Give Us The Child For 8 Years And It Will Be A Subscriber Forever

50 Replies to “Give Us The Child For 8 Years And It Will Be A Subscriber Forever”

1. Welcome to Canada.
   We all made this bed.

2. The main reason I homeschooled my kids. I got tired of spending the evening rebutting the drivel the kids came home from school with.
   Another fine example of freedom of speech in Canada–Big Brother would be proud.

3. At first I thought “What a great idea, getting resource material for the class from the private sector” but then I realized just what “resources” they were supplying: Their own journalistic spin on the news and events along with the appropriate Q&A to support MacLean’s position. Why brainwash when a light rinse, repeated often, will do.
   Now if they supplied material from their magazine and say a couple of other sources and let the teacher do the teaching. This would include seeing that a single news item can be represented and reported in many ways, then I’d have no problem. I thought teachers were supposed to teach students how to read, think, make their own decisions on subjective topics.
   My daily newspaper is donated to the local schools when I’m away. I certainly hope those papers don’t come with their own spin sheet for the teachers.

4. My daughter was in the same class as the Editor at Macleans who covers education. She really is a very pleasant person but with ideological baggage galore. She has positioned articles that lambasted the Ontario politicians who were reforming a moribund system. No matter how many reasonable discussions we had on the bus and subway, she would not move away from here bias. She was shocked I wouldn’t agree with her opinion. Now I never by that rag but that its content gets into classrooms anywhere is a travesty. There are too many excellent and dedicated teachers to castigate the lazy amongst them but thanks for bringing this email message to us Kate. I think outing the purveyors of this twaddle is a worthy cause.

5. Hell hath no fury like a teachers’ union scorned. Teamsters? sissy boys. Nurses? amateurs. Auto workers? Not even close. Teachers, on the other hand, would not think twice about sacrificing “one of their own” should he/she not subscribe to the radical NDP/progressive (Marxist) dogma of the Teachers “Association”. (Notice how many of them have dropped the name “union” in their title? I guess they want to place themselves one rung higher than thier unwashed ironworker/elctrician bretheren, seeing the word “union” conjures up images of sweaty guys in coveralls. heh!)
   But I digress…..I would put the nurses as a somewhat close second to the teachers. Ever notice that whether it’s a “crisis in health care” or a “crisis in our schools” the only solution offered by either union is to extort even more tax money from us. (This is usually followed the the piss/moan whiny voice of a teacher/nurse saying, “…but we’re taxpayers too” Yeah whatever, Johnny still can’t read and Baba will probably die waiting for her new hip.
   Macleans magazine: Truly the print version of the CBC. (as someone said here in another thread)
   The public school system is nothing more than an android incubator where the left is hell bent on turning your kids into tiny socialist automaton versions of themselves. Just keep them union dues flowing in and don’t rock the boat.

6. Like the old “CBC News in Review” system was any better really…

7. There is no surprise that this type of thing is happening. People worked so hard to get religion out of schools (I am all for separation of church and state) but the polution that fills the void is unbelievable. We need to hold the education system (and teachers unions) to a higher standard than this drivel.

8. “Harper = Bush
   Bush = “worst” in memory”
   Repeat untill we can find anyone unhinged enough to drive our short red schoolbus straight into socialist hell.
   Incredible.
   Has the MSM of today been the “Worst” corrupted and derelect of duty in the last 200 years?
   Paul Wells would resign if he had any decency.
   “Canada, the retarded cousin you see at Christmas once a year, and pat on the head”
   No wonder more US. citizens and Our-Only-Trading-Partner are coming to realize this.

9. This just hit me…..
   Definition of ape$hit: What would happen to the mental state of the public school officials (and left leaning parents) if Ezra Levant were to offer free copies of the Western Standard to be studied in classrooms!
   Can you imagine the life lessons that could have been garnered if our kids were allowed to view the Mohamed cartoons and discuss it in class? WOW! That would have been incredible. But then again, this is Can-uh-duh. Land of thin skinned sissies, theiving liberal politicians, unaccountable school officials and rabit tin foil hatted anti-American kooks.
   This would NEVER be allowed to happen.
   Hey Ezra, want some free publicity? Contact the school division with the free copies of MacLeans and offer them some “balance”. If I were Levant I’d milk this for all I could!

