Linda's Individual Narrative

Linda's Individual Narrative

For my individual narrative I am writing from the viewpoint of Ontario's Prime Minister.

March 22, 2049

“The gap between the rich and the poor has substantively increased, and our young citizens are being blocked from secure jobs because the interview process favours candidates with the social capital to answer questions correctly. So my question is, how can the Premier advocate for meritocracy in a system that keeps people disenfranchised, while rewarding the select few? Why does this Premier believe, that our working class citizens don’t deserve the same opportunities as everybody else!?”

The Opposition’s Speaker sat as the body of people around her clapped.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at the hypocrite who secured her position due to our current system, but would criticize the way it functioned to bring down the public’s opinion on my Independent Party of Canada.

It was the last quarter of the Question Period at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario , and I watched from television at home how the opposition tried to tear into the very ideologies my party stood for. But it wouldn’t matter. The Minister will use statistics of secondary school graduation to illustrate the success of the current system while deflecting on the social capital aspect.

“That of course is incorrect, Mrs. Speaker,” my Minister of Education stood to speak. “Our current education system provides equitable learning opportunities by using a standardized curriculum across the province. Regardless of one’s social status or identity, they are given the very same education, access to digital tools, and fair AI grading. The success of this curriculum is supported by our 90% graduation rate of secondary students achieving a GPA of 80% or above.

However, whether a student is able to transfer knowledge from the curriculum to the interview process is an individual’s responsibility and a show of their merit.”

The oppositions’s body chattered as the Minister spoke and the Clerk overseeing the Assembly repeated “Order”.

My Minister’s response was really quite predictable. I would need to advise him to expand his argument though. In theory, no one could deny that remote learning resulted in the highest secondary school graduation rate in Ontario’s history. The problem was that every student was able to simply use AI technologies like Chat GPT to formulate answers and achieve a high GPA. This created a major grade inflation and students were being rejected left and right! . As such, colleges and universities could no longer select students on grades alone. The interview selection weeded out the individuals who could not make correct response without AI. As such, success required critically thinking skills that many had not earned by being digitally dependent.

Now then, speaker. Let’s see how you refute by bringing up the dichotomy in current jobs available to the graduates of secondary students and post-secondary.

The opposition’s speaker stood again.

“Speaker, even the Ministry of Labour does not seem to understand how our current system supports meritocracy. Every labour expert in the province is saying we need more skilled workers, not less. This is what the people of Ontario want too. They want schools that teach students the skills needed to enter post-secondary and succeed in the job market. Change needs to happen for our children, for the next generation! But instead we have riots in the street. We have an increase in poverty, crime, and homelessness!

So I am going to ask one more time, Speaker. How can the Premier justify that our curriculum promotes meritocracy when our children are gradating secondary school without the skills needed to perform basic skills without digital technology?”

It wasn’t a bad rebuttal, bringing in the next generation. But she could have made her argument more compact if she used recent and specific examples, that way she could really drive the issue home. Like last’s week protest in front of the C.N Tower by the unemployed who were laid of from their customer service jobs because they were too heavily reliant on Chat GPT when dealing with customer complaints that the organization decided to simply replace their jobs with the AI. While her current response brought in important issues, as vague as they were, they could also be routed vaguely by delegating responsibility to the Ministry of Labour or individual merit!

But seriously, if people had time to protest or riot in the streets then why weren’t they working in jobs they were suited for? If they had the brains to get away with crime, then why couldn’t they use their intelligence to use their beloved internet to teach themselves how to prepare for a job interview? If there were low-skill manufacturing jobs available then why would they choose to be homeless.

While it is true that I inherited my estate from my parents, that still didn’t excuse people who weren’t so lucky from not having to work, or at least renting a mattress in one of the provinces Temporary Housing Centre. Options were available, people were just too arrogant to use them.

I thought back to my own child. My eldest daughter had attended public school in the same curriculum as every other child in Ontario. I made sure she had worked hard to earn her grades. I had used my savings to ensure a tutor to help her develop literacy and mathematical skills without the use of AI. When she was younger she despised me for not letting her do it the easy way, Chat GPT, like all her classmates. She claimed that during class they would play on their smart phones and make Tik Tok videos while the classroom attendant also played on their phone! I was the only parent demanding to see what she completed when she got home and asking her follow up questions on how she got to her responses in order to ensure that she was using the AI apps to assist her thinking and research.

She came to once the post-secondary interviewers asked her questions that required memorization of content, demonstration of critical thinking and problem solving.

At the end of the day it is the agency of a parent and student that determines whether someone will be digitally depended or competent, not the curriculum itself! Online learning just made this more transparent than ever. Those who really wanted an education would study whereas those who just wanted a diploma would use the mechanisms available to succeed without putting in effort.

