Superior Educational Standards in Ontario, Canada

Brian, my model is Ontario, Canada. When I studied, worked there you had to have a minimum of five years in the classroom before you could apply to take the principal's course. You also had to be a classroom teacher in your subject field before you could apply to take the advanced training to become a department chair. And you had to serve as a department chair before you could apply to be a principal.  I completed the department chair training in social studies; I never served as a chair. Yes, as the old West Point saying goes, "To give an order, you must first learn how to take an order." This applies to education too.

Canadian Trends Point Toward USA War Against Iran

Canada has closed its embassy in Iran and brought all of its foreign service folks home. This is a signal that it is putting distance between itself and what is about to happen when the USA attacks Iran. A bank manager friend of mine tonight told me that one of his clerks has a son in our military who has gone back to that part of the world again. Before leaving he told her that plans are underway to go to war with Iran. This coincides with the closing of the Canadian embassy. Likely the gangsters in Washington will wait until after the holidays to launch. It would be bad PR to ruin the coming holiday season. As my late sainted uncle liked to say, “Same tune, second verse.” God bless. Paul

"Red Tories" the "One Nation" Canadian Conservative Tradition

John, thank you for the superb definition of "One Nation" Conservatives. This describes your humble servant here perfectly. A year or two ago, you and I spoke briefly about the "red Tory" - fair play for all - tradition in British, and Canadian, politics. I learned about it when I lived and studied in Ontario, Canada for eight years. You caught me by surprise when in our short visit you also knew about it too! Otto von Bismarck would be a "One Nation" Conservative too. Classic conservative thought as you know views society as organic, similar to the human body, in which all the its parts must be healthy for the body to be healthy. What in fact masquerades as Conservative thought here too often, far too often, in fact, is classic 18-19th-century Liberalism, in which the Individual can divorce from society and not care about the health of the whole. This is the rationale, if you need one, for the destructive greed at work in our American  "body politic" sadly for too many years now. In short, the Canadian or British "Red Tory" or the "One Nation" Conservative believes in fairness for all - without having to sacrifice the traditional values and heritage that have stood the tests of time. Thank you for helping your humble servant here to see more clearly the sad impasse which we have reached in our country. Keep up your good work. Paul

Thanatos Sadly Is Alive and Well in Canada Too

Carl, Freud observed humans have two subconscious drives. One is eros (source of word erotic), the drive to live. The second is thanatos, a drive to die, a subconscious death wish. Freud observed that reason (ego) and social tradition (super ego) around us serve as a check on thanatos, when reason (ego) and social tradition (super ego) work well. When reason and tradition weaken, look for self-destructive behaviors. For example, alcoholics and drug addicts, in effect, have a death wish for they defy logic and social wisdom accumulated by the human race over centuries. It is amazing to observe the death wish in our own society, for more and more it acts in irrational ways and in defiance of human wisdom accumulated over centuries of hard experience. Pick your examples of such death-wish behaviors.

Happy in Canada

Hi Paul,

 here's something to make you smile. I often think we are complainers and the Danes I've known have been crusty but perhaps it says something about not trying to be #1 or even 2 or #3.

