July 22, 2025

What the education system doesn’t want you to know about their “Nice” culture.

Mom Is Very Involved: A Culture of
“Niceness” (insert eye roll).

Dogmatism, defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, is, “stating your opinions in a strong way and not accepting anyone else’s opinions.” This denial of others’ opinions becomes dogmatic when it includes the rejection of evidence and relevant information.

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The Minister of Education, Paul Calandra, and many Ontario school boards are receiving considerable attention, and it is becoming increasingly hard for them to deflect responsibility as proof of negligence mounts.

The unions and school boards’ insistence that inadequate funding is the cause of all the issues they are facing sounds like dogmatism to me. They are desperately clinging to an inflexible narrative and continue to deny any suggestion that they, too, are responsible for this calamity.

On May 29, 2025, Allison Jones of the Canadian Press published the article, Ontario to give education minister power to more easily take over school boards. Allison Jones states, “The legislation is set to expand the reasons for initiating an investigation or putting a board under supervision beyond just financial ones, to include matters of public interest and allow Ministry of Education staff to conduct school board audits.”

Allison Jones cites the Ontario Public Boards Association as stating, “there indeed must be appropriate processes in place to address inappropriate board activity, but the fundamental reason for many challenges right now is underfunding”.

While I agree that years of inadequate funding are part of the current crisis, finances are only one aspect of this mess.

The fundamental problem fueling the inappropriate activities of boards and educators is the widespread unprofessionalism, as well as a lack of oversight and accountability.  

Inadequate funding does not explain a trip to Italy, an expensive staff retreat, and unauthorized pay increases. 

Nor does it explain the harassment of disliked students, the manipulation of information, the exploitation of the exclusion principle, defamatory gossip, reprisal, the lack of transparency, disregard for human rights and dignity, and blatant bias, stigma, and discrimination.

Dogmatism feeds this cultural mindset.

When any professional believes they are always right, they are vulnerable to thinking that everything they do is justified.

Allison Jones pointed out that the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario “suggested the bill is a power grab”.

The union wrote, “This is not education reform; it’s authoritarianism cloaked in the language of accountability, designed to deflect blame, suppress dissenting voices and tighten political control over a public education system this government has failed to adequately fund.”

Funny, I would describe school boards and unions the same way.

Hold up a mirror!

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In grade 9, quadmester 3, the special education teacher (SERT) emailed the science teacher about my daughter. “I know we are both very skeptical about progress and the likelihood of homework being handed in tomorrow”, she wrote.

If you are not familiar with the SERT, their role is essential to special education. This teacher is responsible for ensuring that everyone understands the student’s disability, the associated impairments, and how to accommodate them. Their role is to build capacity and relationships.

The SERT then emailed the VP, “I did just go through a photocopy of the most recent psych assessment to compile a clear list of accommodations.” 

FACT: There is a legal obligation to review relevant assessments and required accommodations within 30 days.

“She did not do any of the homework. She said she could not, as she had left all her work here. Apparently, she and her mom could not find any of the sheets on Google Classroom” wrote the SERT to the science teacher after reviewing the psychology assessment and accommodations.

Did she not understand what she read?

Or is this dogmatism?

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Not long after, the VP wrote the SERT, stating, “I am starting to wonder about the possibility of her needing to be one of our SIP claims in the future, so I could use some help in thinking about how to do that kind of reflection and preparation.”

FACT: A SIP is a special incidence portion. “School boards may apply for Special Incidence Portion (SIP) funding to help cover the costs of staff support to ensure the health and/or safety of students who have extraordinarily high needs and of others at school.”

They never discussed this with us, and to the best of my knowledge, she was never given SIP status.

This email conversation continued with the science teacher, “I just messaged Lynn with her test mark, the course mark of 38%, and a list of the missing assignments. If you need anything else, let me know. I’m interested to hear how the phone call goes.”

Before I received the science teacher’s message, I had reviewed Google Classroom and found nothing identified as incomplete in the missing assignment section. I took this to mean that there were no missing assignments and assumed they had helped her get caught up, so I sent an email thanking them.  

