Five ableist things I wish people would stop saying to me

Liz Kessler — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 13:44:08 +0000

Our society is not very good at listening to neurodivergent folks. When we're not being told we are lazy, the things we ask for are routinely ignored.

Sometimes the way that this happens is very subtle, and even the people who say they value accessibility sometimes say hurtful things when they are not paying attention. Here are some examples.

1. "You seem like you are okay" or "You seem normal"

Advocates of more choice in education unite to condemn school board chair's call for more choice in education

djclimenhaga — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 05:55:11 +0000

Conservative politicians, their vocal supporters, private school operators, separate school system officials, charter school advocates, administrators from such institutions, and parents of home schooled children have all been chanting the mantra of "competition is good" for so long most of us can hardly remember hearing anything else.

So the reaction to Edmonton Public School Board Chair Michael Janz's suggestion last week that the public system should offer its own Roman Catholic education specialty program has been interesting, to say the least.

They hate it!

It turns out that competition is always good … except when it isn't! Who knew?

Dear B.C. Liberals: Your budget priorities need fixing.

Lizanne Foster — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 17:22:31 +0000

Dear B.C Minister of Finance Michael De Jong,

Thank you for your voicemail message expressing your regret that I was not home to share with you my priorities for a balanced budget. Perhaps it was a good thing that I was not available for your call because I have a feeling you don’t really want to hear what I have to say about your government’s fiscal management record.

Firstly, I don't think we could even agree about the topic of our conversation since I see a balanced budget as an oxymoron, like fresh-frozen or pretty-ugly. A budget is a forecast, not a fixed entity. It's a projection that is at best an estimation of what spending will be.

In subversive move, Edmonton school board chair calls for optional Catholic programs in public schools

djclimenhaga — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 05:42:39 +0000

In a brilliantly subversive move, Michael Janz, chair of the Edmonton Public School Board, has publicly wondered in a blog post if the board he leads should set up its own optional Catholic program.

After all, the Edmonton Public School Board has a pretty long and successful record of running faith-based programs under its auspices, Janz noted mischievously on Monday in the personal blog he publishes online. There's a Protestant Christian program, a Jewish program and a Muslim program, all operating under the board's auspices with proper attention to standards and curricula.

Understanding climate change means reading beyond headlines

David Suzuki — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 23:27:40 +0000

Seeing terms like "post-truth" and "alternative facts" gain traction in the news convinces me that politicians, media workers and readers could benefit from a refresher course in how science helps us understand the world. Reporting on science is difficult at the best of times. Trying to communicate complex ideas and distill entire studies into eye-catching headlines and brief stories can open the door to misinformation and limited understanding.

130 million girls deserve an education so they can become empowered women

Doreen Nicoll — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 15:24:23 +0000

The other night I watched the movie The Man Who Knew Infinity (2016). This biographical drama stars Dev Patel as Srinivasa Ramanujan, a brilliant mathematician who created complex formulas in his head. The difficulty arose when those in power required written proof of his theories.

Athabasca U's future seems brighter as Saskatchewan prof named to conduct sustainability review

djclimenhaga — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 05:18:16 +0000

Two things are abundantly clear after this morning's news conference in Athabasca University's Edmonton offices:

1. Alberta's NDP government is determined the perennially financially troubled distance education university will survive as a viable post-secondary institution
2. Athabasca University’s headquarters and the bulk of its operations will remain in the Town of Athabasca, about 130 kilometres north of Alberta’s capital city

Just how all this is to be done remains to be seen. Likewise, while it appears quite clear AU's mandate as a distance-education and open-learning institution will remain similar to what it is today, that too will have to wait for the outcome of the sustainability review that was the official reason for this morning's announcement.

Canadian campuses working toward reconciliation have their work cut out

Campus Notes — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 19:41:46 +0000

rabble.ca and the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) are teaming up to find Canada's next progressive student journalists. Generously funded by the CFS, Campus Notes will be running articles on Canada's critical post-secondary education issues. Have an idea? Pitch it here.

Canadian universities shifting to top-down, corporate governance are reading from the same playbook

Campus Notes — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 18:54:18 +0000

On June 28, 2013, the then-president of Brock University, Jack Lightstone, posted an open letter online and via email to the Brock community titled "The Need for a Program Review."

Precarity in higher learning: Neoliberalism and contract faculty contract negotiations at WLU

dan kellar — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 14:51:20 +0000

awalradio-2017-01-07-svensonneolibwlufa.mp3

As the contract faculty at Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) negotiate a new contract, many within the union have recognized their struggle as another moment in the widescale resistance to neoliberal ideologies. With WLU and other universities operating with a capitalist business model, the schools are furthering their reliance on contract faculty. While teaching more classes than their full-time counterparts, contract faculty are paid considerably less than full-time faculty, receive no benefits, and are not paid for the research they must undertake to produce quality work in this competitive "publish or perish" atmosphere.