Canada As The World's Teachers' College

Let's make Canada the world's teachers' college -- the place where all ambitious educators want to go for their own education.

Make it free, but make it tough. And make it nationwide, from Memorial in St. Johns to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, a program ready to accept the world's best and brightest young teachers, and run them through to a master's degree or a Ph.D. Give them experience on First Nations reserves and our inner-city schools. Then send them home to build and improve their own countries' education systems.

For far less than we spent on Afghanistan, we'd make an indelible impact. Canadian-trained teachers in Brazil or India or Indonesia would be politically cherished, a resource to be shown off to locals and neighbours alike.

Our alumni would rise rapidly through the local system, rebuilding it along the lines they'd learned in Vancouver or Montreal. When Canadian firms wanted to invest locally, they'd find a Canadian network with friendly decision-makers already strategically placed.

And of course we'd hang on to some of those bright young teachers for ourselves, knowing that they'd settle right in and teach Canadians as well as Canadians taught them. The Finns shouldn't be the only good headhunters around.

There are some interesting points made throughout the rest of the article about education in Canada and how Canada is becoming (or to a certain extent already is) highky respected for our education, especially in certain areas of education.  Read the whole story at The Tyee