If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

Canada's Education Hoax: The Sad State of our Schools

by John MacPherson

147 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #05-0259; ISBN 1-4120-5364-1; US$19.19, C$23.99, EUR15.59, £10.81

A fully documented assessment of where Canada's publicly funded grade schools and universities stand in comparison with those of other countries, and the reasons for the continuing decline.

Read more!

About the Book      About the Author      Excerpts      Catalogue Information

About the Book

Parents, taxpayers and indeed, many teachers will be shocked at the information given, and findings of this rare book. Rare because it exposes the endemic flaws within a public service which, in monetary terms alone, ranks second only to Health Care.

The content provides documented proof of what many parents and the public have long suspected, though cannot articulate, that Canada's publicly funded schools and universities are not only inferior to, but cost far more than, those of other nations.

The book is a frontal attack on the powerful, entrenched self-serving interests that control the entire Canadian education apparatus, and tries to break through the false front of evasions and secrecy that protects this failing system.

---

About the Author

Mr. MacPherson has been a classroom teacher for thirty five years, fifteen in Aberdeen Scotland, and twenty in Kelowna, British Columbia.

From about 1980, he became increasingly aware that the K to Grade 12 schools were failing to meet the needs of the majority of children and young people they exist to serve. He believes that the busINess of teaching and learning has been corrupted by politics and related self-interest at all levels; from government officials to union leaders, right down to district administrators and beyond.

The book began as a form of therapy, a release by writing, of the frustration and cold anger he felt at the waste of money, effort and young talent that he saw around him every day.

Over the years, the fascination with the state of the schools grew because, both before and after his retirement, the more he learned, the deeper he dug, the dirtier it got.

Mr. Macpherson has written and illustrated two junior books for the Fitzhenry and Whiteside series "This Land" - on BC and Newfoundland. Also, with his wife as editor, he developed and published a Canada based, multi level, introductory course in world-wide Environmental Studies titled "Enviro Canada Series 1". This is approved for the current curriculum in Ontario.

---

Excerpts

Illiteracy.
a) "Very few Canadians can't read, but a startlingly high proportion (43%) have only marginal reading skills." - Canada Yearbook 1999.

b) No amount of remedial work, however well intentioned, can make up for what's lost in the early years. - J.M.

c) "Our students can't write. Even though we've screened out the worst, we still have problems. We're looking at students who are supposed to be the best." - College Professor

d) "Each of my students can go to university if he/she wants to...All that matters is what the students think of themselves." - Recent graduate in Education.

A Growth Industry
a) A huge emplyment edifice has been created whose entire weight is shouldered by the minority, about (30%), who do the teaching. - J.M.

Union Control
a) In August 2004, a BC Teachers Federation report claimed that, "Some of Burnaby's 75 administrators were 'serial bullies' who targeted teachers." - BC Principals & Vice-principals Assoc.

Our Universities
a) In the introduction are OECD figures which clearly show that the bulk of Canadian university degrees don't match up to those of comparable countries. Also, in terms of expenditure, Canadians in general, and the students themselves, are getting a relatively poor return for their money, becuse the percentage of GNP disbursed is greater than any other nation. - J.M.

b) There comes a point in private and public investment where the money spent isn't justified by the results--the law of diminishing returns. Governments love popular causes, and who's going to argue that more isn't better in education? This has been likened to the mindless rush to invest in a stock market bubble, with the shareholders (the public) kept in the dark. - J.M.

---

Catalogue Information

---