There needs to be caution about any coercion that could harm our children
The Canadian Academics for Covid Ethics (CA4CE) is a group of researchers and scholars from fields spanning the natural and social sciences and humanities. It is concerned with the mismanagement of the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic response in Canada and around the world. The following commentary was written by Alexander Andrée, PhD, Valentina Capurri, PhD, Claudia…
What does an illegible scribble say about the writer? Certainly more than it tells anyone trying to decipher those disjointed lines
I once worked with a man who took everything slowly. His coffee. His work. Even stuffing an envelope took a day and a half. It had to be just so. The man’s excruciating deliberateness in everything was annoying and seemingly pointless – except when it came to his handwriting. He carved museum pieces with his…
Vladimir Putin wants Russian bureaucrats to regulate the nation’s rap music. What could go wrong?
Over the weekend, news reports circulated that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Russian bureaucrats to regulate the nation’s rap music. Without regulation, Putin says, Russian rap – obsessed as it is with “sex, drugs and protest” – could lead Russia down “a path to the degradation of the nation.” Putin showed ample wisdom by advising…
The best teachers know what they want students to become. They form students into free people
Twice in the last couple of months, I had occasion to tell an old joke about teaching. The first time came at a teachers’ book club. The second when a man saw me reading school assignments on the train and struck up a conversation about teaching. The joke goes like this: the first time you…
For all the advances in the last century, a legacy of wars, gulags and holocausts remind us that things were never good
The news is usually bad. And right now, things look dire. So I don’t blame my friends and colleagues who have stopped reading the morning newspaper. Shutting the drapes on the storm raging can return a sense of normalcy to the breakfast table. As somebody who can’t stop reading the news, I can say that…
They don’t fact check. They don’t edit for clarity. They care nothing about meaning. And a trio of writers have exposed them
To have somebody say you “write well in an academic context” is like being called the handsome one in an ugly contest. Academic writing has a bad reputation – a reputation it usually earns. Academic prose is dense, dry, formulaic, habitually bloated and often pretentious. By straining to look intelligent, the worst of it just…
How marijuana use is reflected in attendance, participation, dropout and failure rates could make a persuasive story
With the exception of those people who smoke marijuana for medical purposes, I haven’t met many people who were improved by smoking up. In my experience with marijuana – and I admit my experience is limited to the second-hand variety – the stereotype of the bored and boring toker rings true. I’m among the few…
Universities should defend unpopular speech, not politicians who use funding as leverage
Like a soundtrack on endless repeat, universities have come around again to the one about free speech. It’s an old song. The chorus goes something like, “Universities must support freedom of expression.” It’s not the catchiest tune but like the national anthem, it’s a song to sing with heart. One person who sings loudly and…
Is this the kind of workplace we want to create for teachers, where any remark might be taken as either perverse or oppressive?
In Ontario, sex education remains one of those writhing cans of worms that nobody wanted opened and nobody can close. The centre of the squirming mess is a debate over whether sex ed – and by extension, sexual morality – is a private or public concern. Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives won the last Ontario election,…
Smartphones have undermined everyday social interactions by eroding our ability and desire to talk to one another
French legislators recently passed a law banning children between three and 15 from using smartphones in class. The government of President Emmanuel Macron said the move will help combat an epidemic of screen addiction among France’s children. At first glance, it looks as if the legislation will help to curb screen addiction. Even if it…
If schools look like internment campus, we shouldn’t be surprised if students try to escape
Ontario politics is never as interesting as when a Ford plows through the legislature and smashes everything. Since taking office as Ontario’s premier a month ago, Doug Ford has dumped a controversial sex ed curriculum, cut cap and trade, and promised to cull the number of councillors in Toronto’s city council. These decisions brought foam…
The combination of writing and speaking is thought itself. Only when we find the language can we grasp the idea
Of the educational policy battles currently raging, the usefulness of the SAT essay likely ranks near the bottom of most people’s minds. I know, you’re thinking: How could I not know this battle was raging? How have I not heard the artillery fire? You haven’t heard because it’s summer. And, truth be told, because the…
The Canadian Academics for Covid Ethics (CA4CE) is a group of researchers and scholars from fields spanning the natural and social sciences and humanities. It is concerned with the mismanagement of the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic response in Canada and around the world. The following commentary was written by Alexander Andrée, PhD, Valentina Capurri, PhD, Claudia…
