I wrote a thing (about education)

Did you know that the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives publishes an education journal called Our Schools/Our Selves? Neither did I, until I saw a call for proposals for articles related to teaching during the pandemic. My proposal to write about adult and continuing education during the pandemic was approved. After a couple of months of drafting and editing, the final version has been published! You can download the PDF from this page—my article is on page 28—or read it in The Monitor.

I decided to propose this article for two reasons. First, adult and continuing education (that is, helping adults get their diplomas—not a GED) is an overlooked sector of public education. I am an Ontario certified teacher like any other elementary or high school teacher; my school is technically a high school; and my students, when they graduate, get Ontario Secondary School Diplomas. Yet adult education teachers have disparate working conditions across the province, and funding for these programs is not guaranteed the way it is for under-18 programs. I have now taught in adult and continuing education for eight years, and during this time I have come to realize how vital it is for our society. So I want to represent this field as best I can.

Second, I have never written an article in a journal or magazine before! So this was a fun experience. If one day I wanted to submit more articles somewhere, now I have a publication I can point to as an example. That’s mainly why I’m writing about it here—so when I am looking back in my blog, I’ll be reminded I did this.

Anyway, that’s all. Carry on!