When my daughter started kindergarten there were 3 ELL children 1 had been in Canada 2 weeks and spoke no English. Within a month that girl was speaking broken English and communicating with most of the kids in the class. The more she was exposed to other English speaking kids the better she spoke. She speaks beautifully now, with no accent, she also helped her mom speak English by practicing with her.

That said, I still am not a huge supporter of all day kindergarten, and I've already mentioned that in previous blogs, but if it will get me a full time position, I'll work with it (for now).

Now for year round school....Aghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!, Please... can't our children have time to explore the world? Can't they have unprogrammed time to figure out who they are? And can't they have free time to learn how to entertain themselves (self regulation, time for development of imagination and all that stuff).

As for rankings and GCI, It takes about 14 years of education to finish high school, and about 20 years to finish an undergrad. If we are to connect GCI to education pillars and ranking shouldn't we connect the GCI to the country's education level ranking from At Least 20 years prior? Just a thought. And yes, I do agree that GCI is affected by many more criteria than education, (international trade for one) but a country's quality of education does help.

As for our amazing school system (yes Canada does have very good standings educationally), why is it that after 13 years of school, college, university courses, I only first heard of the residential schools four years ago? (I knew about internment camps but not residential schools) At least now, we are finally starting to admit to our appauling behavior. Hopefully we have learned from our behavior and do not repeat these sins.

One more unrelated note. Thank you for your support, understanding and putting up with all of my classroom comments (I couldn't help myself because I thoroughly enjoyed your course).