Category: Education

Is Zero Tolerance the best response to bullying?

School bullying, especially bullying targeted against LGBTQQ children, is finally getting the attention it merits.

Rick Mercer’s viral rant on teen suicides (see below) has been viewed nearly half a million times in a mere week.

This morning on the radio, Mercer discussed the video with local indie rock station The Peak, and admitted he was overwhelmed with the unexpected – and positive – response.

Continue reading Is Zero Tolerance the best response to bullying?

The end of “parental rights” in Alberta?

More good news out of Alberta, premier-elect Alison Redford is hinting that she may reverse the most controversial bits of Bill 44.

The bill was an overdue amendment to Alberta’s Human Rights Act, which added sexual orientation to the list of protections. However, sensing there might be a social conservative revolt to the idea that gays are people too, the government conceded a section that enshrined a parent’s right to opt their children out of topics including sexuality, sexual orientation, or religion, in schools.

That such rights already existed within the School Act was apparently insufficient for some parents, and some confused comments by then-premier Ed Stelmach had suggested evolution may be considered a religious topic. They quickly recanted that gaffe; however, the damage was easily done and teachers and the media were left scratching their heads as to the need for such legislation.

But the government held the line and pushed through valiant filibuster attempts by the Liberal and NDP opposition.

Redford’s reversal is welcome news to those of us who support comprehensive education, free from dogmatic influences.

She does go farther though and states she would repeal the entire Section 3 from the Human Rights Act. Section 3 is the hate speech section, long decried by conservatives like Ezra Levant and Christian fundamentalists who want the freedom to slander their favourite targets – typically Muslims and gays. Critics of the section argue that the current laws allow innocent columnists to be dragged before Human Rights Tribunals at their own expense by censors. Defenders argue that hate speech is a form of discrimination and needs to be curbed to protect those who may be victimized it.

While I would generally describe myself as a civil libertarian (among many things), I am conflicted on this issue and I think we need to see it as a balance of rights. People have the right not to be persecuted for their identity or beliefs, but they are also allowed to speak without fear of censorship.

It’s not clear to me that those indicted by the Tribunals have been unjustly punished, and given the tendency for those in the majority to use their privilege to demonize minorities, I think some level of laws against hate speech are justified.

Basically, I am not convinced that Alberta’s hate speech laws are broken, so I’m not convinced we should be trying to fix them. I am open to being proven wrong though.

Unaffordable education

It’s a sad state of affairs when the first thought to run through my head upon reading the headline, “School tuition hikes eclipse inflation rate again: Statscan”, was This isn’t really news.

Tuition increases are par for the course at university. When provinces cap the maximum allowable increase, that sets the bar for what the administration seems to require each year.

This is an odd twist of economics if you think about it.

The cost of running a school should only rise with inflation. Some material costs will increase faster, others will be slower, but overall the budget for next year should be equivalent to the budget for this year plus inflation.

Of course if the university is undergoing aggressive expansion – which they all seem to be doing – they will need a bit more money next year.

If we want to make the corporate analogy (which many do to the detriment of our education system), then imagine a company that increases the price of its product each year, simply so they can sell more products next year – and at a higher price. It would be brilliant if it could work, but in general this a model doomed to failure.

So it’s good to see that at least a few provinces are trying to buck this trend.

Newfoundland and Labrador has frozen its tuition for the past 8 years, resulting in among the lowest rates in the country. Manitoba also kept its increase down to 1.4%. This also shows us that both Conservative (of the anyone-but-Harper kind) and NDP governments can actually care about education. Of course Ontario and Nova Scotia both posted large increases, also showing that Liberal and NDP governments can abandon education in favour of deficit reductions (it’s worth noting that the Nova Scotian government reduced tuition for the past few years).

The $6640 tuition that Ontario student pay is just obscene to me.

As an engineering undergrad I had to pay above average to cover some of the extra fancy lab equipment, not to mention the recent UofA Engineering education tax. In one term I had 7 courses, but I still don’t think I paid as much as Ontarians pay on average!

This is one reason why I really hope Niki Ashton will step forward as an NDP leadership candidate – her record on PSE and youth issues has been stellar. While she may not win, at least bringing those issues to the debate would be a big step forward.