree?)

The social justice entrepreneurs have figured out that the only way to eliminate this glaring example of systemic racism is to teach the kids who like math in the same room with the kids who don’t give a shit. 

And while that initiative is bound for certain failure, I do believe you can’t really peg a kid when they’re 12 or 13. I always figured my job as a teacher was to help the kids evolve, blossom, develop… not peg them!

In my 25 years I always taught the slow stream. Quite often the kids who didn’t give a shit were extremely bright. They just weren’t turned on by anything the school board was offering. I remember a goofy kid who took my welding class three or four times. Nice guy. Never finished a course. Never got a credit and couldn’t care less. Had a keen interest in special effects and was trying to get a DJ career going. When he actually showed up and built out a project, I could see he had something going, but overall, I figured the folks who make the streaming call likely had him in the right place.

A few years later, I run into the guy. Hey, good to see ya, how you been?

He was just back from Europe, where he was travelling with the latest Madonna tour. With no highschool diploma, but a knack for tinkering with things, he got in with a special effects shop in Toronto. When they were hired for the Madonna tour, he was in on the ride.