Author Archive for Tunya Audain

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Campaign Handout

Published on October 21, 2008 in Blog. 0 Comments

This is the my handout for tonight’s all candidate’s meeting.

Trustee candidates can’t speak, just hand out their stuff.

X AUDAIN, Tunya School Board, West Vancouver

I believe Parent Rights in Education should be School Board Policy.

I see students as captive audience in schools, therefore they should be presented balanced views and opinions on controversial subject matters (climate change, social justice)

I believe parents should have an instrumental role in their own schools in monitoring effectiveness of programs and teaching.

I would like to see a much more accountable School Board when ALL cheques issued are accessible online on the Board website.

You think we should open up the question of School Board Relevancy, and IF we should consider local school autonomy where parents are the governors in each school, and IF you feel we should talk about abolishing school boards, then a vote for me would put that in the loop for discussion in BC, whether I am elected or not.

For information on Parent Rights, Indoctrination Guidelines and Effective Schools Checklist, and more visit Tunya Audain at:

http://abolish-school-boards.org

Parent Rights in Education

Published on October 21, 2008 in 101 Reasons to Abolish. 0 Comments

Continuing to compile 101 Reasons to Abolish School Boards

7. Parents Rights and Their Children’s Education is a taboo topic in school boards.

Why? When someone, naively and earnestly says that parent rights, written in a pamphlet or school handbook would help empower parents, that person is praised, then diverted to another topic or “convinced” in no uncertain terms that there are “many stakeholders, partners, decision-makers, channels of authority…..ad infinitum, to follow”.
Since 1975 I’ve been involved with a project, Education Advisory, to help empower parents as both consumers and producers in the education system. The pamphlet, with the above title has been produced and reproduced in many parts of the English world, in print and online and is available here.

My History in Home Education

Published on October 20, 2008 in Blog and Home Education. 0 Comments

In 1970 when my daughters were 2 and 4, I enrolled in Ottawa Teachers College. I did this basically for two reasons: a) to know what would be expected when they were to go to school, or b) to educate them myself if I felt the need to do so. This second reason for teacher training was my belief that one had to have "qualifications" to teach one’s own children at home.

By doing some extensive research in the library I was able to check the Education Acts of most major countries and was surprised and delighted to find that there was usually a clause, called the “Otherwise” clause, which allowed for children to be educated at home by their parents, without qualifications or restrictions.

It was in 1971 that the whole Deschooling Issue blew up. Everett Reimer and Ivan Illich collaboratively developed this concept, and Illich had founded an Institute called CIDOC (Center for Intercultural Documentation) in Mexico where scholars and others were exploring the whole “deinstitutionalization” concept, in medicine, in education, in housing…..

After completing certification I went with my daughters to CIDOC where I attended lectures and participated in discussions. There I met John Holt of “How Children Fail” and “How Children Learn” fame.

Many years later, in 1987 I wrote an article, Home Education: the third option which, being in an education administration journal, carried considerable weight in establishing the validity of the movement and put the system on notice that parents were rapidly evolving into confidence in home education.

Read the article here

Influence Peddling in School Boards?

Published on October 3, 2008 in 101 Reasons to Abolish. 2 Comments

Continuing my list of 101 Reasons to Abolish School Boards:

6. Influence peddling has no place in school board business.

Why would a potential trustee, a parent particularly, seek endorsement from a teacher union in seeking election? That’s rank conflict of interest, especially since you have to pass the test of whether you are “progressive” or not!

For a union to actively advertise their offer of power to help elect is rank influence peddling in my view.

It skews, manipulates, and distorts the intent of what school boards are supposed to do – pursue education of children. And, it’s the illegal practice of using influence to obtain favors. It’s a form of bribery, a form of corruption that alters the behavior of recipients in ways not consistent with discharging their public duty. Do you think this story in the Vancouver Sun about a teacher union’s promise to help elect “progressive” trustees if they sign a pledge fits the definition of influence peddling? They seek through trustee pledges to advance 7 points including reducing class size, minimizing standardized testing, and supporting local – instead of provincial – bargaining.

Trusteeship

Published on October 3, 2008 in Blog. 0 Comments

I, Tunya Audain, am running for school trustee in the District of West Vancouver, BC, Canada, Nov 15/08. If elected I will serve, to the best of my ability, the parents and students, and the larger public interest and community. This statement should explain, that while my main outreach will be to determine how many voters share my belief that school boards should be abolished in the long term, if elected, I would pursue this larger question while trying to be a good trustee of public moneys and the public trust.

School Boards are Obsolete

Published on October 1, 2008 in 101 Reasons to Abolish. 0 Comments

Continuing my list of 101 Reasons to Abolish School Boards:

5. School Boards are Obsolete

‘These institutions served their purpose well in the past. But it is clear that the larger and more bureaucratic they become, the less they are able to fulfill the basic goal of providing a high-quality education. They tend to be dominated by educational elites who serve other goals. Elections have turned into pro forma exercises that mock the purpose of democratic control. School boards also seem incapable of guaranteeing high academic standards. They are now failing to provide children, their parents or taxpayers with enough value to justify their existence.’

Recommendation #1 of “Are School Boards Obsolete: Low voter turn out, rising costs, time to move on…?” by Dennis Owens for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, Oct 01/1999)

101 Reasons to Abolish School Boards 1-4

Published on September 12, 2008 in 101 Reasons to Abolish. 0 Comments

101 Reasons to Abolish School Boards (Boards of Education, Local Education Authorities….)

1. An unnecessary level of government

If private and independent schools can operate efficiently with parents as unpaid school boards at each individual school, hiring, firing, etc., why can’t public schools?

