<p>Yourzer: Calculus isn’t compulsory here. You need at least 3 math credits to graduate. The first two are in 9th and 10th grade, and the third can be 11th grade math, or one of the three 12th grade maths. That’s what’s even dumber about the curriculum change. So far, 11 signatures on the petition. Not much :(</p>
<p>Someone wanted an explanation of the Ontario public school system. Here’s one from someone who was caught in between all of this.</p>
<p>Prior to 1999</p>
<p>Jr. Kindergarten - (4 years old)
Sr. Kindergarten
Grades 1-5 for elementary school.
Grades 6-8 for middle school.
9-13 for high school (13 was called OAC)</p>
<p>Depending on the board of education, some variation was allowed. In North York (former subcity in Toronto, it’s difficult to explain, just assume it’s a city within a city) for instance, we’d use Macs as a computers instead of PC’s and French was taught to me from Grade 1 onwards (should’ve been required up until grade 11 at least, I remember being almost fluent in French early on in my life, whereas now I’ve lost 90% of it) as opposed to grade 4 in other schools.</p>
<p>When you reached high school:</p>
<p>1 French credit
5 English credits
3 or 4 Math credits (I forget how much)
2 or 3 Science credits
1 Computer or Business credit
1 Art Credit
1 Phys Ed Credit
1 Geography Credit
1 History Credit
1 Civics Credit.</p>
<p>Plus 16-18 electives, again, I can’t remember the exact number.
For French, English, Math and Sciences each credit had two streams: one aimed for college students and another aimed for university students.</p>
<p>That’s how I remember it. After grade 10, Science was split into Bio, Chemistry and Physics streams. Math split into Calculus, Algebra, Geometry and in the very, very last years, Statistics (aka: Data Management). English remained a general course but it also split into streams as well, but you only had to take the general English to graduate. If you wanted, you could take take one of the electives. The math and science streams had two levels each, except for Stats (Cal 1, Cal 2 etc.)</p>
<p>Generally, you would complete most of your required credits in grade 9 or 10, by grade 11 you would start picking your courses and getting prepared for university via specialization. You could go through this one of two ways, you could fasttrack through school and graduate in grade 12. People who did this usually went to college (in Canada, college=community college and trade school) since they did not require OAC level credits. Occasionally, there were some really ambitious types who did OAC level courses a year early and went to university a year ealier. Additionally, a third option for OAC was to take a co-op class where you’d be placed at a job placement for a taste of the real world. Some of my friends were placed at radio stations, hospitals, computer firms, investment banks (one guy I knew got lucky and was placed at TD Waterhouse’s head offices in Toronto). </p>
<p>Post 1999</p>
<p>First a little back story, in 1995, Ontario voters voted in a new Progressive Conservative government who enacted some radical economic reforms (which turned out pretty well) but made serious cuts to social programs, mainly health care and education (but they happily voted to give themselves a raise during this time). Mike Harris, the Premiere (think Governor) wanted to phase out Jr. Kindergarten and OAC, to make up for the lost days every school year was extended by a week. Now as a result of this, the entire Ontario curriculum had to be redesigned and compressed. The kids that felt the biggest cruch were the classes of 2003. The class of 2003 was to be the last year OAC was to be available in Ontario so the graduating class was effectively doubled. The younger half (that’s me) were essentially the guinea pigs of this new curriculum. Whereas the older half, faced increase competition for university now that twice as many kids were graduating.</p>
<p>The double cohort kids had two options:
- Go to university/college
- Get a job
- Stay an extra year and take extra courses. This is what a lot of the younger half did since they had been primed for a five year high schooling period anyways, what this did though was just extend the effect into the class of 2004. This effect is supposed to gradually get smaller and smaller, I’d expect it to disappear completely by 2007 or 2008.</p>
<p>The new curriculum, in my opinion, basically compressed the material you once had three years to learn into two years. As a result, the guinea pigs (that’s the younger half of 2003) were screwed over by this and the curriculum as been screwed up ever since. They have failed to fix it and as a result, Ontario students are graduating with some of the worst math and science skills in the country and now instead of fixing the problem, they are phasing out calculus. </p>
<p>I’d like to hear some high schoolers opinion on this. Is staying an extra year still a serious option for some people?</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>I’m in a toronto public high school, a few people stay an extra year cuz they get rejected from every university, or don’t have the required credits to graduate, or they just aren’t ready for post-secondary education and stay and extra year just to take co-op. Most people at my school don’t stay an extra year, those that do, aren’t stupid or anything, they’re just usually slackers. However the grade 12 curriculum now is soo intense. It is not a gradual build up of work from gr. 9-12, it’s allll this super easy stuff from gr. 9-11, and in gr. 12 you’re burdened with CRAP LOADS of WORK!</p>
<p>ICrisis:</p>
<p>As far as I know, very few people in my school (that I know of) stay for an extra year. But I can’t say the same for the others.</p>
<p>I go to a public high school in Ontario, and we have the ‘gifted stream’ (or enriched) in the languages, maths, and sciences, on TOP of the normal (or academic) stream. I’m enrolled in the gifted stream, so I’m not 100% certain about how the rest of the school is. Pretty much all of us in the gifted program try to take as many advanced courses as possible.</p>
<p>It’s actually quite a bit more advanced than the academic stream, especially in the math courses. Also, our school offers AP courses in Calculus, English, French, Chemistry, Biology, and Physics. But they are only available to students who are in the enriched stream. </p>