This is how they responded.

“Lynn and her daughter sent me a thank you message for helping her get all caught up, even though I continue to indicate our lack of progress”, wrote the SERT.

“I got the same one. Then I sent the update and got the response that she didn’t see the posted list of missing assignments in Google Classroom. It seems like a game. Lynn seems to use specific wording to suggest her daughter (or herself) isn’t being given updates on missing work, and wants to clarify where/when updates have been posted.”, wrote the science teacher.

“Currently, Lynn sees me positively and yet cannot have an actual, realistic conversation about the facts. If I do try to bring up any way in which her daughter is playing a role in her lack of success, accommodations are brought up.”, wrote the SERT.

Unaware of their concerns and perceptions, I sent an email to the SERT and science teacher stating, “Good morning. Looking ahead to next week, we are requesting that our daughter have access to verbatim notes of all lessons and discussions and/or audio recording of the lessons/discussions. Please let us know if you need anything from us to support this request. Thank you. Lynn and Chris.”

The SERT quickly emailed the VP, “Over the entire week last week, her daughter indicated misinformation multiple times each day about the location of work, completion of work, and submissions of work. Her mother supported all claims, even when in contradiction of one another. I have never done this in my time as SERT, but I am finding it becoming close to a situation where I am not comfortable talking to this parent on my own.  Words are altered, and staff are to blame at every turn.”

Remember, a week ago, they wanted to apply for SIP funding for her extraordinarily high needs. Despite this contradiction, they continue to employ whatever logic they can to uphold their false narrative.

This is dogmatism.

“Sorry for the multiple emails, ladies, but I have received several messages from Lynn, and she is becoming increasingly unreasonable” wrote the science teacher.

“At this point, I am hoping the VP and or principal can have a discussion with Lynn. This seems to be getting a bit beyond what makes sense. I will keep you posted.”, responded the SERT.

“I completely agree. I will hold off replying. Thanks for keeping me in the loop,” said the science teacher.

“From my experience with Lynn, she engages in back-and-forth conversation (and not really conversations but more like directives), and I feel like there won’t be an end to this thread. Thoughts?” wrote the science teacher to the VP.

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My requested accommodations were not unreasonable; however, their response was. 

The accommodations we requested align with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL), the Ontario Human Rights Code, and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). 

FACT: “Universal design means creating products, services, and places that people with a wide variety of abilities and circumstances can use.” Examples of UDLs are braille, sign language, online discussions, voice commands, screen magnification, and captions. 

Continuing their conversation, the science teacher wrote, “Lynn sent me a message this morning asking me to send her updated lists of missing assignments at the end of each day, along with attachments for each. This isn’t something that I can provide each day, as not all assigned tasks in a day are handed in that day, and I may not have the opportunity to sort through all of it. I feel like as soon as I give a little, Lynn pushes for a lot, and I may have set a dangerous precedent.”

Again, dogmatism. They are more focused on being right about our character than on the needs of my daughter and their responsibility to accommodate.

While they were engaged in this disgraceful banter, we had just submitted our first Freedom of Information (FOI) request, triggering a series of actions that brought the principal, superintendent, and privacy officer into the conversation. 

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How did this threat of accountability and oversight influence the tone of their discussion? Challenge their dogmatism?

“I will find time to go through the meeting information with you, but please know both parents said they feel so grateful for the message with the work attached. I know there are some things that cannot be sent like this, but when possible, they said it makes all the difference! I guess when I think about how much time is taken up by trying to get their daughter to tell me what she is working on, trying to find the work in the binder, and then online, etc., our work time is gone. Lynn said she simply printed the work, and they sat down to do it. They also make sure the sheet goes in the binder and that any blanks are filled in. I can see in her binder this week for sure,” wrote the SERT to the science teacher.

Like magic!

Perhaps someone should inform the union, the Ontario Public Boards Association, and the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario that this is what misuse of power and authoritarianism, cloaked in the language of accountability, designed to deflect blame, suppress dissenting voices, and maintain tight control over public education, actually looks like.

Your ADHD advocate,

Lynn