Category: Education

Megasize credit unions have policies, not memories

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From 1956 through 1958, I attended Stillwater Elementary, a small schoolhouse twenty-two kilometres south of Powell River. Its three rooms accommodated six grades, and children were summoned to class by a hand-rung bell left over from the region’s railway-logging days. One ordinary school day, a visitor appeared. She was Ruth Allan, known locally as the “Credit Union Lady.” She lived to be 102 and touched the lives of many people.

When men were men and women were women

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George Carlin warned us about “God damn stuff.” What he failed to mention is that the stuff fights back by capturing your attention and diverting you from watching TV or reading social media. Buried in my stuff was a 1950 manual dedicated to teaching young women their divine purpose on Earth. It taught the weaker sex about things like…

Jackassery in Alberta

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Alberta Conservatives recently declared that publications their supporters consider inappropriate should be removed from schools. A government order specified that students should not be exposed to sexual content. Among other things, there was to be no written mention of masturbation. Danielle Smith’s government fears that teenagers might discover and engage in the practice if it is mentioned in reading material…

In Praise of Idleness

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“…there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached…”

Questions asked

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Available evidence demonstrates that, despite the province’s financial affairs being in good order, the NDP Government is satisfied to keep school teacher salaries close to the lowest paid of any Canadian province.

A BC family’s 15-year struggle for justice

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Despite the Moore case, which began in the nineties and was finally resolved after 15 years, in 2017, another family was forced to move their their son to a private school offering specialized instruction and supervision. The family is financially crippled by the $2,400 monthly tuition but they know it’s a necessity if their boy is to have a chance at future success.

The misinformation strategy

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However, this is a province where government routinely spends billions annually to subsidize multinational resource and power companies and spent 14 years in the courts fighting delivery of educational services to children in need. This government, found by the land’s highest court to be contemptuous of constitutional rights, cannot be counted on to change its priorities.

“Meaningful collective bargaining”

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A prominent BC Government supporter wrote last week that, by vote of 6-2, Canada’s high court effectively handed “the Liberals ass on a plate.” Indeed, Justice Beverley McLachlin and colleagues concluded a legal process that should trouble every citizen. Not just that, in setting public education policy, an elected provincial government government behaved like a tin pot dictatorship but that four British Columbia Appeal Court judges believed they could ignore clear precedents established by the nation’s Supreme Court.

Delay, legislate, litigate, repeat

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On November 10, Canada’s highest court reinstated Madam Justice Griffin’s 2014 judgement that found BC had bargained with teachers in bad faith and breached the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. She awarded BCTF $2 million in damages. This high court action should conclude a dispute that has gone on since 2002 but, as long as British Columbia’s government follows the circular pattern described by this article’s title, it will not. Contempt for teachers is only one aspect of BC Liberal antipathy for public education.

Enough said…

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This comic conveys my disgust at people who diss teachers and try to shortchange education. What is wrong with you? pic.twitter.com/P5lQDTuCgP — Doug Coupland (@DougCoupland) June 18, 2014 Please, take time to […]