Letter to the Editor of a Major National Newspaper on the Ontario Revised Math, Which Wasn't Good Enough To Print, Because It's Not Negative At All, In Its 200 Words, And Refuses To Indulge In The "We're Terrible" Narrative About Ontario Education

What’s missing from the Globe and Mail’s articles on the new Ontario math strategy is the voices of actual math teachers-who teach every day, in classrooms from Windsor to Moose Factory.

The pervading media narrative about math education is far too negative.

My personal perspective is that the Ontario curriculum is strong, with an appropriate balance of skills and concepts. What is needed is not a complete course correction. With subtle tweaks, and reshaping of the curriculum to focus on bigger mathematical ideas, and making sure skills don’t go overlooked, I think it could be even better.

We already have world-class teachers, who with the new focus on math, are getting even better. I have seen massive breakthroughs these past two years. I have seen teachers learning more new and interesting math content than ever before, and they are excited by it! .

$60 million is nothing to sneer at. Together, we can go from good to great, if we keep working together. Change and improvement are not sudden. There is no “silver bullet”, only careful, patient work.