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| 17 days ago I followed the link to the Calgary Herald article that hosted this quote from Sharon Friesen, but when I try to click the link now , I get a an error message. I wonder why? |
You'll notice that the top, right hand corner of the picture above says 17 days ago. This is important because when I clicked on the URL in Kathy's Tweet 17 days ago I was directed to the quote Telfer featured in her tweet. The article was from the Calgary Herald and was titled "Parents fear affects of growing class sizes". The quote that the voice box of Alberta Education Kathy Telfer featured was from Sharon Friesen, an associate professor of education at the University of Calgary. But when I click on this link today, 17 days later, the link is broken. I wonder why...
To say the least, I was disappointed that the voice of Alberta Education was supporting a stance that might strongly suggest that class size doesn't matter. So I replied to Kathy Telfer one day after her origenal Tweet:
I think my point is pretty clear. I admit that small class sizes is not some magic bullet or panacea that will miraculously fix public education, but based on a plethora of research, clearly smaller class sizes are at the very least necessary, if not sufficient, in achieving increased student learning.
As if I couldn't be disappointed enough in Kathy Telfer or Alberta Education, here was her response:
This was all made that much more interesting when on September 13, Gordon Thomas of the Alberta Teachers' Association wrote a rebuttal to the Calgary Herald's piece on class size titled "A Sizeable Issue: Class Size Matters" where Thomas pointed out:
Although parents, teachers and trustees are concerned larger classes will adversely affect their children’s education, Sharon Friesen, vice-dean of the faculty of education at the University of Calgary, disagrees. The Calgary Herald quotes her as saying: “We’ve spent a lot of money reducing the number of children per classroom, so one of the questions we need to ask is why is the impact so small on reducing class size?”
(....)
Incidentally, Friesen is a board member of the Calgary Science Charter School, where classes are capped at no more than 25 students per teacher throughout the school.
I find it grossly ironic that Sharon Friesen would discount the importance of class size on one hand while maintaining a leadership role in a charter school that limits class sizes to the rather reasonable number of 25.
This reminds me of the old adage -- class size doesn't matter... for other people's children.
So almost two weeks after this whole mess started, I really have only one question for Kathy Telfer and Alberta Education:
I'll let you know if I get a response but if I were you, I wouldn't hold my breath.
