Monday’s front page of the Toronto Star featured a black-and-white photograph of a man in a military cap. Underneath were the words “Suharto: 1921-2008.” The former Indonesian president died on Sunday at the age of 86 from multiple organ failure. As his health had been deteriorating for some time, there was talk [...]
Filed under: History, Society by Emilia Liz
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Cynics Unlimited has written an excellent follow up to the Toronto District School Board’s (TDSB) historically regressive decision last night to approve the offering of segregated programs and a blacks-only high school to open in the fall of 2009.
I will not call it a black-focused school today because that is the politically correct wording of a decision [...]
Filed under: Education, Politics, Society by Sandy
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Given the decision that is imminent by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) about the black-focused school in Toronto, we should all be shouting from the roof tops about what makes both a good principal and a successful school — starting and ending with total school board support in terms of the allocation of resources and [...]
Filed under: Education, Society by Sandy
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Assuming the trustees of the Toronto District School Board’s (TDSB) approve the blacks-only pilot programs and stand-alone school at tomorrow night’s meeting, the Toronto Sun’s Moira MacDonald is saying in a column today that failure is not an option. And, I whole heartedly agree with that hope — in spite of the fact that I [...]
Filed under: Education, Society by Sandy
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In the next week I will be doing a series of two articles on school success starting today with “what makes a school successful” — whether elementary, middle school or high school. A related article will follow on what makes a good school principal.
To get a non-partisan view of this issue, I have done an Internet review of the literature using selected sources throughout [...]
Filed under: Education, Society by Sandy
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Canada is a multicultural country. As such, it should be self-evident to everyone that no matter where parents send their children to learn, whether the schools are public, Catholic or private, they should experience: (1) exemplary teaching; (2) the most relevant and inclusive curriculum possible; (3) acceptance of who they are, (4) the realities of self-discipline and individual responsibility; [...]
Filed under: Education, Society by Sandy
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Update: Even the Toronto Star is against the proposal of a blacks-only school because it is the “wrong answer.” Moreover, while my previous post below mentioned the public meeting to be held on Tuesday, January 29th, I was not aware of tonights (January 22nd) behind-closed-door meeting.
On why a black’s-only school is the wrong answer, the Star editorial [...]
Filed under: Education, Society by Sandy
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What are we? Where are we from? Where do we go?
Paul Gauguin (1897)
People study history because of some hidden motivations. Perhaps the more important is to know better what role we play in the world. Of the tree classical questions above, history has the potential to answer partially at least two of them: “what are [...]
Filed under: History, Travel by Omar Vega
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Are parent school councils effective? Do they bring the needs and aspirations of the school to the community? Do they help the school, in turn, respond to that same community? Do they take part in actual decision making and long term planning? Do they, for example, improve curriculum planning and learning opportunities for kids? In short, are we getting value for [...]
Filed under: Education, Politics by Sandy
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