[This first appeared on Back of the Book] I find the current political air in Canada to be insufferably stupid. Despite there being excellent, professional journalists everywhere, there are many more time/space fillers who skew the public’s perception of what is going on and what really matters. One thing the
Continue readingTag: Education
The Progressive Right: One Public School System
I had an opportunity to argue with someone via Twitter with regards to funding of the Catholic school system in Ontario. I took exception with her assertion that it was atheists pushing for it’s dismantling, and that it was atheists who were bullying Catholics for having the desire to maintain a
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: To my friends at SFU – a message about the strikes
To my APSA, TSSU, and SFUFA friends at SFU: Today, CUPE 3338 is picketing Burnaby Mountain. They’re doing so because they’ve been trying to bargain with SFU for two years, with not much success. They’re picketing because they feel they deserve a fair collective agreement, and they see no other
Continue readingTrashy's World: Hey! Students who wailed away…
…on my bus this morning and on Twitter about schools needing to be closed today! Listen up. Legit reasons to close schools: Power outage Water outage Major snowstorm / freezing rain event that puts staff and / or students at risk of physical harm Earthquakes – big ones Invasion by
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2013 Roundup
Yesterday saw two significant new developments in Saskatchewan’s NDP leadership race, as the two candidates outside the Legislature took the initiative to earn coverage as the fall legislative session opened. – Let’s start with Ryan Meili’s economic plan, which featured a few important concrete policies (such as a minimum wage
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Moyers & Company – Plutocracy Rising
“Across America, this divide between the superrich and everyone else has become a yawning chasm and studies indicate it may stifle jobs and growth for years to come. At no time in modern history has the top one hundredth of one percent owned more of our wealth or paid so
Continue readingExponential Book: Binomial distributions and multiple choice tests
Readers of my blog know that I generally regard multiple choice tests (MCTs) as an adequate tool to assess student knowledge of, and proficiency with, a given set of topics. I have written about this subject here and here. No, I do not think that MCTs are perfect, nor do
Continue readingTrashy's World: Awesome motion passed by the OCDSB last night!
… especially point “C”. It won’t make a hill of beans of a difference, but the Board said what needed saying. Thanks to @nancy_akehurst for the pic. (7) Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Encouraging Early Political Engagement: I Have the Right to Be a Child
Early political engagement is a hot button topic for a number of us here at Politics ReSpun. As parents and/or political animals, we spend a lot of time contemplating methods of public engagement that would draw youth into political culture, and foster both interest and comprehension of sociopolitical events. Apathy
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Pornland – Gail Dines
Gail Dines is a powerful speaker on the topic of Feminism and pornography. Watch and learn folks. Part I Filed under: Education, Feminism Tagged: Feminism, Male Gaze, Patriarchy, Pornography
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On grassroots input
Saskatchewan’s NDP has released a report on its labour and employment consultations. And between the 700 participants and the report’s drafters, there are plenty of noteworthy suggestions and recommendations worth discussing. Let’s start with a few of the more detailed points. On process, a couple of observations about the Sask
Continue readingearthgauge: Earthgauge Radio October 18 2012: James Kunstler (part 2) and The Climate Reality Project
Download: earthgauge-podcast-oct-18-2012.mp3 On Earthgauge Radio this week, we continue our discussion on the limitations of technology in solving environmental problems and we learn about Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. I have two interviews on the program today: Novelist and critic James Howard Kunstler talks about his latest book ‘Too Much
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2013 Roundup
One might have thought that the final days of municipal elections around the province would make for a relatively quiet stretch in the Saskatchewan NDP leadership campaign. But instead, it looks like most of the campaigns are neatly using greater public awareness of politics generally to build interest in the
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Evolution – Qualia Soup
It is nice to have a post you can point to when people suddenly become hyperskeptical of Evolution. Thanks Qualia Soup. Filed under: Education, Science Tagged: Education, Evolution, Qualia Soup, Science, Science 101
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Teachers Unions – Good For Students and For Education
I’ve been around the mulberry bush a couple of times about teachers and unions. It’s nice when someone puts a piece together that concisely answers the usual bally-hoo about how bad unions are and how things would be fixed if there was just more free market, because more competition
Continue readingelementalpresent: ‘Hipster’ is not a real job. Neither is not having a job.
Last week, the CCPA released a report (authored by yours truly) about youth un- and underemployment in Canada. It showed that, while youth unemployment in Canada is not insubstantial – 14.1% in 2011, up from 12.9% in 2006 – it’s still “low” compared to other OECD countries. In Greece, for
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Well, Feminism Isn’t Over Yet – Who Knew?
Another neat part of holding a minority viewpoint is that when talking with those still in the matrix, your arguments can be dismissed out of hand as whining or mere supercilious handwaving. This short video paints a slightly different picture and should be part of your 101 level knowledge of
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Globe and Mail on higher education in Canada
The Globe and Mail has just launched an in-depth feature on higher education in Canada, an installment of their Our Time to Lead series. For a couple of weeks, you can expect to see increased coverage of the issues facing our post-secondary education system in print but especially online. The
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Time to Rethink The Way We Fund Higher Education
This September, like every year, a new group of high school graduates headed to college or university to pursue higher education. But today’s generation of students is in for a very different experience from the ones their parents had. On campuses across the country shiny new buildings are popping up,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Education and the Digital World
The other day I wrote a post commenting on an article by Doug Mann, a University of Western Ontario professor who calls into question the wholehearted embrace of all things digital in the classroom, arguing that efforts should be made to curb its distracting potential. A good letter by David
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