10. To all those that want a public day care program paid for by the government I say this, you have just failed as loving caring parents. At the most impressionable period of ones life you have willing given them up to the indoctrination of the government of the day and to the unions that would undoubtedly control daycare workers. As has been so often said before, give me your child for the first years of his life and he will be a ?????????? forever.

11. uhh…make that ‘rabid’.

12. how much do ya wanna bet that the “Centre for Education & Training…a self-described “progressive” not for profit corporation”
    . . . gets a big fat taxpayer funded grant from some pork barrel Lieberal multi-culti Department of Warping Childrens’ Minds somewhere in Ottawa ???

13. With my two boys in high school and my girlfriend working on her Master’s in university, it’s a wonder I can resist the pull to the “other side”.
    Seriously, though, anyone with a PhD should be a credible source of information. What we’re seeing is that such a person will be someone who has been in an indoctrination program for 20 years. What chance do they have?

14. Doug,you are exactly right!
    The rest is just blah,blah,blah.
    I have regularly volunteered in my daughters’ classrooms and was shocked to discover the apathy most parents showed towards their childrens’educations.These young lives are now,ultimately,molded by a relatively new but powerful force in politics…The teacher’s unions!

15. What else would you expect seeing as our children are going to American style schools, reading American style books, eating American style meals, riding on American style busses, listening to American style music, watching American style television, using American style toilet paper, and speaking exactly like Americans.

16. In my experience “current events” resources were picked by the teacher. The class was always more interesting when all sides of an issue were discussed. It seems to me that teacher’s classes would be more lively and interesting if she tried to give various sides of an issue.

17. I’ve had numerous conversations with teachers and education students and it never ceases to amaze me how uncritical most of them are in their thinking. They claim they’re teaching children how to think. So I ask them about simple errors of logic like “post hoc ergo proctor hoc”, “straw man”, “non sequitur”, “false assumption”, “loaded terms”, “emotional reasoning” etc. Most of them are clueless! They can’t think critically themselves, let alone teach it. The current system seems short on education and long on indoctrination and a distressing number of educators and students can’t tell the difference. The exceptions to that, like your contributor, are outstanding by their rarity and courage.

18. http://www.educationnews.org/writers/Sandra/Why_American_Students_Know_So_Little_American_History_and_What_We_Can_Do_About_It.htm
    The answer was discovered many years ago in the United States. No one teaches “history” anymore.
    In the above article, read why its “social studies”.
    I think everyone here knows why; this article arms you with the reason.

19. “…The Centre for Education & Training…a self-described “progressive” not for profit corporation…”
    A non-profit offering a complete smorgasbord of services/programs from A-Z for newly arrived & future immigrants. Some funding provided by Citizenship and Immigration Canada & Ontario Immigration:
    http://www.tcet.com/sitemap.aspx?cat=services

20. Silverwinger, with all that “American-style ____”, how come Canada isn’t also blessed with being in the second administration of an “American-style” Conservative government? 🙂

21. I agree with all the points above about unions and the liberal/left bias of so many teachers. I have a question – is a substitute teacher not allowed to pose questions, to bring in other material, to show- for example – both sides of an issue?
    Is the curriculum so rigid that the only task of the teacher (regular or substitute) is to hand out the MacLean’s, and wait for the students to write up their reports? Can’t the teacher use the magazine to ask questions about:
    – what’s the data base of the article? Do you think it’s sufficient? Valid?
    – what’s the perspective of the author? Do you think it is valid, is biased?
    – Do we, readers, know enough about the situation to be ‘final judges’? Have we, as in a case before a judge and jury, been presented with the facts, only the facts, and all the facts?
    – Are the questions biased; are they complete, is there more that we, ourselves, should ask?
    I’m unsure of how much liberty these teachers have. It sounds more like an indoctrination camp than a school.

22. There are many examples of bureaucracies that purport to represent a larger group of people’s wishes, but overstep their competence in the process – teacher’s unions are but one example (as a teacher, I am well aware of various ‘positions’ our province’s teachers apparently support – for the life of me, I can’t understand the need of my union to make statements on every issue under the sun, as though the adults who comprise the union can’t speak for ourselves in a democratic country).
    I’ve had some very interesting in-class discussions with students who’ve been fed the anti-Bush line (the students actually use that language in making their arguments) for too many years to know otherwise. It’s kind of fun dissecting their arguments and getting them to see the issues differently. Unfortunately, I’m not a social teacher, and have to spend at least a little time on my own subject area, or I’d pontificate all day, I think!

