JUSTCAWS

  An opportunity to solve many of our persistent social ills with significant funding has arrived on Canada’s doorstep. With our new PM’s pledge to dramatically increase our military spending to meet our NATO commitments - we can finally provide drug treatment and housing to all those in need. How’s that? Rather than viewing military spending as competing with social programs for tax dollars - we should look at military spending AS a social program. If viewed under that lens - a right leaning capitalist country like the United States looks much more socialist. Average citizens may have trouble getting free healthcare, but American enlistees not only get free health care, but food shelter and post secondary education as well. Now I know not everyone wants to join the military and compromise their values by putting a rifle in their hand to achieve economic salvation. But what if the military broke into two separate branches of combat and non-combat. The Canadian military already serv...

  The Ontario Ministry of Education is hoping to address the inequality issue within its secondary schools by treating everyone the same. The result has been that everyone is suffering.    Rather than continuing to let parents and students decide what level or stream (academic, applied, workplace) they wanted to take their mandatory Grade 9 courses, now students must take these courses all at the same level, regardless of ability.  This approach relies heavily on the elementary schools preparing students to have success in high school. But for far too many students under this new de-streamed system - it doesn’t.   The reasons for this are varied and not necessarily the fault of the changes to an elementary education system that has moved away from failing students and deemphasized grades. I am not here to debate the merits of that decision, but the idea of holding students back and not allowing them to progress with their peers is now viewed as being exces...

  With so many skills that can be done by AI much faster and and sometimes better than humans, it does beg the question what’s left for us? Under this uncertain future, it is no wonder the Ontario Ministry of Education is pushing a greater emphasis in technical, trades based education. As for students who aren’t hands on learners the opportunities in the future seem much less certain. It may even require governments to set parameters on what work humans will never relinquish. We have all read and seen what AI can do. It writes books, reports, essays, and generates art within seconds after be given a few basic commands. In this reality is it worth spending time building skills that will never match the power of artificial intelligence? Of course it is from an intellectual and humanity perspective - but what about practically? Education to a large degree is about teaching the skills necessary for the jobs of tomorrow. Many jobs today simply will not exist in the future for humans i...

The dawn of a new school year comes with a new cell phone ban that has already generated plenty of discussion. Be interesting how this will play out, but parents will play a key role in determining how well enforced the ban will be. Right now, much of the concern has been about getting student and parent buy-in. My experience is that most kids and parents get it by now, that cell phones and classroom learning don’t go well together. Share There will still be some holdout parents who want all day access to their kids, but I believe school administrators will hear more from engaged parents if the phones are not banned in class. Will also be interested in seeing if teachers themselves can practice what they preach. Listen to latest Public #onted for more on implementing the ban.

One way to tone down the rhetoric is for the political talking heads to get back to changing minds rather than seeking attention. After the assassination attempt on former President Trump, there has been a rightful call to turn down the political heat and division in the United States. Elected officials and opinion makers across the political spectrum have condemned political violence and called for unity.  This of course is the right response, but many don’t think it will last. The problem is that in our desire to be heard online we lost our ability to have a civil discussion.  You would think if the point of giving your political opinion was to persuade others to your way of thinking - we would be much better at it.  We’ve lost the art of persuasion and have mastered the put down.  How did we get so far down the rabbit hole?  Many will point to social media and while it is the main culprit, I can’t give them all the blame. We have to be better as citizens and ...

As June begins I thought it would be appropriate to have a discussion about the pride flag being flown at Ontario schools. Recently, I opined publicly that the Canadian flag should be the only flag flown at schools as it should represent all of us. It is our symbol of unity, pride and progress.  That opinion, however, was liked and commented on by people who were not sharing my enthusiasm for the maple leaf, but liked the exclusion of anything pride. Their derogatory, inflammatory rhetoric made me realize we have not progressed  as far as I had thought or hoped. The importance of the Pride movement hit me more this year than any other. Some comments did give me pause though, to wonder if progressive voices were losing the room.  Even my own support of progressive causes and awareness campaigns is not absolute or without hesitation,  I’ve tried not to become numb to the constant awareness campaigns being pushed at schools for a variety of worthy causes and movements. ...