I will not be supporting this motion for quite a number of reasons. I think that as Ms. Bisaro mentioned, we need flexibility. I don’t think that all children mature at the same rate. I think that where a child may have a slow year one year they’ll catch in the next. It’s kind of like when kids are growing, you know, and the same as when they’re developing intellectually. I mean, it comes on.

I don’t think anybody really counts the cost and the effect that it has when a school system labels a child to have failed. If I could just share a personal experience: My oldest brother, who was kind of the leader of our little gang of five in our family, came home from school at the end of Grade 4 and hid behind the rocker on our veranda and cried. I remember that because I was his little sister and I watched that. That affected him for the entire rest of his life. Was he a smart guy? Sure he was. Was he book smart and school smart? No, he wasn’t. Did he become a fully functioning member of society and support himself as a tradesman all his life? Yes, he did, and raised two fine young children into

adulthood. But he was told that day, I’m sorry, you’ve failed. You’re a failure.

I think there needs to be some discretionary latitude for parents and teachers to look at different situations. Every child is different. Every scenario is different. If you want to talk about how we’re turning students out at the end of Grade 12 and what they’re equipped to do, let’s look at are we funding inclusive schooling properly, not to distract the teacher completely with children with special needs. That’s a question we should be asking ourselves. Let’s look at whether we’re teaching the basics in the curriculum that equips people for basic tasks in life. That’s a question we need to ask ourselves.

Members on the committee get tired of me talking about it, but I was not a great student, but I’ll tell you, even not being the top of the class student, I left high school with the ability to perform mathematical tasks and speak, and I knew about grammar, and it was all based on a very old-fashioned form of teaching. You know, phonetic spelling. Not new English. Not new math. Not all this new-fangled stuff that people try. But, you know, I guess that’s the education system and where it’s gone.

I can tell you from many experiences, both of my boys – I shouldn’t talk about them in public – they were held back at Grade 1 level. They were not mature enough to go on. I thank those teachers for doing that. That’s fine. But when my son Jeffrey got to about Grade 4, we had him diagnosed with developmental dyslexia. Did he move on with his peers? He surely did, on a modified program. And I was shocked when I sat in this Legislature when he was in Grade 12 and saw the Minister of Education, Jake Ootes, stand up and say that Jeffrey Groenewegen had won the departmental top mark for the Northwest Territories in Social Studies for the Alberta departmentals. I went, like, wow! That’s the kid that in Grade 9 could barely read but he was on a modified program. He got advanced with his peers, and by the time he hit Grade 12 he was functioning at a normal level. He is a tradesman today, a qualified tradesman.

I don’t know. I think we need some discretionary latitude. I don’t think we can make a policy that just is carte blanche and that’s the way it is. I think parents have a role to play in that. But can I say that although I’m not trying to discredit academic achievement, I think it’s a wonderful thing. I encourage it for anybody that wants to proceed down that path, but everything about a person’s self-worth, their value, I’m sorry, cannot be numbered, and how smart they are cannot be calculated on a bottom line on a report card. There’s a lot more to life than what’s on that report card and somehow we have to look at the whole person and we need to have some discretionary latitude within our education system to make

decisions about holding back or passing students to continue on in school with their peers.

Like I say, and if you want to talk about the quality of the outcome at the end of Grade 12, let’s have a serious discussion about what’s going into the curriculum these days and let’s talk about what’s going into the classroom in terms of financial support for inclusive schooling. Because I can tell you of educators that are almost ready to throw in the towel because of the stress that they experience. Inclusive schooling is a wonderful idea. It’s a wonderful concept, but not if it’s underfunded. Not if there’s no classroom assistant there to help. Not if a teacher is being pulled in every direction because we’ve got students with every kind of aptitude from A to Z. You’ve got the gifted in with the kids that need that extra time and attention.

Anyway, we’re all individual. I can’t support the motion because I want to, and I’ve seen some of the value of social passing. That doesn’t mean I think we should compromise on our standard, but I think we need the discretion in the system. That’s my opinion and that’s why I don’t support the motion. Thank you.