23. DrD, care to translate for us unwashed that took shop instead of latin in highschool?
    Post hac ergo… ???
    Looks like Sliverdinger has a bone to pick with the US of A. He/she should remember that this new education thing is a world wide phenomena. British teachers are spending more time rewriting history in order to be sensitive to whatever than actually teaching stuff.

24. My son is in first year college. Recently, he did an essay on the Cold War. Scored in the low 60’s, though his average in the course was in the low to mid 80’s. His professor said the reason for the low mark was he did not present the U.S. as equally evil to the Russians. (I read the essay, and thought it was very unbiased, but then I am his father.) Next semester, just for the hell of it, we’re going to conspire on a rabidly anti-American essay to see if we can get his GPA up! (sarc)

25. “Canada, the retarded cousin you see at Christmas once a year, and pat on the head”
    No wonder more US. citizens and Our-Only-Trading-Partner are coming to realize this.
    Au contraire. What conservative Americans have found, obscured from view by the MSM and when the Liberals were in power, thanks to blogs like Kate’s, is a mirror image of our common values with other conservative Canadians. Who knew you were out there? All of us are fighting the good fight against the multi-culti pc leftists(Dems/Libs) regimes that have done so much damage to the culture of both countries.
    You’ve got Harper now. But, what are we getting after Bush?
    On a personal level, as we are finding on this site, US and Canadian issue/opinions are pretty much the same. The political idiots on both sides of the border are cut from the same cloth. The MSM ditto.
    Until I stumbled upon Kate’s blog I had pretty much written Canada off for dead after 9/11.
    It’s proof that the internet is dissolving borders, is a real community and is speeding up the free flow of ideas.
    A pat on the back to all of us.

26. Don’t laugh, dmorris! A similar thing happened to me a couple of years ago. I had an assignment to write a letter to the editor in a “Critical thinking” course. Since I’d already had about 1000 letters published, I figured I had the format down pat. I sent the letter to the local paper, which published it. But my prof? He gave me a C, and criticized not my writing or thought process, but my opinion. His critique was a classic illustration of a fallacy we studied in that unit. Can’t recall the Latin name of the fallacy, but it’s something to do with assuming all of humanity shares your personal opinion on a matter.
    Anyway, the next year in my poli-sci course I noticed that I got the best marks when I carefully regurgitated all the course material in my essays. Fortunately, I finished my BA last year. Enough university for me. Yech.
    I just shudder at the dumbing down of education over the past few decades, and really feel sorry for those going through the system, as well as those who care about their students’ education but have to work in it.

27. How do we know that the teacher is not asking the questions suggested by ET above:
    – what’s the data base of the article? Do you think it’s sufficient? Valid?
    – what’s the perspective of the author? Do you think it is valid, is biased?
    – Do we, readers, know enough about the situation to be ‘final judges’? Have we, as in a case before a judge and jury, been presented with the facts, only the facts, and all the facts?
    – Are the questions biased; are they complete, is there more that we, ourselves, should ask?
    From what I read, there’s no indication that the article is not being evaluated in a critical and fair-minded way. If I missed something I apologize – i just don’t want to jump to unfair conclusions.
    Penny, I have to assume that you use the expression “fighting the good fight” with tongue in cheek.
    Grasshopper

28. It’s nice to see a teacher questioning the curriculum . This has been going on for many years. As an A student in English 30, I had a very socialistic teacher. I wrote a paper on the Benefits of Capitalism. I failed on the paper (for the first time in my life) but I learned a valuable lesson in the process.

29. ET
    When I listen to my Grandchildren’s views on a variety of subjects it is quite apparent that schooling and the lib/left indoctrination of our children go hand in hand. If there was ever a fight or cause it should be to neuter the teachers and their unions.

30. Come this May, the last teenager in our home graduates (grandson). Started one in school in 1960, and finish in 2006. Seen a lot of changes, most of them for the worse. He gets high marks in the sciences -70-80%, but has chosen to go into the trades instead of University. His reason, doesn’t want to be brainwashed by the profs. Doesn’t want to learn the gay life style is good. Doesn’t want to be told how and what to think, and most of all, doesn’t want to be an outcast because he is a conservative.