“Mrs Speaker, what you are trying to do is forcibly drag in municipalities that are unrelated to the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Education have different areas of responsibility. You are playing on the fears of the people by claiming that the biggest obstacle to hiring more skilled workers is the availability of skilled workers which is being caused by our current education system. This is false. Our current curriculum teaches our citizens to value meritocracy and creates equitable learning opportunities. However, it is the people’s choice not to take jobs that are currently available or to be swept into jobs that do not compensate well because they do not have the ability to perform in jobs that require responsible citizens. It is not the obligation of the Ministry of Education to ensure that the jobs available to the people of Ontario have the benefits and security they aspire for, that is the Ministry of Labour’s responsibility. And if more skilled workers are needed, what is stopping the people from attending private training or tutelage to become successful in such jobs. Those who are in these skilled positions, I am sure, will say that they put in the effort, and even saved money for further private education instead of spending on unnecessary pleasures”

The Clerk spoke up, “Next question, if you would please leader of the opposition”.

“When the previous government was in power they spent billions in education. The party and government now, IPC, stoped funding education, it was their platform!” They even tabled a Bill, “The Remote Learning for Equitable Education Act.” My question to the Premier, does the Premier still believe that remote learning leads to equitable education in spite of these protests in the street and increasing gap between the haves and have nots?”

So she was moving on to equitable learning. It was the next big argument in order to justify that the current system wasn’t working. Again, she should have clarified how the current system in inequitable. For example, Many people in the protests were notably those who were historically discriminated against and receiving the brunt of the economic disparity. The marginalized continued to be marginalized because they did not have the resources to pay for proper tutors or private school so they were being left behind. Their children’s achievement meant nothing if it did not translate to better opportunity or social mobility. Earlier in the month one of these protests turned into a riot that resulted in some private tutor businesses being burned and windows broken through.

I really expected more from a politician than this!

So many jobs have steadily been replaced by AI because the people were too reliant that they actually let the AI do the work for them. Entry level jobs customer service like cashiers, bank workers, and sales associates are usually the first to be replaced after the drastic shift of replacing teachers. This replacement simultaneously made it more difficult for people to obtain entry-level positions which helped deepen the stark contrast between the white collar positions that couldn’t be fully replaced with AI (doctors, politicians, lawyers, business leaders), and the ones that no one wanted because of the low pay and lack of skills needed.

The Clerk addressed the next speaker from my representatives to respond to the Oppositions accusation, “President of the Treasury Board”.

“Mrs. Speaker under our government, the province has saved billions of dollars from the remote learning project, which has been used to invest in industries such as manufacturing for necessities such as digital electronics, and electric vehicles. Nearly, 800 thousand new jobs in manufacturing have been created as a result! The people of Ontario should be proud of this success. Under the previous government, schooling had been increasingly irrelevant to students as it used traditional pedagogy for skills that were no longer relevant, such as essay writing, or memorization of concepts or mathematic equations, in the face of having tools that to perform these tasks in everyday life. We had a surplus post-secondary graduates who could not find jobs after graduation and a sense of hopelessness for the future. Remote learning made it so students no longer need to engage in these irrelevant school practices, and bottlenecked the admission into post-secondary by making entry more competitive so that the exceptional students who are accepted and graduate with a degree will have a chance to get the secure job they worked hard for. Our equitable education does not mean everyone will get a six figure job because that is unrealistic. What it provides, is the opportunity and access for everyone to succeed through the same lesson content and grading. Thank you.”

“The supplementary question” The Clerk again.

“This is the type of gas lighting that the people of Ontario are fed up with. People are protesting across the province. Last week, yesterday, today. While your agenda may have convinced the generation of parents who had children struggling in education after the pandemic, it will not mislead the current generation of secondary school graduates and older generation who benefitted from traditional classroom settings. They are experiencing precarious working conditions without unions, or safe paid leave. People who cannot work due to injuries or mental health are falling through the cracks and being blamed for their situation. What they see when they look up on screens and use social media is their government enjoying benefits from their tax paid dollars, that are telling them that everything is ok whilst they are privatizing society and making things worse for the majority. People cannot afford to live in Ontario unless they come from generations of wealth. Everything in society is becoming two-tiered so that the rich can pay for better services while the poor are either too busy working to make ends meet or protesting because they cannot survive in this economy. What does it matter if the GDP is higher than ever, if people cannot access healthcare, welfare, housing, or even proper food?! Your government began cutting welfare services and food banks have reached max capacity that they are turning people down! When public education is so broken that only children who receive private tutors gain the social capital to succeed? Where is the money saved from education going? I need to ask again, does the Premier truly believe that our current remote curriculum promotes equitable learning and meritocracy? That the money saved from remote learning is being used for the people as your party promised?”

I sigh. Her support of the inequity argument was fully based on class. Looks like she didn’t do any research herself. Well, that just makes it easier for my party so all is well.

It’s true that privatization led to two-tiered systems of accessing services. After all, it would be unfair for people who are contributing most to society through their tax dollars to not receive the services they need that are funded by them. I for one, was very pleased with the current outcome because it meant that I could simply pay to get what I need instead of waiting long periods, as was in the past. Just the other day, I had passed by a clinic and witnessed a huge line for public provided healthcare. Those are people who are receiving benefits for free so of course there has to be some sort of equilibrium, such as hours of waiting for service.

