To teachers in the OCDSB, and others…
Thanks to all the teachers at my kids’ school and other schools across the province who have stuck with unpaid, voluntary extracurricular activities in spite of the removal of their…
Education
Newhouse Tenure Committee – Call for Student Input [Professor Bruce Strong]
This year, I was elected to serve as the graduate representative on the Newhouse Tenure Committee. I’m committed to doing what I can to ensure Newhouse maintains the very best…
Teachers and extracurricular activities
Teachers in many of Ontario’s School Boards have heeded their union’s advice to take a “pause” from coaching or otherwise being involved in extracurricular activities, such as sports team, in…
Here is the Harper Hates Us…
…banner being flown over southeast Ottawa yesterday! It went by the school playground where I was picking up my kids. I, of course, seized upon the occasion to give a…
Four words…
… for you if you want your child removed from the public school classroom if something is being taught that somehow offends your sensibilities: “Home schooling” and “private schools”. Ontario…
Fair Weather Friends: Western Reaction(s) to the Middle East Protests
The ongoing protests in the parts of the Middle East and North Africa, ostensibly in the wake of a Z-list anti-Islam film produced in the US, have elicited the same…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Jeffrey Simpson marks Peter Lougheed’s passing by discussing what he brought to Alberta’s political scene that’s been sorely lacking ever since: Mr. Lougheed,…
Immigration
Working on campus: allowed. Work a shitty job at Walmart for two weeks, and declare the income: deportation. It’s the reality that international students face in Canada. Those students placing…
Let’s Watch Where Quebec Leads Us All
Less than 12 after being elected to a minority government in Quebec, the PQ has announced it will cancel the socially and economically regressive tuition fee hikes and repeal the…
Let’s not get carried away with Helicopter Parents
University and college classes start today for one of the most cash-strapped, debt-burdened, under-employed cohorts of post-secondary students this country has ever seen. But that’s not the story. Instead, on…
How to Decide Whether Public-Sector Employeers Are Overpaid
Recently I took a Globe & Mail columnist to task for arguing that Ontario’s public school teachers are overpaid. As a humble blogger I hardly expect a response from such…
The Real Cost of Education
B.C. students warned to stick to budgets Today in the CBC media, there’s an article admonishing students to stick to their tight budgets…this of course presupposes that students even have…
Back to school today!
And if I see one vehicle ignore the flashing lights of a school bus, I will chase you and hunt you down., I will. Please be mindful of buses, students…
At What Point Would a Public-Sector Salary NOT Be Too High?
A good newspaper retains columnists that you strongly disagree with. Even when it seems like the incessant blather they produce ought to be embarrassing. That’s how democracy works. I get…
Saturday Morning Links
This and that to start your long weekend. – Antonia Zerbisias and Thomas Walkom both discuss the connection between organized labour and the very existence of a substantial middle class.…
"Students putting students first" – Ontario Student Trustees’ Association calls Putting Students First Act "a fair deal", but will the NDP and Catherine Fife listen?
The NDP and Catherine Fife have already come out against the Putting Students First Act, but will they listen to the students of Ontario themselves or their big union money…
Why is Eric Davis running in Kitchener-Waterloo?
Here’s a great piece by Kitchener-Waterloo Liberal candidate Eric Davis answering the most basic question that anyone running for public office has to answer: Why are you running? Eric’s two…
Storyteller Gil
My Dad’s cousin, Gil Dumelie, passed away last weekend. I was at his funeral today, along with about 600 (or more) other family and friends. Gil was a memorable guy,…
With education on the line, will Tim Hudak flip-flop on a wage freeze like he did on full day kindergarten?
We know Tim Hudak’s position on full day kindergarten for Ontario families has gone from this: To this “Tim Hudak…condemned the program, which is to be fully rolled out by…
Historical Revisionism: A Balkan Cottage Industry?*
*My apologies to the good hard-working people of the global cottage and cottage cheese industries and the good people of the Balkans for once again being sullied by Western analyst-cum-charlatans.…