31. I spend at least some time in my child’s class daily, and being self employed I can make the time to do it. However, with both parents working, or single parents working, not everyone can see what is going on with their children.
    Heck, we have two classes of the same grade in our school. At the beginning of the year they ask for volunteers for class parent — they like to have 3-4 parents that can spend time with a variety of things including helping individuals who are behind in reading, or preparing for art projects or whatever (things that the teacher used to do when I was a kid, by the way). Our class chose 4 out of 14 volunteers (23 children). The other class had one volunteer (also 23 children). One parent out of 46 cared enough about their child’s education to volunteer to spend some time in the classroom. Now that I find sad.
    I know that if I see an obvious bias in teaching, I would certainly let the teacher know my thoughts. I am not sure if anything could be done in the actual classroom — I suppose I will find out if/when something happens.

32. Texas Canuck, sorry, I wasn’t trying to be snobbish or condescending. “Post hoc ergo proctor hoc” means (and I don’t claim to be a latin scholar either) “after the event therefore because of the event” or words to that effect; e.g. “It snowed on Wednesday and on Thursday the stock market crashed therefore snow caused the stock market crash”. My point was that as those claiming to have a professional expertise in critical thinking and therefore, presumably, logical fallacies, teachers should have some familiarity with these concepts. Too often they don’t. It’s a bit like having someone claim to be an orthopedic surgeon when they don’t know the difference between a humerus and an ulna — incompetent at best, fraudulent at worst.

33. Mr. Texas Canuck
    Your post was somewhat amusing, oh yes it was the terribly funny way you changed my name from silverwinger to silverdinger, yes very amusing, ha ha. Very creative use of humor.
    I guess my American style of sarcastic humor went over your American style of sense of humor.
    As the libs and dippers are fond of using the American comparison, I felt it was my Canadian duty to play along, to show my support for Canada.
    Also note that the MSN in Canada uses an American style of Journalism and teachers likewise are using an American style of teaching.
    My apologies if I said we talk and walk like the Americans, and that offended you in any way.
    I now bid you an American style goodbye.

34. What a joke MacLean’s magazine makes of unbiased news coverage and educating our children.
    Can you imagine the uproar if a US magazine were to picture a Liberal or NDP leader on their cover and ask; “The Worst Politician In 100 Years?”
    The CRTC would be banning all US magazines and the Canlit crowd would be marching in the streets. It would be similar to Indira Gandhi’s “State of Enmergency” in the mid 60’s.
    Alex in Winipeg

35. Maybe Macleans is a Trojan Horse for the right.
    Anti-American and anti-Conservative covers lure the Trudeaupian herds to buy it, all the while Mark Steyn is laying in wait for them!

36. Have any of you read the new MacLeans? I think you would be surprised.

37. I lied the other day. I said that I’d stopped subscribing to all MSM publications except the Western Standard. Well, to be truthful, I still was subscribing to McLean’s, which I only just subscribed to a few months ago: Whatever for, I ask myself now? ‘Must have been a brain blizzard moment…
    I just got off the phone, and have cancelled my subscription to McLean’s “for editorial reasons,” as the polite young man I spoke to said he would note when I told him about my concerns about McLean’s In-Class program.
    I guess I’ll have another letter to write to the editors of McLean’s to be more specific about the “editorial reason” I have unsubscribed to their magazine.
    I do like Scott Feschuk, but I won’t miss anything else.
    I was in a classroom today and shudder to think how most students, with a very limited capacity for creative thinking–too much TV and video games and not enough contact with their parents or a meaningful adult who will actually talk to them and/or answer their questions and encourage them to ask questions–would be able to process this In-Class program. Most of them would just accept the viewpoint presented to them…
    So, Canada, be scared, be very scared, about what’s coming down the loop in the next few decades…
    As Leonard Cohen so succinctly and chillingly puts it:
    “Things are going to slide, slide in all directions,
    ‘Won’t be nothing, nothing you can measure anymore.
    The blizzard of the world
    has crossed the threshold,
    and it’s overturned the order of the soul…
    “I’ve seen the future, brother:
    it is murder.”
    CD: The Future

38. I dont think Penny was kidding when she stated “fighting the good fight”. As it is I and many freedom loving/commie hating Canadians stand by her. Sounds to me like grasshopper is another commie subversive that needs to be sent to cuba to live, then maybe the little insect will see the light.

