JUSTCAWS

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 ...

  I must say it was nice to see the Ontario School Boards sue the big social media companies for  deliberately hurting students.  While many don’t believe the school boards will prevail in this case, many are hoping it will draw more awareness to the dangers to children of unfettered access to social media. I would share that sentiment, but I take a dim view of virtue signals and hollow gestures when the safety of kids are at stake.  The school boards must take the needed step of removing the gateway device to social media - the smartphone.  If you are going to take the stand that social media is hurting kids, then how can you in good conscience allow access to it in schools?  In fact, the school boards themselves, maybe opening themselves up to the same litigation, once harm to kids is legally established.  Many have argued, as I have, that smartphones will be soon seen in the same light as smoking in the 1950’s.  Back then, smoking took place in...

The need to shock people to gain attention is nothing new. Advertisers have been doing it for years. Remember those cheesy ad headlines - SEX - now that I have your attention. Well now the protest movements have taken a page from Madison Avenue to do their own version. They describe anything they believe needs changing and describe it in alarmist terms. Canada is a racist country that commits genocide. Excuse me, what was that? Now that social justice warriors have your attention a stunned public can continue to be enlightened on how everything they thought they knew, is in fact, wrong. Dare to temper their extreme views with nuance and context - good luck. Your comeuppance will be to be labelled the very thing you question. Many learned it was best to just let them continue. Trouble with that, is that silence is often misinterpreted as acceptance. While often the exact opposite is true. The pressure to comply can lead to a bitter resentment and retrenchment. I have heard the grumb...

With the recent decisions from the Saskatchewan and New Brunswick governments regarding parental consent, I wanted to go back to a post I made when Florida was pushing back with its own sets of education policy changes. As you can read I did see this coming. As for this issue, my hope is that balanced solution will emerge that can respect parents rights and protects vulnerable kids. As always I try to see both sides of an issue as I have questions for both concerned parties. To those who support parental consent of name or pronoun change - I ask why? If you are even a semi involved parent - wouldn’t you be aware if your child was having identity issues. If not, perhaps it is because the child is not comfortable discussing them with you in fear of reprisal. If your kids know they grow up in a house of unconditional love - you shouldn’t need a note from school telling you what name your child goes by. For those opposed, can a child not express their concern of their parents expected or s...

Recent post brought this up - so I decided to post this article with the paper's headline and original newspaper clip below as the link has since been removed.  There sure has been enough “union bashing” going on during this economic downturn. Unionized autoworkers seem to be taking the brunt of the abuse this time around. Many observers have credited the “bloated” workforce of GM and Chrysler with contributing to their demise.   That point may be debatable, but it has got a lot more people talking about the merits of private sector unions in a competitive, global economy. Achieving great pay packages, improved working conditions and fantastic benefits don’t mean a whole lot if the company you work for closes shop because it can’t compete. As someone who became a teacher because of my passion and strong belief in the importance of public education, I have repeatedly questioned the role of entrenched teacher unions. Now as we move from the industrial to the information a...

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. ...