Happy? You Must Be From Canada

The Guelph Mercury, September 26, 2012 If you're happy and you know it, a new report suggests you might be from Canada. The Centre for the Study of Living Standards says more than 90 per cent of Canadians surveyed report they are either satisfied or very satisfied with their lives. The centre tracked numbers collected by Statistics Canada in its community health survey between 2003 and 2011. Canadians have stayed happy through that entire period, with 91 per cent reporting life satisfaction in 2003 and 92 per cent saying so last year. The scores were enough to officially rank Canada as among the happiest countries in the world. The centre says a Gallup world poll taken in February 2012 rated Canada as the second most satisfied nation, ranked only behind Denmark. Centre executive director Andrew Sharpe said the numbers tell a compelling story about the standard of living most Canadians enjoy. "We do have high levels of income. We have weathered the financial crisis better than other countries of the world," Sharpe said in a telephone interview. "We do have a good health system. We complain about it, but at least there's full coverage of all Canadians . . . We do have a lot of advantages as a country." The StatsCan data - compiled in biennial surveys between 2003 and 2007 and in annual surveys from 2008 onward - asked Canadians to rate their own levels of personal satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10. Those who assigned themselves a score of 6 or above were considered to be pleased with their lives as a whole. The numbers have remained relatively static in most cases, but Sharpe said some age-related trends have begun to emerge in the most recent figures. More of Canada's young people are reporting feeling contented, while the country's senior citizens are expressing more reservations about their lot in life, he said, adding the gap between the two age groups has widened considerably over the past several years. About 94 per cent of Canadians between 12 and 19 years of age reported feeling satisfied in 2003 compared to 92 per cent of those over 65. By 2001, the number of satisfied seniors had fallen to 89 per cent while youth happiness scores had shot up to 97 per cent. Sharpe attributed some of the change to the economic turmoil that has roiled the job market and depleted savings for those nearing retirement, leaving the country's youngest residents comparatively unscathed. The data, however, suggests there may be other factors at work causing seniors to feel less positive as they age. Sharpe said the stats show the need for policy-makers to analyze issues impacting seniors, since current approaches appear to be coming up short. The trend among Canada's aging demographic illustrate why it's important to track happiness alongside gross domestic product and other more traditional indicators of well-being, he said. "I think the goal should be to improve happiness. It sounds trite, but what's it all about? It's about the life satisfaction of Canadians," Sharpe said. Satisfaction levels also differed by region, according to the centre's analysis. Average scores taken over the eight-year period suggest residents of Nova Scotia, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador were most likely to be happy with their lives. Satisfaction scores were lowest in British Columbia, Ontario and Nunavut. The StatsCan data that formed the basis of the centre's report was gathered from 65,000 people nationwide but excluded some of the populations most likely to report dissatisfaction with their lives. The Canadian Community Health Survey does not collect data from people living on aboriginal reserves, full-time members of the Canadian Forces or those currently in institutions. Sharpe acknowledged data from those excluded demographics could lower scores, adding even the current high numbers should sound a cautionary note. "I don't want to go to complacency. 'Oh, aren't we great,' therefore there are no problems in Canada. That's not where this is going," he said. "We can do better."

2012 Differences Between USA and Canada

Hi,

this was an opinion piece in the Toronto Star and I have to agree that I am also puzzled by the election in the USA.

I also think that the piece in the NY Times on American exceptionalism gets at a crucial point that America will have to come to grips with: God is not on America's side and never was. If you are a Christian he is on the side of the righteous, buthardly behind groups. Is god a chauvinist?

"Americans have one of the lowest participation rates in elections — only about 50 per cent in the presidential race. Yet they are very much engaged in politics. They do tune into their leaders’ televised debates — 68 million for the first Barack Obama-Mitt Romney encounter, 65.6 million for the second, and 59.2 million for the third. If Obama loses the election, it may be because he was listless in the first encounter and barely there in the third, thereby allowing his weak and vacillating opponent to catch up to him in the polls within days.

Several reasons have been proffered for Obama’s failure at such a crucial moment, despite his brilliance, command of detail and personal integrity and discipline.

It’s said that he does not relate to ordinary Americans, the way Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan did. That he is an elite intellectual who does not enjoy getting down and dirty with opponents. That he got thrown off in the first debate by Romney’s aggression — “probably no one has talked to him like this since his election” in 2008, said CNN’s David Gergen, former adviser to four presidents.

Or that Obama is just fed up with the Republicans’ extreme partisanship, their brazen distortions of his record and their own flip-flopping on key domestic and foreign issues.

Tough, say the critics. American elections are not a gentlemen’s joust but rather bruising battles where winning, by hook or by crook, is all that matters.

There’s also the economy, stupid. No American president wins presiding over high unemployment. Never mind that Obama inherited a mess and has put the economy on its way to recovery.

 

Still, it boggles the Canadian mind that the American electorate would take Romney seriously, despite all his inconsistencies, empty Cold War rhetoric and dedication to the same catastrophic economic prescriptions as George W. Bush’s.

