A Back-To-School Wishlist for Society
Simply, two things. Let’s make sure our public school system recognizes two things: Our children are priceless individuals with immense capacity to excel, not standardized, interchangeable commodities who can be warehoused in assembly line learning factories. Thinking matters, not just filling up heads with data. A week before the new school year starts is a [...]
Democracy and education: they go together, except when the government doesn’t like it?
The recent controversy over the Vancouver School Board’s budget situation has been a bit of an interesting story to follow. Much like every other school board in the province, the VSB has been wrangling with a considerable problem: the costs of providing a high-quality public education continuously increase, while the funding that comes from the [...]
Our Past is Our Future: The Place of Union Mobilization
For generations unions have been profound agents of social change, pursuing some of the noblest of goals, including equity and justice for workers. But changing our world is a different task in this new century. Today we face climate change; increasingly strong anti-union employers and governments; and several generations of young people who have little [...]
Why Teens Give Me Hope
In the category of young people who keep me from weeping for the future, we have Jamie Keiles who is living an experiment to let Seventeen magazine “run” her life for a month. Her high school English teacher should be proud of the media critique she is already pumping out. Jessalynn Keller once interned with [...]
Globe and Mail’s Irony: Calling The Yes Men Cynical
The Globe and Mail‘s editorial yesterday calling the Yes Men cynical is a classic example of psychological projection, calling another group cynical when corporate media today cannot likely be any more cynical. The entire editorial is below, but here are ten comments about how deluded the editorial department at the Globe and Mail is. We [...]
Fixing Institutionalized Education
Having taught high school for 12 years, then TAing at university during my MA, I’ve seen more than my share of human carnage in an increasingly institutionalizing education ‘industry” as kids endure the K-12 system then try to function in the world or in post-secondary institutions after graduation. Two core problems increasingly vex the system [...]
BC NDP Convention Minus 5 Days: Why We’re the Natural Governing Party of BC
I had this amazing daydream a few weeks after we failed to win the election last May. The NDP is the naturally governing party of BC, so when the legislature was to open earlier this fall/summer, the NDP MLAs should stroll in there and behave as if we actually represent the poorest 95% of British [...]
Shirley Bond’s Marie Antoinette Complex
shirleybond The heat wave continues-imagine being loaded on an Air Canada flight and then sitting on the tarmac in the heat for an hour – yup it was me!10:45 PM Jul 29th from web Shirley Bond should keep using Twitter so we can see a better sense of her lack of empathy and perspective. Former [...]
Canadians Need a Real Education in Politics
Ipsos/CanWest just released a poll that shows that Canadians need far more education about how politics is supposed to work in a parliamentary system. Here’s what they found [see below for some of the ambiguous juicy quotes]: a large minority think Igg would do a better job of running the country a slim majority think [...]
Politics, Re-Spun on Coop Radio, 5.4.09, a Vista Video Podcast
On Monday, May 4, 2009, Politics, Re-Spun met Coop Radio on “The Rational”, a Monday evening issues program. This is the second visit, with the next scheduled for Monday, May 11th, the night before the BC provincial election. Imtiaz Popat and I talked about the leaders debate last night, how horribly condescending and unprofessional Gordon Campbell was, [...]
Gordon Campbell Fires Himself During the Leaders Debate
I was thoroughly astonished at how effectively Gordon Campbell maimed his political career during the leaders debate. But really, I shouldn’t be because of his utter inability to have any meaningful breadth of vision as a leader. I can understand why the Liberals are hiding out and not attending all candidates meetings. Their record is [...]
Some Early Justification for NDP’s Gender Policies
I saw today three examples that support the need for the BC NDP’s affirmative action candidate policies. As much as it has been and will continue to be controversial, today alone justifies it for me. But first, being in an anti-no-spin zone, my take on this issue is affected by being a white male, with [...]
The BCTF Says to Take 5 People When You Vote
YouTube – BCTFvids’s Channel. The BCTF’s YouTube videos [above] are pretty powerful. One of the best ideas in them is for each of us to make sure we take 5 people to vote for public education. Do a quick mental survey of people you know, those that are politically curious, those that tend to avoid [...]
Carole James Masters Bill Good’s Show
On the day before Gordon Campbell cynically drops the election writ into a province that he usually refuses to respect or answer to, BC NDP leader Carole James visited the Bill Good show and hits serial home runs, proving she’s for more able to be premier than Gordon Campbell. Despite his show often sounding like [...]
Is Controlling for Race Inherently Racist?
I think so. Here’s why. The advantages to having demographic information out in the open far outweigh the disadvantages, said Prof. Fullan, who is also professor emeritus of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. “We said we should use the information to make all schools better, but I understand [...]
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