2. Politics of lay acquiescence

Well-meaning lay people run for school boards hoping to have a say on behalf of parents and children for better education. How long does it take for a turnaround — before they become socialized, domesticated puppets of the establishment and against parents. I’ve talked to trustees and some actually warn that the system has to be protected from parents, that they have to work for the "community". How is it that the trustees are to be the gatekeepers, the barricade against parents and the public? Don’t they see that they themselves have fallen into place as puppets and kept at "arms length"? What kind of "training" or "re-education" do these trustees get? (Please see post for Sept 10/08 and the accompanying visual about a 1986 "training".

3. Conflict of Interest of trustees

Look at your list of present trustees? How many are teachers or ex-teachers or principals? How many are ex teacher union leaders? Some jurisdictions see the danger and have strong conflict-of-interest prohibitions in regulations and legislation. Not in BC.

4. Trusteeship just a stepping stone to senior politics

How many senior politicians do you know who started out as trustees? It’s a great training school for politics. You learn to schmooze, to pull strings, to wheedle, to promise…….You learn who the power brokers are in the community as trustees get their share of attending so many committees directly unrelated to education: health, parks and recreation, municipal leadership training camps, …..You deal with provincial and federal politicians and bureaucrats as you seek grants and favors, funds and tax benefits….

“Handling” Parents

Published on September 10, 2008 in Blog and Visuals. 0 Comments

New Trustees Seminar – 1986, Vancouver, BC, Canada

The BCSTA (BC School Trustee Association) REPORT 1986-01-10 was headed

New Trustees Seminar

Empathize, Don’t Antagonize

"……irate parent Mrs. Trueguard flounced onstage quivering with ostrich feathers and indignation about her son’s missing biology credit…..". The story further described the "training" exercises the new trustees experienced while receiving "some cool-headed, diplomatic and effective problem-solving."

I chanced upon this article in 1986 as a young parent and was insulted then, and continue to be offended to this day.

But, this example does answer some of my questions. How do well-intentioned new trustees so quickly become establishment types rather than champions of parents and students? Why do some say, "We have to protect the system from parents."

How would you, if a parent, like to be caricatured in such a manner, the National Enquirer in hand? Mrs. Trueguard is not a very nice looking parent nor does she appear real. I think this demonizes parents in the eyes of trustee trainees. Aren’t any trustees parents anymore?

It’s ridiculously inappropriate and if I was elected school trustee I would carefully monitor how new trustees are "trained".

Perhaps some current trustees might let us know, or are they sworn to secrecy about their "training" and "conversion"?

School Board Concerns Ignored by Ministry of Education

Published on August 25, 2008 in Blog. 0 Comments

WV parents scoff at ‘farcical’ reading test – Questions ‘Mickey Mouse’

North Shore News, Feb. 01, 1981 By Susan Cardinal

Angry parents and teachers attended a meeting of the West Vancouver School Board Monday to protest a provincially administered reading test they call “ridiculous and silly.”

Although West Vancouver students in Grades 4, 8 and 12 scored well in the provincial test, one woman charged that the tests themselves were “farcical” and “Mickey Mouse.”

“It’s a phony test. It makes them (the students) look good,” said Tunya Audain, a parent on the panel assigned to review the results of the Grade 8 test.

“I’d really like to underline my feelings of dismay that the test itself is ‘inadequate’ and ‘flawed’,

“It makes me question the quality of education itself, if that’s the means by which it’s tested,” she said.

The provincial assessment was conducted under the Ministry of Education in 1980 to test the reading skills and comprehension of students.

The review process by the three parent and teacher panels began in late October. The panels were supposed to examine only the results but members studied the vehicle of testing as well.

Audain called on the school board to take a stronger approach with the ministry to publicize the inadequate assessment.

Sylvia Rayer, chairperson of the Grade 8 panel, charged that the wording of the test was ‘ambiguous’ and that several of the questions solicited such simple answers that the test didn’t measure the comprehension of the students. Other questions, said Rayer, were also so ambiguous that a bright student would become confused.

Ron Fenwick, district director for the board, said the problem with the tests is not a new one.

But he said “we’re slightly skeptical about the usefulness of taking these complaints to the Ministry of Education.”

The same recommendations to change the wording and make the test tougher were taken to the ministry in 1977, explained Fenwick, but three years later the same questions were asked despite protests by the board in 1977.

It’s extremely frustrating to deal with the province, said Fenwick, and to see the same items come up again is “particularly frustrating” he said.

Two representatives of the school board are scheduled to meet with the ministry officials, February 6, to discuss the assessment.

Board Chairman Lilian Theirsch said the board would also bring up the test deficiencies at the March meeting of the B. C. School Trustees Association.

Parent Volunteers Resent ‘Scab’ Label

Published on July 31, 2008 in Blog. 0 Comments

Jan 5/83, North Shore News, North Vancouver, BC, Canada

(Continuing to archive past education struggles to inform current struggles … )

That was the front page headline of a story by Bill Bell, the story continues …

“Union intimidation”: is keeping parents from volunteering their services in West Vancouver’s schools, claim representatives of the Hillside Parents Group.

Co-chairpersons Tunya Audain and Suzanne Latta have told the school board that since the teaching aides were laid off last September, parents have not been allowed to volunteer in areas where they were normally welcomed…..

Audain later told the News that her group had been sent a letter from the West Vancouver Municipal Employees Association which she said gave her a very quick ‘political lesson’ in how ‘rough’ unions can be…..Audain point out that the parents did not want to replace the teaching aides but only wanted to continue in the volunteer positions held before the aides were laid off. She told the News she resented the parents being labeled ‘scabs’ for doing volunteer tasks.

“Our first concern is the students, the union is way down the list,” Latta said….

Newly elected school board chairman, Norm Alban, refused to comment on the situation, fearing that the confrontation could escalate.