Half the lectorate doesn’t seem bothered as to how Romney would balance the budget while planning to spend $2 trillion more on defence and giving away $5 trillion in tax cuts, mostly to the wealthy.

Not just the Tea Party types but tens of millions more have been sold the lottery dream that they, too, can get rich like Romney and Co. if only the government got out of the way and taxed less.

And that the way to gut government is to hand it over to a guy who made a success of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City by taking a $400 million federal subsidy, and whose running mate, Paul Ryan, is attacking Obama’s $90 billion alternative energy program after milking it for his home state.

And that the way to create jobs is to hand over the reins to the man who shipped jobs to China.

And the way to solve the crisis of 46 million people having no medical care and tens of millions more having the barest minimum insurance is to kill Obama’s universal care and bring in vouchers for even more privatized care.

And the way to help the 47 per cent who don’t pay taxes and whom Romney holds in disdain is to have them at the mercy of the generosity of the rich. As related by Ryan, didn’t Romney tell a fellow-Mormon whose two kids were paralyzed in an auto accident, “I know you’re struggling — don’t worry about their college; I’ll pay for it”?

Half of Americans couldn’t care less about the other half.

Nearly half are committed Republicans and the other half Democrats. So it doesn’t really matter if Romney moves from being a pragmatist to a “severe conservative” committed to extreme right positions on abortion, contraception, immigration, etc. to now, suddenly, pivoting back toward the centre.

In foreign affairs, the transformation is even more startling. After months of warlike noises, he’s now a man of peace.

He does not want to bomb Iran, of course not. He does not want to send troops to Syria, does not even want to use American planes to enforce a no-fly zone there.

 

He agrees with Obama’s pullout from Iraq, agrees with the pullout from Afghanistan in 2014, and supports Obama’s increased use of drone attacks on Pakistan. He does not want a trade war with China.

Would a Romney be electable in Canada? To ponder that is to ponder the remaining differences between America and Canada."

Young Males in Ontario Today

We have made buying and selling a shibboleth: the customer is always right! NOT! But this is the absurdity that has arisen from making everything a transaction rather than a conversation or could we hope for a meaningful dialogue?

 An interesting discussion has arisen here in Ontario about young males who tune out in school. One teacher has suggested that video games give power to the player and they are frustrated when they enter an environment where they are not the controller. Unfortunately they are too immature to recognize that they can't always be in control.

 The other theme is that often parents model bullying by harassing educators. Even twenty years ago some parents came to school consultations with lawyers.

 Finally, there are 'Christian' parents who are suing because they want to have detailed lesson plans for every lesson in advance so that they can keep their kids away from potentially hazardous 'education'.

 We've got a lot of teapot fascists running loose,

walter

American Cultural Pollution of Canada

Hi Paul,

Oswald Spengler observed that 'democracy' was matched to 'capitalism'. Mass production matched to mass movements, but the movements were manipulated in the interests of the monied elite. When I hear the rhetoric about taxation and the 'discipline of the market' I can't help but think that he was right. The rules of the game have been written by the 'owners'. Pro sports are an interesting analogy since there millionaires are butting heads with billionaires. The gladiators in the NHL want 50%# of revenue but the owners balk at that. Imagine if workers-Joe Plumber- got 50% of revenue. Until we sort our tangled notions of economic 'freedom' we really can't get to the main issues.

Even more basic is the question of freedom. As an undergrad, Eric Fromm framed the issue of freedom for me by distinguishing between freedom from and freedom to. We define liberty in terms of freedom from various things, but the bigger challenge is what we will do with the freedom we so generously enjoy- freedom to do what? This gets very personal. If you have free time, what do you do with it; if you have money what do you do with it.........It's not really the economy, stupid, it's what you do with the economy, stupid. In the past we were prepared to imagine great projects for the public good, now we have difficulty saving land for public parks. Our houses are oriented towards private backyards not the common street.In Barrie the health of a street is seen by whether the kids play there. Worse still, in the USA a very high % of all new housing is gated. Clearly this is a sign of a distrustful society- like the stockades on the frontier.

