Canada is one country out of 193 and most Canadians currently think we can do nothing about our economy; yet when one person out of seven billion uses a gun to kill we think we know the problem and how to solve it. Either we as a society recognize our
Continue readingTag: school
ROAR!: New PEI Schoolboard – A hope and a Prayer
PEI has decided to merge its two school boards into one centralized board. Leaving PEI with an English Speaking Schoolboard and a French Speaking Schoolboard. This has been done as a money saver and I guess as a means for streamlining policy and practise in PEI schools. I’m not sure
Continue readingPaulitical Satire: Back to School Tips – Movie Monday
So, while all the little little kiddies went back to school last week, the bigger kiddies are heading back to classes today in most cases. Given that, I thought I would dispense some “I wish I knew then what I know now” typed advice for students going to University and
Continue readingTerahertz: American Secular Stainless Steel Ring
Some of my most popular blog posts remains my rejection of the iron ring posts based on the religious references that I wasn’t allowed to strike. Every few weeks I get a new comment, typically a self-entitled engineer who feels like calling me names on the Internet. But the latest
Continue readingTerahertz: Arguing with 15 year old me–The Young Offender’s Act
On my last trip to my parent’s house, I grabbed a couple of my old Social Studies 10 essays that I had written. I did quite well in Social Studies and was quite proud of my essays, a belief justified by the marks I tended to get. This first essay,
Continue readingknitnut.net: I need your advice
I’m thinking about applying to UBC to do a master’s degree in creative writing. I could do it part-time, through distance education. I’m feeling conflicted, though. Part of me says “If you want to write, just write. You don’t need a master’s degree. Just write.” That same part of me
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Free Post-Secondary Education Is Bad Because You’re Afraid Of Change
You have a reason to oppose free post-secondary education? You sure do, it’s your unwillingness to change. The fact is a majority of Canadians do offer justifications for opposing free post-secondary education, but those arguments do not come from research or evidence, they come from a fear of change. This
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Better Approach Than Zero Tolerance in Schools
A school in Walla Walla was essentially a dumping ground for all the students deemed to have behavioural problems and their explosion rate was through the roof. This all changed when a principal ditched the atrocious zero tolerance policy that the school was using (many schools in North America punish
Continue readingTerahertz: Alberta Education: An election bomb?
Alberta is ramping up for an election and while busty buses and money-for-nothing schemes are dominating the scandals, the new Education Act may be the thing that pisses enough people off to actually care about how this election turns out. Alberta’s education laws haven’t been updated in decades and given
Continue readingwRanter.com: Things that make me go arghhhh! Part 1
I figure that this wouldn’t be a true blog without random kvetching about nothing in particular. So in that spirit, I present semi-aimless carping about disconnected aspects of modern life, or, with apologies to Arsenio Hall, what I like to call “Things that make me go arghhhh!”: • When a
Continue readingTerahertz: Religions taking advantage of children
It’s an easy topic to write about and these three articles speak for themselves mostly, so I’m only going to give limited commentary on three pieces from the past couple days that definitely classify as religions taking advantage of (if not abusing) children. First, the Vancouver Sun mistakenly takes the
Continue readingROAR!: Teaching Religion in Schools
Forget it! Is the long and short answer to that idea. In Quebec there was a ruling that well, you can read it here: Top Court Clears Religion Course. I support those parents who wanted to opt out, but not for the reasons they sited, but because I don’t believe
Continue readingTerahertz: Stand against homophobia on the Vancouver School Board
Robin Perelle, writing for Xtra!, gives a good background on the swell of opposition to anti-homophobia policy in the lower mainland. Basically, NPA trustees Ken Denike and Sophia Woo have been caught red-handed in videos lying to the Christian Social Concern Fellowship that Vancouver has no anti-homophobia policy, when in
Continue readingThings Are Good: Want Good Grades? Go Run Around!
There is strong evidence that physical activity and good grades at school are directly connected. It’s a good idea to let kids go outside and just run around! “The findings of one high-quality intervention study and one high-quality observational study suggest that being more physically active is positively related to
Continue readingTerahertz: Christy Clark’s staff respond to homophobic bullying
5 days ago I sent a form letter to Christy Clark, as my MLA, asking her to address homophobic bullying in BC schools. Dear Christy Clark, Premier and MLA, I am writing this message in the interest of protecting the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth in the province of
Continue readingTerahertz: The light at the end of the tunnel…
This afternoon I defend my masters thesis, after which I will hopefully have only a few minor corrections and then I will have earned my masters in physics. I also hope to be done school for a while, so if you know of any good job openings… But the busy
Continue readingTerahertz: Is Zero Tolerance the best response to bullying?
School bullying, especially bullying targeted against LGBTQQ children, is finally getting the attention it merits. Rick Mercer’s viral rant on teen suicides (see below) has been viewed nearly half a million times in a mere week. This morning on the radio, Mercer discussed the video with local indie rock station The Peak, and admitted he […]
Continue readingTerahertz: Students get an A in anti-abortion activism
I was going to post this on Canadian Atheist, but I was beaten to the punch by one of my co-authors. It lives here instead. Canada’s biggest secular battlefield is over the publicly-funded Catholic school districts in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario, but a number of provinces also fund private religious schools to varying amounts. In […]
Continue readingTerahertz: Did I mention I’m running for School Board?
If you’re not following me on Facebook or my personal blog, you may have missed my initial announcement that I’m running for one of the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) nominations for Vancouver School Board. You can follow all my campaign updates at my other site: http://ian.bushfield.ca The nomination meeting’s on September 18th, and until […]
Continue readingFeminist Mom in Montreal: Man empowers women by encouraging them to pose for nude photos
I think a preface is in order here. On my blog post “Men as feminist leaders?” there was discussion about whether or not the event Femquake was still empowering for women with the knowledge that it was created by a man. Some of the people who commented feel that a
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