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WE DUG INTO THE ARCHIVES to find tidbits from previous issues of the ATA Magazine that are worth another look, either because of their relevance today, or as a reminder of how far we’ve come. You decide.
Can you match the following excerpts with the year that they were originally published?
1921, 1930, 1959, 1985
1. PROFESSIONALIZING THE PROFESSION
This is an indication that some of the Association objectives are being considered, and it is also hoped that it will not be too long until at least two years’ professional education is required for any form of teacher certification, and that four years will be the requirement for permanent certification.
Your guess:
2. CONCERNING CURRICULUM
The series of high school debates arranged by the Extension Department of the University of Alberta will no doubt serve to arouse public interest in the question of the school curriculum. Many non-teachers, and some teachers as well, indulge at times in much loose and ill-informed talk about the curriculum. Long have our students been railing at the deficiencies of the high school course: it has been a sort of windmill for adolescent minds to tilt at. But they find it none too easy to attack the curriculum in formal debate, for a serious discussion of the curriculum presupposes a scientific knowledge of the aims and principles of education, and requires the solution of several problems in psychology which are as yet only vaguely understood even by educationists themselves. In the meantime, it will be an excellent thing if the idea gains ground that not everybody is competent to meddle with the school curriculum.
Your guess:
3. DEBATING TEACHERS’ PENSIONS
SINCEREST gratitude of the teachers of Alberta is not only due but forthcoming to those who so eloquently championed the cause of pensions for teachers in the Legislature itself, and, without in any way casting reflections on those members who voted against the resolution, for submitting pensions to a committee of the House on the ground that it was not the proper method of approach and progress, we thank those members on the Government side of the House who abstained from voting.
Your guess:
4. GENDERING TEACHING
School teams and community league teams are much more common for boys than for girls. Girls are encouraged to partake in supporting roles, such as being cheerleaders for boys’ teams; but a cheerleading team of boys is rarely formed to support a girls’ basketball game. With these kinds of subtle socializing agents in operation against the formation of a truly equal relationship between men and women, the feminization of teaching cannot be considered complete in any sense. Therefore, it seems obvious that the situation in the teaching profession for women will not and cannot change until there comes a complete reorganization of sex roles in society-at-large.
Your guess:
