Education ← Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

centre of the universe: Acting Your Age

May

24

2017

Here’s the thing. We live in a society that values youth over experience, wisdom, ability and knowledge. I’m not sure why we do that, but children are more valuable to us than non-children, which also translates into vilifying people who opt not to breed. There’s a whole bunch going on in this statement, and I…

Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links

May

22

2017

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Paul Krugman criticizes the use of non-compete agreements to trap workers at low wage levels with no opportunity to pursue comparable employment – as well as the Republicans’ insistence on pushing employer-based health care which further limits workers’ options: At this point, in other words, noncompete clauses are ...

Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links

May

16

2017

This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Tom Parkin writes about the growing opposition to a Lib infrastructure bank designed to turn public needs into private profits at our expense: Paying higher fares, fees and tolls because of a political decision to use more expensive private capital would be a “massive transfer of wealth ...

We Pivot: Liberating Your Children?

May

12

2017

Yes, let’s! You know you want to. And if you find some mental resistance to sliding to the right side of the image, question your assumptions.

Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links

May

5

2017

Assorted content to end your week. – Clive Hamilton discusses the accelerating calamity of climate change which we’re allowing to happen: Our best scientists tell us insistently that a calamity is unfolding, that the life-support systems of the Earth are being damaged in ways that threaten our survival. Yet in the face of these facts ...

Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links

Apr

12

2017

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Dani Rodrik argues that it’s too late to try to compensate the people being deliberately left behind by trade deals – and that instead, we need to make sure their interests are actually taken into account in how trade is structured: Today’s consensus concerning the need to compensate ...

Susan on the Soapbox: The Whole Gay Thing

Apr

9

2017

Recently Brad Trost and Jason Kenney made some troubling comments about the whole gay thing and the progressives just won’t let it go. Trost, a “full spectrum” conservative, believes in all three conservative values: social conservatism, fiscal conservatism, and democratic populist conservatism. He recently shared his views on “the whole gay thing” in a campaign ...

The Progressive Economics Forum: A Review of the 2017 Alberta Budget

Apr

2

2017

Over at the web site of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, I’ve written a review of the recent Alberta budget. Points I make in the blog post include the following: -Alberta remains the lowest-taxed province in Canada. -Alberta’s net debt-to-GDP ratio remains the lowest in Canada. -For the third consecutive year, the Rachel Notley government announced ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The SaskParty’s Deaf Ears & Dumb Cuts

Mar

30

2017

It’s staggering that the province is willing to spend multitudes more money on redundant highway so people can avoid going to Regina, than they are to improve literacy. Don Morgan is out of touch, and wrong. The Saskatchewan Library Trustees’ Association said in a news release after the budget that Morgan has said the province ...

centre of the universe: Fuck Libraries

Mar

29

2017

The Saskatchewan government, in its 2017/18 budget, has slashed library budgets around the province. Its done all kinds of other things too like force civil servants to take a 3.5% cut in pay, shut down the only highway bus transportation service in the province, increase the provincial sales tax, and basically pissed off pretty much…

Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links

Mar

22

2017

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Katie Allen reports on the growing gap between the privileged few and the working class in the UK. And Frank Elgar highlights how we all pay the price of inequality, even as our governments can’t be bothered to rein it in: For decades, the IMF, OECD, and World ...

Dead Wild Roses: Critical Thinking – Survivorship Bias

Mar

18

2017

Consider the Hollywood actor giving the classic “follow your dreams and never give up” line is bad advice and is pure survivorship bias at work. Well what is surviorship bias? Let’s take a look friends and learn. 🙂 “Survivorship bias, or survival bias, is the logical error of concentrating on the people or things that ...

The Progressive Economics Forum: Foundations for an Alberta Alternative Budget

Mar

15

2017

An Alberta-based volunteer working group, of which I’m a part, recently released a document titled Foundations for an Alberta Alternative Budget (for media coverage, see this Metro article). Working group members include staff from Alberta’s non-profit sector, labour movement and advocacy sector. While our long-term goal is to emulate the great work of the Alternative ...

