Archive for the ‘Education Debates’ Category
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IQ level changes over the years: study
Monday, October 24th, 2011
Oct. 20, 2011
a new study suggests that IQ levels may actually change over time – rising in some and falling in others… It’s possible the change in scores is due to some kids being early or late bloomers… But it is also possible that education played a role in altering IQ… “We have to be careful not to write off poorer performers at an early stage when, in fact, their IQ may improve significantly given a few more years.”
Tags: standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | 1 Comment »
Universities get an F for failing undergrads
Friday, October 21st, 2011
Oct. 21, 2011
For a generation or so, universities have been powered by two drives: make themselves stronger in research, and chase money from governments that rewarded institutions for accepting more students. The results were bad for the quality of undergraduate education… More students meant bigger classes, because government funding didn’t keep pace with enrolment while professors taught fewer undergraduate classes… Governments… stuffed the students into these universities, raised their fees and sent money for new buildings, then forgot about the quality of their instruction.
Tags: budget, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | 1 Comment »
Mining magnate’s $100M gift launches ‘Canadian Rhodes’
Friday, October 14th, 2011
Oct 14, 2011
“It’s about trying to create leaders,” said Mr. Schulich, 71. “If you call people leaders and give them 60 grand, some of them are going to turn into leaders.” … The award will work by a complex nomination process wherein each of Canada’s 1,300 high schools selects a single Schulich nominee. Of those, a selection committee will peg 75 students (60 Canadian, 15 Israeli) for the award… The Schulich Leader Scholarships will be administered by Toronto’s United Jewish Appeal.
Tags: philanthropy, youth
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Liberals promise ‘summer school’ for primary grades
Friday, September 2nd, 2011
Sep 01 2011
Children in Grades 1 to 3 who are struggling with reading, writing and math could go to summer school next year if the Liberal government is re-elected… The voluntary $9 million program would create spaces in 250 schools across Ontario for 7,500 pupils who rank below the provincial average in their test scores. The tutoring would last two weeks and be offered free of charge. Teachers will help get kids “over the hump” with more solid skills on the basics as they move to higher grades.
Tags: standard of living, youth
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More school, better teachers
Thursday, September 1st, 2011
Aug 31 2011
Now, teachers must figure out the best way to reach – and teach – each of their students whether they get straight As or are struggling to learn basic English.
That’s why the Ontario Liberals’ election promise to extend teacher college from one year to two years “with an emphasis on in-classroom learning” makes good sense. An increasing number of students have a learning disability, a behavioral problem or come to school hungry. Problems in a student’s home or community often spill into the classroom affecting their ability to do well. Teachers are expected to juggle all this.
Tags: standard of living, youth
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Dropout chiefs imperil a generation of kids
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
Aug. 17, 2011
Chiefs representing about 230 first nations in Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan have decided to boycott a three-person panel charged with finding fixes for the broken first nations education system. Native children will pay the price for this stiff-necked opposition, based on ancient animosities and petty political ambition. Right now, the federal government sends education grants to reserves, with chiefs using the money as they see fit. Some build and staff schools; some don’t. Only 40 per cent of on-reserve students graduate from high school, half the rate of the general population.
Tags: budget, Indigenous, participation, standard of living, youth
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Public schools cannot be places of prayer
Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
Jul. 08, 2011
The 300 students who pray in the cafeteria actually have a nearby mosque they could pray at, and letting them do so during the school day would be a reasonable accommodation… So the issue, then, is not really accommodation of belief; instead, the school is accommodating the young people’s reluctance to return. Religious groups are free, in a democratic society, to challenge dominant ideas of equality, but the schools should not allot them space, on school time, to do so.
Tags: multiculturalism, participation
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More Ontario JK students will get eye exams, free glasses
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
June 20, 2011
In partnership with optometrists and makers of eyeglasses, a program that waives about $300 in fees to get glasses on junior kindergarten pupils needing them will expand… the program that started in 2009 [is expected to be] rolled out province-wide by 2015. The problem is that although eye exams by optometrists are covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan for children 19 and under, about 80 per cent of kids starting school have never had their eyes tested — and statistics suggest up to one-quarter of them will have vision problems that can be corrected
Tags: Health, participation, standard of living, youth
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University professors teach better if they stopped lecturing
Friday, May 13th, 2011
May 12, 2011
Don’t lecture me. As a campus slogan, that could well catch fire in the wake of a new Canadian study suggesting the professorial monologues that have taught young science scholars for centuries should be banned from the classroom… “It should be wholesale transformation; you’re practising bad teaching if you’re not doing (interactive instruction),” says Wieman, who shared the Nobel physics prize in 2001. The study was released Thursday by the journal Science.
Tags: youth
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Ontario teachers OK $60 fee to fight PCs’ Tim Hudak
Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
Apr. 6, 2011
“This will not be telling people which party to vote for. It will purely be looking at an issues-based campaign promoting the educational rights of children and of students and of having a good educational system,” said Mr. Ryan in an interview. “I would love us to have a situation where we were remaining completely non-partisan … [but] we are very concerned about Mr. Hudak’s policies on education and in general on the funding of public services… “The Conservatives believe teacher unions have too much power with the McGuinty government and would move quickly to reduce that influence…
Tags: budget, ideology, participation
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