<p>Enriched gives us more flexibility in our course selection. For example, Data Management is a gr 12 math course, but grade 11s in enriched Advanced Functions and Relations (and also took enriched gr 10 math the year before) are allowed to take the gr11 math course and Data Management at the same time. Pretty much, this does a favour to kids who like math. We don’t have to cram in all 3 maths in the final year of high school. Instead, we only have to take 2 maths (Calculus and Algebra). Likewise in English with Literature and Writer’s Craft.</p>
<p>So yeah, I consider myself pretty lucky to have this system… :D.</p>
<p>my school offers calc for seniors. i’d never take it. i was on the advanced track and decided not to take it so I could fit in 3 2 semester classes.</p>
<p>Okay I have a question about this “gifted” stream. In North York, before the amalgamation of Toronto, getting into gifted meant being assessed individually in a lab by actual psychologists and identified as gifted. When I went to high school downtown I learned that there is also an “enriched” stream, which basically requires that students fill in a survey of how much tv they watch and how many books they read, with no testing required. </p>
<p>And it also appears that some people use “gifted” and “enriched” interchangeably. Perhaps things have changed since I was in high school, but can anyone verify what the system for that is now? What are the requirements for being the “gifted” program now?</p>
<p>I don’t know about what constitutes gifted but the only way I can see schools getting around this is to add a gifted program where Calc is offered. I know my old high school got around this by adding AP courses (I wish I had them when I was going to that school) and allowing anyone to take them.</p>
<p>I have not read all the replies, so I apologize if I repeat anything that has already been said.</p>
<p>Let me begin by saying that as someone who grew up in Ontario and went to high school in Ontario, dropping calculus is rediculous. It just shows the fact that the new curriculum is completely inadequate and in the end harms the students. This is what teachers in Ontario have been saying for years ever since the new curriculum was proposed, but of course the ministry didn’t listen. The whole reason why Ontario decided to change the curriculum and do away with grade 13 was because many students were finishing in four years anyway. (in addition to wanting to catch up with the rest of the country and have only 4 years of high school) I myself attended a private high school in Ontario that was only 4 years. Over 97% of the students finished within the four years and had the appropriate credits to go to university. This included calculus! Ontario is only doing an injustice to its students and future generations. It just highlights the inadequacies of the Ontario public school system. Teachers have been saying it for years. Maybe parents will actually listen now and step and make their voices heard.</p>
<p>I think the reasons had more to do with money than wanting to catch up with the rest of the country.</p>
<p>Plus, during the OAC years, some schools allowed you to put those credits towards university. This is what many schools allow you to do with IB and/or AP credits now so the extra year of high school would have been rendered moot since you spent one less year in University. Plus, the co-op thing was incredibly useful for a lot of students.</p>
<p>Wow, that sucks. Oh well, Canada’s never contributed to anything before anyway.</p>
<p>JOKE!</p>
<p>ICrisis:
There’s no way that schools can ADD gifted programs…they are having enough difficulties just to keep the current gifted program open at many schools across the province. The cut backs/lack of funding from the Ministry of Education have devastated so many schools w/ the program (including mine…unfortunately).</p>
<p>My old high school just “added” an AP program to it’s curriculum this year.</p>
<p>Damn, why couldn’t they have eliminated it prior to this year?! Just had that exam last week and it was KILLER! Hopefully I can still come out with a 75.</p>
<p>Hey - don’t be so worried… One of time’s recent cover stories talked about lagging american education (how we’re not on par w/ the rest of the world for a 21st century education), but it also talked about a wiki based site dedicated to bringing education to all. On that site, there is a devoted AP Calc AB and BC curriculum comprised of flash/java (not sure) interactive lessons complete with homework that you can check online and quizzes throughout the lecture. </p>
<p>the site is <a href=“http://www.curriki.org/[/url]”>http://www.curriki.org/</a> - you should really make an account…</p>
<p>The direct link to the stuff is here: <a href=“http://www.curriki.org/nroc/[/url]”>http://www.curriki.org/nroc/</a></p>
<p>Those sites are awesome!!!</p>
<p>Yeah - it actually really helped me out with solving integrals of inverse trig functions…</p>
<p>It really has a lot of good information!</p>
<p>First I want to address all you ignorant Americans out there. Yes, AP classes are offered in Canada. I am in grade 11 and am currently studying for three (English & comp, Biology, and CALCULUS AB). Next year I intend to write the BC exam. But yes, the ministry of education intends to change the regular ontario curriculum because of the massive failure rates (currently 1 in 3 students fails Introductory Functions & Calculas). There are three Grade 12 math courses offered across Ontario: Geometry and Discrete Mathematics, Introductory Calculas, and Data Management. Data is being left alone but the functions part of IF&C is being taken out and expanded to be made its own course. Basic calculas will be combined with a topic completely unrelated (vectors) to form Vectors and Calculas. All the math teachers are completely irked and it looks like there will be a transition year due to all the kids (like me) who are working ahead.</p>
<p>“First I want to address all you ignorant Americans out there.”</p>
<p>Nice way to make a generalization. Nobody is going to take your post very seriously now.</p>
<p>Grow up.</p>
<p>^^ And to further void your argument … you’re from CANADA. Can you spell that?? C-A-N-A-D-A. Canada. </p>
<p>Just kidding. [;-)]</p>