I. Catholic School Quiz Sparks Controversy
The Star
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/410860 April 7th, 2008
II. The Toronto Catholic board will be testing students on religious knowledge in a controversial examination to be held throughout the Catholic school system. The test is meant to pinpoint areas of weakness but students will not be penalized for low scores. However, teachers and parents argue that a standardized test of religious knowledge is unnecessary and doesn’t test what is really important.
II. The Toronto Catholic board will be testing students on religious knowledge in a controversial examination to be held throughout the Catholic school system. The test is meant to pinpoint areas of weakness but students will not be penalized for low scores. However, teachers and parents argue that a standardized test of religious knowledge is unnecessary and doesn’t test what is really important.
III
A) The AP World History theme that this article closely relates to is: Cultural, religious, and intellectual developments. The Toronto Catholic board developed a unique test that will test student’s knowledge of Catholicism.
B) The standardized religious test was piloted last year in five schools. The results of the test were that 75% of the fourth grade students and 84% of seventh graders met the expected level of knowledge. Since the piloted test, half of the twelve board members have already opted out. In May, seventy-seven schools in six districts will take the test.
C) The point of view of the article is that of a female Canadian. She is an insider on this issue.
D) Since the majority of this article contains quotes from other sources, it is very hard to find bias by Kristin Rushowy. It seems, however, that the author agrees with the Catholic teachers that “the test minimizes what the Catholic education is all about.” The abundance of anti-test sources and the author’s use of side section called “Are you smarter than a religious fourth grader?” reached me to this conclusion.
E) From this article, I have heard the opinions of teachers, trustees, and the parent council chair. The point of view missing from the article is that of the students who took the pilot examination last year. It would be interesting to hear if the students though the test was “redundant” or if it helped them learn the religious concepts.
F) I agree that it is important to teach the basis of religion and create a foundation of concepts in a religious school. However, that an examination would do that, I am not so sure. Faith is ‘tested’ everyday by our morals and the way we live life. Fulfilling the Ten Commandment is also extremely important. A quote from the article that adds to my belief is, “The educational goals associated with religious education ... are designed to draw forth some of the deeper questions about life, deeper values like your sacred dignity as a person, the value of friendship, family, community, justice in the world – those are the kinds of deeper questions posed through religious life programs."
B) The standardized religious test was piloted last year in five schools. The results of the test were that 75% of the fourth grade students and 84% of seventh graders met the expected level of knowledge. Since the piloted test, half of the twelve board members have already opted out. In May, seventy-seven schools in six districts will take the test.
C) The point of view of the article is that of a female Canadian. She is an insider on this issue.
D) Since the majority of this article contains quotes from other sources, it is very hard to find bias by Kristin Rushowy. It seems, however, that the author agrees with the Catholic teachers that “the test minimizes what the Catholic education is all about.” The abundance of anti-test sources and the author’s use of side section called “Are you smarter than a religious fourth grader?” reached me to this conclusion.
E) From this article, I have heard the opinions of teachers, trustees, and the parent council chair. The point of view missing from the article is that of the students who took the pilot examination last year. It would be interesting to hear if the students though the test was “redundant” or if it helped them learn the religious concepts.
F) I agree that it is important to teach the basis of religion and create a foundation of concepts in a religious school. However, that an examination would do that, I am not so sure. Faith is ‘tested’ everyday by our morals and the way we live life. Fulfilling the Ten Commandment is also extremely important. A quote from the article that adds to my belief is, “The educational goals associated with religious education ... are designed to draw forth some of the deeper questions about life, deeper values like your sacred dignity as a person, the value of friendship, family, community, justice in the world – those are the kinds of deeper questions posed through religious life programs."
1 comment:
I thought that this article was very interesting and it makes sense for religious schools to test actual knowledge of religion. However, I do not think that it is an important test and is probably a waste of time and money of the schools. To make 4th graders take a test on religious knowledge is absolutely absurd. I enjoyed reading this article and the last quote was really a good one. good job.
nikki.
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