We Pivot: IWD + 7 Days: Saudi Arabia Edition

Mar

15

2017

Maybe this is a first step at dismantling one of the harshest patriarchies on the planet? Or maybe that as we pivot to a society of gender equality, we can suggest to Saudi Arabia that if they oppose genders mixing, … [Read more]

Accidental Deliberations: Monday Evening Links

Mar

13

2017

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Jordon Cooper rightly argues that Brad Wall’s plan to slash education will only doom Saskatchewan to be further trapped in boom-and-bust resource cycles. And Toby Sanger discusses (PDF) how Saskatchewan can get back on track without imposing cruel cuts on the people who can least afford them. – ...

Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links

Mar

5

2017

This and that for your Sunday reading. – Carol Linnitt notes that British Columbia’s provincial pipeline spill map has been conspicuously disappeared by the Clark Libs in the lead up to an election where environmental protection is a major issue. And Kathy Tomlinson is the latest to highlight both the glaring lack of reasonable fund-raising ...

Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links

Mar

5

2017

This and that for your Sunday reading. – Carol Linnitt notes that British Columbia’s provincial pipeline spill map has been conspicuously disappeared by the Clark Libs in the lead up to an election where environmental protection is a major issue. And Kathy Tomlinson is the latest to highlight both the glaring lack of reasonable fund-raising ...

Alberta Politics: Shoreline, True Grit, photo-bombing, certainty and the Deity: random observations from Alberta’s Throne Speech

Mar

3

2017

PHOTOS: Alberta Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell, clad in a purple official gown, reads the NDP Government’s third Speech from the Throne in the Legislature in Edmonton yesterday afternoon. Below: Party crasher Jason Kenney, Labour Minister Christina Gray (Dave Cournoyer photo) and Opposition Leader Brian Jean. Alberta’s New Democratic Party Government delivered its third Speech from ...

Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links

Mar

2

2017

This and that for your Thursday reading. – Olivia Loveridge-Greene comments on new research showing how many workers may be forced to keep working into their 70s or beyond in order to be able to stay afloat. And Don Pittis explains why tax-free savings accounts and other giveaways to the wealthy won’t do anything to ...

Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links

Mar

2

2017

This and that for your Thursday reading. – Olivia Loveridge-Greene comments on new research showing how many workers may be forced to keep working into their 70s or beyond in order to be able to stay afloat. And Don Pittis explains why tax-free savings accounts and other giveaways to the wealthy won’t do anything to ...

Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links

Feb

9

2017

This and that for your Thursday reading. – Simon Enoch explains why the Sask Party’s plans to inflict an austerian beating until economic morale improves is doomed to failure: It is now abundantly clear that the Saskatchewan government’s “transformational change” agenda is in reality a not-so-subtle euphemism for provincewide austerity in response to the current ...

We Pivot: The Value of the Budweiser Boycott

Feb

8

2017

Budweiser has been so coy pretending their Super Bowl pro-immigration ad wasn’t political. Of course it was. Own it. But as people boycott something with the alternate spelling [Budwiser], we are able to more clearly see how people want to … [Read more]

Dead Wild Roses: A Critique of Post Modernism and Identity Politics

Jan

31

2017

This is a meaty read folks, and much better when put in context of the original article that you should read here. It will need a second and third reading, IMHO. “Identity politics flows logically from this broader censure of universalism. It is derived from the postmodern condition of fragmentation and decentring, ...

Things Are Good: How Early Video Games Expressed Environmentalism

Jan

31

2017

It can be fun to tune out and just play some games, and that’s a good thing. There are games that are obviously educational like Math Blaster and there are games like Carmen Sandiego that celebrate fun over learning while still teaching. Indeed, there are many games being played that entertain and educate at the ...

centre of the universe: Education Governance Reform

Jan

20

2017

The Government of Saskatchewan recently released a study commissioned from Dan Perrins called Educational Governance Review Report, Kindergarten to Grade 12. The first 21 pages of the report are pretty straightforward: there’s a need in Saskatchewan to centralise administration for our dozen-and-a-half school divisions, and to ensure school boards are using best practices for efficient, responsible,…