The barrage of fear generated by TV (the best measure of how fearful people are is the hours of TV they watch) and other media for profit is a great danger. Lazy 'news' scans the internet for related jolts when a situation arises in a community. A pedofile is caught in Britain and immediately all the pedophiles in the world are related to the story and it looks like an epidemic, when in fact sexual crimes were just as common in the past. Even the subtext in old movies where the language is very polite, indicates lots of domestic violence in the past. To me this miasma of American media- Fox news and the dumbing of popular culture for advertising $s is the greatest threat America poses for Canada. When you breathe polluted air you eventually get sick.

The tectonic shifts that are re-shaping civilizations need fearless and prescient leaders but I don't see them in the West. We are a fraction of what we were a 100 years ago in geography and demographic size, but much greater in influence through economic and cultural power. Our message of freedom, democracy & human rights belies our self-interested action in various military actions so we are gradually losing our credibility just as we have lost our physical size. I think that this leaves us with the choice to be good people ourselves and to try to make our immediate surroundings better. If enough people do this, life will get better.

We need to stay involved but take care of first things, first.

Cheers,

w

Bullying of Teachers by High School Kids in Canada

Dr. 123, I just finished grading ABC assignments, and the parallel XYZ assignments for the same students. These, as you know, are doctoral courses. Grading has become stressful after the university humilitated me because a student complained that I asked her to follow directions. The student threatened to drop out; the result was it was easier to humiliate me than to maintain standards. I actually had to apologize to her in front of six other staff and faculty for simply asking the student to follow directions. I experienced this in high school with teenage whining to guidance counselors. Now the whining has found its way into what once was higher education. We read and hear about bullying of students constantly, ad nauseam. Let's take a good hard look at the bullying of teachers by students today because of the desire to maintain enrollments at any cost and make money at any cost. Kiss standards good riddance. You are afraid to enforce stated directions because you, the teacher, come under attack, not the student for not measuring up to meet simple assignment requirements. This is what we have come to. Tonight, I graded assignments; the stress of it has caused me to reach out to you for some relief, since you know full well of what I speak. It is time to find the exit door, save my health, and let the rotted game destroy itself. Fight or flight. I vote for flight. You cannot fight the system. Get out and away from it. When high school kids bullied me through guidance counselors I decided it was time to become a librarian. I have come full circle; it is time to exit for research pastures.

Immigration Offsets Prolonged Adolescence in Canada

Mark, if this is the case, we are wasting billions of dollars on prolonged adolescence in high schools. If K-12 does not hammer skills into students good and hard - the essence of educational Essentialism, the educational philosophy of this writer, not sentimental psycho-babble - we are wasting our money. This writer would oppose susidies for such catch-up programs. Apprenticeships that do not require basic academic skills are the option for those who will not learn. This has been the essence of the European systems, which have not had "gazillions" of dollars to waste on baby sitting. Third World countries are even more pressed to get return on investment, ROI, from their scarce dollars and do not put up with the adolescent antics that our K-12 tolerates. Do not worry. The crashing economy will sort things out. We do what we can afford. When we cannot afford it, it stops.

 

Canada relies on immigrants with hard skills, work ethics, and intact families to make up for the lack of discipline in its K-12 educational systems.  At some point, the immigrants will tire of paying for the prolonged adolescence of their neighbors.  In this, there is hope for Canada to avoid US model. 

Canada Shares Juvenile Consumer Culture with US

Walter, we share the same opinion about war. A profound study of the relationships between mindless consumerism and militarism in the USA is The Limits of Power by Andrew Bacevich. He correlates "good and hard" the directly cause and effect between mindless consumption of resources and military advantures abroad to steal resources to maintain this "shop -to-you-drop" culture. He is a retired senior US military officer who now teaches at Boston University. He is no amateur. He is also amazing because his extended military service has not cramped his ability to think clearly, logically. Yes, in effect, we have an adolescent culture that wants free stuff without having to work for it, an adolescent culture that no longer understands concepts like duty and limits - basic to classic Conservative thought. As you observe, the materialistic, juvenile culture is degenerate, and it will destroy itself.
Take care. Paul

Educational Standards Crisis and Jobs Crisis

From first-hand experience as a high school teacher in Ontario, Canada, this writer knows that the same erosion of educational standards in the US is underway in Canada.  This is why the US and Canada need immigrants with hard skills, work ethics, and intact traditional families.

