In Episode 63, Martin & Roy ponder the history making Artemis II space launch with the spacecraft hurtling through space at thousands of kilometres per hour with a malfunctioning toilet. This moment sparks a powerful analogy: in both space travel and teaching, when something goes wrong, you can’t simply stop, you have to keep going. And in the classroom there are times when you know something’s not working properly but are unable to pinpoint the problem or the cause. All the while you must plough ahead, reaching for seemingly unattainable outcomes. To explore this concern, our duo sits down with John Richards, professor at Simon Fraser University and a senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute. Together, they unpack troubling trends in declining math, science, and reading scores among Canadian students based on PISA scores.(Programme for International Student Assessment, an international assessment that measures 15-year-old students' knowledge and skills in the areas of reading, mathematics and science.) But as the conversation unfolds, the Stunt Brothers find themselves with more questions than answers. What will the next round of PISA results reveal? What can Canada learn from countries like Finland and Sweden, which have taken bold steps to strengthen their education systems? Meanwhile, the landscape continues to shift. In the United States, AI-powered schools are beginning to emerge, and even the White House has floated ideas about robotic teaching assistants. Others argue for a return to fully analog classrooms and removing technology altogether. In the end, this episode doesn’t offer easy answers but it does ask the right questions.

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Key Topics:

• Decline in Canadian student scores
• Long-term trends in education performance
• Educational quality and teaching standards
• Impact of technology and AI on learning
• Societal and cultural influences on education
• Strategies for addressing educational decline
• Importance of foundational skills
• Teacher training and professional standards
• Role of societal attitudes and family influences
• Balancing technology with traditional learning methods

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