39. Speaking of the MSM – here’s what they are saying about the Softwood Lumber Deal.
    The PM,in the House, informed the public that BC, Ontario and Quebec have agreed to the deal.
    The Globe and Mail informs the public that BC and Ontario have agreed; no mention of Quebec, and immediately point out that Canadian business are ‘unhappy’ with the deal, that forestry shares have dropped..
    The Star informs the public that BC and Quebec accept, but that Ontario does not agree.
    The CBC informs us only that Ontario criticized the deal. No mention of BC or Quebec.
    The CBC and CTV filled their airtime with Liberals and NDP – decrying the deal.
    So?

40. No matter what the material may be, you as a teacher have the ability and not too difficult obligation to teach careful and analytical thinking.
    Verbally you could suggest where students could find information to rebutt Macleans and CBC news director lop-sided views.
    You could ask, **Do you accept that these views all lean in favour of the Liberals?**
    Do all pros and no cons make you suspicious?
    Do you think there may be opposing views that carry as much or more weight?
    Would you think events like Adscam and the Gomery inquiry may have a possible bearing on your final opinions?
    Were you students aware of the many lists of liberal scams and frauds on the net if you were to Google scamslist or similar terms?
    Get information from SEVERAL places before jumping to any quick and final mindset about good and bad politics.
    I*m no teacher. Just can*t help wondering though.
    I said *Verbally* above because, obviously, if you jot any of this down, steamed liberals will be marching on the classroom with your notes in hand.
    Liberals don*t care much about teaching unless it comes well after the *proper mind set*. TG

41. We live in dangerous times. It’s not enough that we have to deal with WWIV against global Islamofascists trying to destroy us with a thousand paper cuts all the while biding their time to do it thoroughly with a nuclear bomb, but we have to deal with their Useful Idiots living among us – the moonbat quisling leftists, entrenched in the MSM, Lib/Dems and the elites that indoctrinate our kids in school.
    grasshopper, not getting or agreeing to that paradigm, it’s implications or consequences is free to ask if I’m speaking “tongue in cheek” when I say we must put up the good fight. I don’t get his question and have no reply.
    Isn’t the basic question why are commercial political publications needed as supplements in schools and who approves the content?
    When I was growing up the province of religion and politics belonged at our dinner table or church. It’s wasn’t the job of public school teachers to stick their nose into our family’s belief system.
    If a relgious book is misplaced at school so is a political publication particularly if its leanings are at variance with what you don’t want your kids exposed to.

42. It was interesting that the teacher that blogged this entry said teachers “just don’t care”. On a previous blog I related many medical “misadventures” that I was all too familiar with, and a blogger said that these were medical errors, and not due to the system. Did anyone ever think that those doctors and teachers that DO care, are in a day to day survival mode. In my practice the most stressed of any group were the teachers that I perceived cared deeply about the children.

43. I�ve taught in Canada for over three decades. Things are drastically different from what they were. Briefly, in 2006, teachers are serfs. We have all the responsibilities of professionals, including, these days, the responsibilities of the parents who won�t assume them. (But the Charter�and the boards and unions�support the kids� rights. Teachers� rights? What are they?) Our overlords, administration, say they put literacy first. No way: They have a political agenda. Conveniently, most boards have no protocols whereby problems with administration�e.g., accountability�can be addressed.
    The politically driven agenda of the public boards is a travesty. Teachers who want to actually teach the basics are hampered at every turn. Our timetables look like Swiss cheese�full of non-essential or PC drivel, rather than real learning. Teachers who have the temerity to question, out loud, the diktats of the politburo are usually summarily dealt with�no appeal.
    It seems that teachers who toe the liberal party line can spout off in class as much as they like. (I wore my Bush-Cheney button on the INSIDE of my jacket in November, 2004. The teacher in the next room openly attacked Bush.)
    A minuscule number of teachers is aware of the true stakes: Large numbers are pretty brainwashed themselves. And it�s certainly true that most teachers are rather sheep like. (Considering the wolves who have charge of us, this may sometimes be forgiveable.) However, the sensitive ones, the TRUE teachers vs the impostors–even those who are politically liberal–quite detest the decrepit, political system in which we find ourselves.
    The underlying rot is spiritual and ethical. However, most of the systemic problems are in the hands of the politicians. Until provincial Education Acts are changed, even the most despicable of toady administrators are REQUIRED to uphold reprehensible policies. And, anathema though these policies are to us, and though we try to find ways around them–often valiantly, sustaining severe penalties–conscientious teachers are like mice surrounded by traps.

