A Synopsis of UCY Questions

A Synopsis of the UCY Questions to Candidates

The first two questions to OCDSB candidates involve big picture thinking. The first is asked from the perspective that public education is our best tool for cultivating a healthy democracy. The second is based on the view that public education has not kept pace with change. Answers to questions 3 to 5 will likely reflect the bigger picture views candidates express in questions 1 and 2.

UCY Question 1 – Our Democratic Values
For democracies to remain strong, they need citizens who cherish the democratic way of life, and who will act to preserve it. Public education has immense potential to nourish this kind of citizenry, yet how well it achieves it depends in large part on the actions of trustees.

This first question is therefore intended to give voters a sense of the degree to which the candidates for trustee are democratically minded. It is to start people thinking about which candidates are most likely to respect everyone’s views and collaborate well with others. John Dewey’s definition of open-mindedness is perhaps worth keeping in mind when weighing the candidates. It describes an ability to listen to others and to not get locked into one way of thinking.

Open-mindedness, he says, is the “active desire to listen to more sides than one; to give heed to the facts from whatever source they come; to give full attention to alternative possibilities; and to recognize the possibility of error even in the beliefs that are dearest to us.”  – John Dewey, The Theory of the Moral Life.

This link, Our Democratic Values, will take you to the full text of Question 1 and related reference materials.

UCY Question 2 – Systemic Innovation
Because of Sir Ken Robinson (Changing Education Paradigms) and other like-minded thinkers, people are increasingly seeing our industrial model of education as having outlived its usefulness. Question 2 is asked from the perspective of people who believe public education is out of sync with the times. The question is meant to obtain an idea of how much the candidates for trustee are aware of the competing educational paradigms, how much they believe that a change is underway, and whether or not they would support efforts to gain a better vision of a new education model and how to manage an orderly transition to it.

At stake are solutions to problems related to well-being, equity, inclusion, engagement, individuality, bullying, etc. New paradigms have been observed to provide new solutions to nagging old problems. It has been observed that old problems can simply disappear with new paradigms. If we are caught in a time of inbetweenity, as former OCDSB superintendent Peter Gamwell has said, then we need trustees who have some idea of where we are headed, and how they might ease the transition.

This link, Systemic Innovation, will take you to the full text of Question 2 and related reference materials.

UCY Question 3 – Youth Empowerment
This question comes from Charlotte Dwyer and Ny Holmes, two Grade 11 Ottawa secondary school students.

Preamble
“We recently organized Nepean High School’s successful walkout against Ford’s changes to the curriculum. Some of these changes include reverting the newly updated health curriculum (2015) to one taught in 1998, which will see topics such as cyber-safety, sexuality, gender identity and consent left out of elementary classrooms. This government has also deprioritized Truth and Reconciliation by cancelling a working group that aimed to improve Indigenous education in Ontario schools. We deserve better than this. We have to say, for a lot of us, it felt super scary and dark when Ford was first elected. Although the walkout gave us hope, and cemented the fact that almost all students our age are willing to fight for our rights in regards to our curriculum – we still need a sense of validation and commitment from adults. We want to know that they are helping us assert our rights, and giving us the knowledge and encouragement we need to continue this fight.” 

Their Question
What steps are you going to take to ensure that students feel they are heard in regards to their involvement in THEIR curriculum?

This link, Youth Empowerment, will take you to the full text of Question 3 and related reference materials.

UCY Question 4 – Equity and Inclusion

Equity and inclusion is about providing all children with equal opportunities to reach their full potential while respecting their unique differences and cultural heritages. It requires the elimination of discrimination through the identification and removal of bias and barriers. School boards have been attempting to address this issue and related problems for years, but the solutions have been elusive. This question is to determine what the candidates for trustee would do to make schools more equitable, inclusive places for our children and youth.

This link, Equity and Inclusion, will take you to the full text of Question 4 and related reference materials.

UCY Question 5 – Mental Health and Well-being