To say public education was broken, however, was quite the exaggeration. As long as there are those who can succeed, then it serves its purpose fine. How many people do we really need in high paid positions anyway> The economy needs a large number of blue-collar work in order to create high GDP.

By continuing to privatize the economy, welfare systems need to decrease too so that people will have the motivation to work hard and pay for services instead of just taking from tax payers. People will become divided by the poor who work and the poor who do not. Naturally, the rich who fund welfare services will not be pleased to contribute so much to them, and the poor who work will also turn against those who are trying to fly by without effort. Eventually those who refuse to work or choose to protest will naturally diminish against the flow of the economy that does not hand out freebies.

With privatization the province will benefit in the long term too. And keeping the current curriculum in place, that promotes our meritocracy ideology, makes it easier for students to graduate without the ability to critically think about alternative systems. In all these recent protests, there slogans were directly taken from Chat GPT! I know because I searched up, “what is a good protest against the current curriculum?”

My Treasury Board stood to respond,

“What Mrs. Speaker is saying makes no sense… The current government of Ontario is making investments for the people's sake, using the 40 billion savings per year from Education. We cannot be held accountable for the deficit in services that our government inherited. The issues in society you listed; healthcare, welfare, food prices, they were already sinking when the IPC stepped up. As our platform stated then, in order to help the people of Ontario we need to invest in the economy. We have reinvested in jobs that anyone can enter despite the call to turn to AI as workers. Privatization is a long term investment for the province. While citizens may not see immediate benefits, over time when the province accumulates enough money they will investment into infrastructure and services that will help the future generation. So they do not need to inherit a deficit society. In the past we dealt with a quarter of schools having daily teacher shortages. . Children’s education was disrupted daily because there was not enough qualified teachers that the school board was willing to hire for contract positions. By attempting to keep teachers stuck in Occasional and Long Term Occasional positions, the previous government created a system where students were not receiving the quality education they deserved. Students had no choice but to use AI as teachers so instead of moving against the flow, the IPC provided a solution that benefited students, parents, and the province”

Now then, since the opposition speaker had only brought in class and wealth disparity, there was no reason for the Treasury Board to do anything but counter with the wealth of the province increasing.

I switch off my phone as the final remark to the morning session would be given to the Opposition. She would definitely end with more disparities in society and say that it would all be fixed by returning to the old teaching system.

“The final supplementary for the morning session” The Clerk announced.

“It is true our province experienced a teacher shortage, It is also true our children were disrupted, first with the pandemic, and then with digital devices that provided easy access to AI to do the work for them, or by using smart phones and social media in class instead of engaging in lessons. Instead of fixing the problem, you took away investing in education and convinced vulnerable parents with a campaign platform not supported by any evidence. Our province is facing an educational crisis. It is facing a food crisis. A housing crisis. A poverty and homelessness crisis. A healthcare crisis. A mental health crisis. But most of all a privatization crisis. Instead of fixing our education you broke it. You used false promises of boosting our economy to help the people of Ontario as a guise for privatizing the economy and making the rich richer.

Your party would rather spend millions on partisan ads that try to convince the people of Ontario that you are doing a good job instead of investing in our children. Enough is enough. The government has shown Ontario who they really are. The neoliberal spending has led to a devastating class gap and a lost generation that feels alienated. Ontario needs qualified teachers back in classrooms. We need to go back to the basics. Increasing digital literacy is an important skill but students still need literacy and mathematic foundations. We call for the government to invest in real in person classes. To invest in Education so that we can certify qualified teachers. And to use previously certified teachers in the meantime while we still have time prevent our education from completely shattering. The only way Ontario will ever be for the people, is if we put a stop to these baseless meritocracy propaganda and reverse the privatization of the economy and teach children the knowledge and skills needed to actually become full participating citizens. Thank you.”

“That concludes our question period for this morning” The Clerk’s voice was drowned by the applause of the Oppositions body.

The responses had all gone according to Chat GPT as I had been using the voice to text feature to predict the debate. It was such a useful tool to be able to predict arguments and possible counters. Of course, unlike the Opposition’s speaker today I would do research into the latest news stories and brain storm my own counters to the counters Chat GPT came up with against my own party! I would need to speak to my Minister about solely relying on the tool as he did in they exchange.

At the end of the day, despite the inequality created by standardized remote learning, this kind of learning was here to stay because our party gave the people what they wanted. Students wanted to be disengaged in classrooms. We gave it to them. They wanted to use AI, we allowed it. Parents wanted higher graduation without thinking about what would happen if their children weren’t actually earning it, and we followed through! They wanted us. They wanted the IPC. They just couldn’t understand that every appeasement had a long term consequence. Digital dependence and privatizing society was only thanks to their compliance. Our party gave them everything they asked for, now they’re protesting that this digital overtake isn’t a monster they created!

I laugh.