Mental Illness in Covid Times
For me to stop teaching in a physical classroom, because I don’t feel safe in there, I need a note from my doctor indicating that I have a mental illness…
Marie Snyder
If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another
I had a very sick kid here on the night before the last day of the last quadmester. My little one felt shaky and dizzy and came downstairs to get…
On Critical Race Theory
Conservative British MP, Kemi Badenoch, insisted that Critical Race Theory is somehow illegal, so I’m just going to save this rebuttal here: This is a Twitter thread from Kojo Koram…
Michael Sandel’s Tyranny of Merit
I haven’t yet read his newest book, but Michael Sandel is everywhere these days promoting his new book. An excerpt from a Guardian interview: Sandel charts the rise of what…
Imagine If Teachers Made the Decisions that Affect Teachers
So now the government has overruled regulation 274. I wrote about it ages ago, again firmly planted on the government side!! I’m really very, very pro-union, honestly, but some things…
Does Teaching Effectively Legitimize Ford’s Plan?
What Doug Ford’s team is doing right now reminds me of Bojack Horseman, from the end of the first season on, when absolutely everybody just starts saying “Hollywoo” after the…
Putting Your Own Mask on First
Teachers are a hardy bunch. We have self-trained ourselves to remain polite and calm in the face of abuse. On my first day of teaching, ever, I wrote Miss Snyder…
The Fogginess of These Times
I had laser surgery over a decade ago and love not wearing glasses, but I’ve started wearing my sunglasses regularly, even on my walk to work just as the sun’s…
Oh–What’s a Teacher to Do?
Starting next Friday, secondary students in my board will be forced to be in a room with about 15 other students they might not know, many of whom will take…
Risk Assessment for September
I have two weeks left before going back to school in person. I’ve been writing on social media and sending emails and signing petitions because this plan in Ontario doesn’t…
On a Radical Vision of Future Earth
I grabbed this book, by meteorologist Eric Holthaus, as soon as it went on sale, excited to check out the new vision of how we can all better live together.…
Hedges – the Last Word on Cancel Culture
Having a mass of people able to “cancel” someone in power can seem like a fantastic form of fluid democracy when it shuts down something harmful in a harmless manner,…
Some Paintings
I got on a painting kick this week. I haven’t picked up a brush in years, but, seeing as I have nowhere else to go, I gave it a whirl.…
On Learning History
I made a little history quiz, just for fun, for people to see how much they know about Canada’s history of horrific treatment of Indigenous Peoples as well as our…
On McQuaig’s Sport and Prey
Linda McQuaig’s newest book, The Sport and Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich are Stealing Canada’s Public Wealth, is a fast read full of local history and written as history…
On Laws and Common Sense
I’m thankful that my city council decided to make masks mandatory starting July 13th, even though I know a few, like the Regional Chair herself, were hoping that people could…
Another Rant About Overpopulation Arguments
I don’t actually care that much about overpopulation, not nearly as much as I care about re-regulating industry with climate a top priority and changing economic policy to decrease inequities,…
Found Letters from 1944: Frank and Ray and Johny
My daughter just found an old tin in the back of a cupboard. I have no idea where I got it, but it has two photos and two letters: Frank…
An Eye for an Eye in Cancel Culture
Some finish that with “… leaves the whole world blind,” but that somewhat belies the meaning of the phrase. The idea is that we should never take a drop more…
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger and El Jones on #CancelCanadaDay
Migrants Rights Network hosted an online teach-in for “so called Canada Day” with two revolutionaries: Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, a Dënesųłiné (ts’ékui) member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, and Executive…