 

Mark, this is first-class, thought, thorough, and very timely. In particular, your observation about how higher learning is moving away from degrees toward continuing education, also known as workshops and skill certificates, is exactly what MIT economist Lester Thurow predicted in his 1995 The Future of Capitalism. Thurow argued that nobody more and more knows what a degree means, if anything. How much knowedge and skill mastery does it represent, for instance? As a result, employers, the marketplace - as he predicted - is turning away from degrees toward training and development. In short, we have a jobs crisis because in large part we have a standards crisis. This is why your humble servant here belongs to ASTD, the American Society for Training and Development. Look to, prepare for the future. Great job!

Thank God for the Canadian Example

Erik, wow, yes, dentistry is a key measure of social health. In the past, I have taught in one of the poorest counties in Ontario, Canada, Wiarton District High School. Fully a third of our students of a student body of 300 came from three nearby Indian reservations. Anyway, the absence of dental care hit you "right between the eyes" as a measure of the economic health of the area. During the Great Depression folks did not know there was a Depression! Nothing changed for them! Yes, your humble servant here is ardent about proper care for all - without bankruptcy. Canada's single-pay system works. I lived in Ontario for eight years. You cannot tell me otherwise. Recently, I told one of my old teaching friends in Ontario by email that yes thank God for Canada. It is living proof of what fairness is and how it works.

Canadian and Wisconsin Progressive Values

Walter, Amen, Amen, Amen. One of the reasons why I love Canada dearly is its fairness. It factors fairness in its policies. This Republic does not any longer. It is time to restore fairness, the Progressive tradition here. What is amazing is Mt. Horeb, WI where we live is the hometown of Robert M. La Follette, the great Progressive at the turn of the 19^th century into the 20^thcentury. Is this some kind of fate, destiny? La Follette stood for fairness, US style; your humble servant here, in fact, grew up in this tradition. La Follette, for example, opposed US entry into WWI, rightly so. I recall walking in the park at night in Wiarton pondering on how I got there. My mind went back to La Follette and his stance for justice. Canada has had the advantage of the British connection, and with it cam acceptance of the NDP, UK Labor tradition as legitimate. Here the Wall Street vampires shouted down such stuff as un-American, anti-American. The USA has paid a price for it nativisitic break with the UK and Europe. Anyway, I wholly concur with the Holy Scriptures, which I seek to honor in my life. Yes, we are accountable in the final analysis. I hope I am a sheep, not goat. I need to get to bed after completing module 7 of 8 for the online university course, for which I am under contract. Thank you for your health considerations for me. I have noted them, and I have said to Jane I need some down time over the weekend. Anyway, I stand in the Progressive tradition. I recall reading the autobiography of E.C. Drury at U of T, who was a great Canadian Progressive. He lived in Barrier. His autobiography was Farmer Premier, if my memory serves me tonight. As I type this, I think of Simcoe, Barrier, Ontario, Canada, you and your family. You are blessed to live where you are. Meanwhile, I must weigh my duty here. Yes, as you observe, we are called. I want fairness here. Thank God Canada exists as an example of this fairness. It proves it can be done, starting with medical care for all. Thank you for the dialog. It is bedtime, now, for your old friend here in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, hometown of Progressive Robert M. La Follette. Paul

Future of Prolonged Adolescence in North America

Jeanine, your concern is absolutely valid. Industrial psychologists tell us the average American today does not reach emotional maturity until age forty! Yes, we have a prolonged adolescence with no demands on people to grow up, contribute, accept responsibility, and embrace living beyond video games. In fact, young women in their early twenties have told me that they have a hard time finding potential husbands because of this prolonged childhood in our society. They said often their friends would consier marrying a man in his forties with emotional maturity. This is a sad, sad comment on our society. However, the coming Depression will wipe out the resources that support this extended adolescence good and hard. We will not be able to afford prolonged adolescence much longer. You are right. Dr. Rux