Nearly Three Quarters (73%) of Pandemic Affected Parents Feel Students Should Learn Subjects They're Passionate About, Not Those of Little Interest
SURVEY FINDS TWO-THIRDS (67%) WANT A SCHOOL RESET, AND A MAJORITY (57%) REGRET SCHOOL DIDN'T ALLOW THEM TO FOLLOW DREAMS, GIFTED ABILITIES
TORONTO, Feb. 1, 2021 /CNW/ - A nation-wide survey of Canadian parents released today finds that nearly three in four of them (73%) believe the education system today would be better for students if it were structured to give them more choice and time to just learn those subjects and topics, they are either excited or passionate about.
Also, more than two-thirds (67%) want a school reset, so students learn more of the subject areas they're passionate about and not those of little interest to them.
It's also quite possible that having their children learning remotely from home or intermittently from a classroom has triggered a reflection on their own schooling experiences: a majority (57%) have regrets about how school didn't allow them to follow their dreams for the things they thought they had a real gift for.
"The pandemic has given parents a reality test in teaching," said Heather MacTaggart, Director of Unschooling School and Founder and Executive Director of Classroom Connections, established in 1997.
"They've seen first-hand the joy and enthusiasm their kids express when exploring subjects that suit their innate curiosity and passions, a stark contrast to the frustration and annoyance expressed when forces to learn things of little or no interest. That experience can signal how we should reset our school learning structure." she said.
Wistfully perhaps, a majority (53%) likewise agree that if they could 'unschool' themselves, they'd ditch much of the imposed educational structure they had and instead just independently learn the topics and subjects that excited them when they were young.
"At its heart, unschooling students is not a radical concept," said MacTaggart. "What it means is for the current system to provide much greater choice for students to follow their natural inclinations and abilities in certain areas rather than hang them up on things that create unnatural learning roadblocks, the very things many of their own parents experienced."
The national survey conducted by Maru/Blue Public Opinion from January 6 to 13, 2021, involved a representative sample of 865 randomly selected Canadian parents of children under the age of 18, and is considered accurate within +/- 3.8 percentage points using a Bayesian Credibility Interval, available at https://www.marublue.com/canadian-polls.
Unschooling School is the non-profit and resource centre working with families, students, and the public education system, to put the needs of kids first.
SOURCE Unschooling School
Media contact: Victoria Ollers, [email protected], 416 822-2288
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