44. Al, I didn’t see your post until after I’d posted mine.
    It’s altogether true that real teachers, who truly care for their students, are altogether stressed out because besides TEACHING IN the system, we’re obligtaed to FIGHT AGAINST it. The angst and energy to do the latter is huge–and debilitating. Instead of being supported in our efforts to serve the authentic needs of our students, administration seems to derive some perverse satisfaction in putting us down.
    “Day to day survival mode”: authentic words, Al. You know where many of us are at. Many, many thanks.

45. I didn’t really see the “teachers don’t care” comment to be referring to the kids. I more thought it was referring to the propaganda. But I could be wrong.
    What I get out of this post is that the real issue is business in the classroom. Oil companies who want to donate classroom materials (computers etc) often must funnel them through a “friends of” type group lest the kids become anointed with oil. From this it looks like Maclean’s is donating classroom materials — cut rate magazines. The kids are then anointed with whatever effluent emanates from there.
    Capitalist oil bad. Socialist media good.
    The kids are pons, stuck between 2 worldviews who have irreconcilable differences. And as so often happens, their opinion of the one is being poisoned by the bad mouthing spouse with the hot shot lawyer who uses those youngsters to land a tidy profit.

46. Sorry, Penny �
    I misread you. But regarding the article, I still haven�t seen anything that tells us how it is being presented. To be honest, I should have kept my nose out of this thread � I haven�t even read the article. My apologies for that. In any event, if it is a no-holds-barred attack on Bush, I too would be appalled to learn that it is being put forth as the truth and not as a heavily slanted opinion piece.
    Free �
    Like you, I would describe myself as freedom loving (though it sounds to me eerily like something we might hear in a political speech), but probably not �commie hating�. The latter may set our ideologies apart a little. Are there still commie subversives?

47. “Somehow I suspect my teacher’s union wouldn’t appreciate my concern for Canada’s quality of education.”
    Of course not if they did they would allow performance evaluations about whether or not they are actually teaching anything. Unions are about job securtity more money all other conditions secondary. In most cases i don’t care but when it comes to my children it pisses me off that they are so blatant about not caring.
    I expect the same from day care workers if they ever get the leftwing soviet style plan in place.
    Because concern for children is last priority for lefties.

48. When I was a hippy, living in a big city, and spending a lot of time in a downtown bar (my then boyfriend liked his beer), I spent a lot of time in said bar with daycare activists/workers. ‘Guess what side of the political spectrum they were on? Yup. Radical lefties, feminists, and lesbians. Many of them were single moms (I wonder who took care of their kids?)
    That’s one of the many reasons my husband and I, at great financial sacrifice to our family, decided that I would stay home (well, sort of: I did a lot of volunteer work in my community) to care for our children. We wanted them to learn and internalize our values, not the values of their babysitter or daycare worker.
    It amazes me how few people worry/think about the influence the person taking care of their children has over them. They’re with them after all, about eight hours a day, far longer than the parent(s). Kids don’t respond well to revolving-door care, something we’re discovering AFTER THE FACT, in classrooms stuffed to the gills with unattentive, impolite, and unsocialized kids. When kids spend all day with adults who are also caring for five or six other kids (which translates into very little or no one-on-one child/adult interaction), where the vast majority of their interactions are with their peers, they stop “hearing” adult voices.
    In the classes I teach, I’m seeing kids who just don’t react when an adult has something to say to them. They simply keep on talking to whomever they’re conversing with, even when lights are turned off, hands are clapped, or I just plain resort to yelling to get their attention (last resort).
    It’s actually chilling. These kids aren’t necessarily “bad,” they just aren’t “there.”

49. Hey, Macleans has Mark Steyn and Paul Wells in it. Can’t be all that bad.

50. What chance do you think there is that they’ll choose something from Steyn for the next In-class Program? Zero to none?