Thoughts on culture, education, and having been a Canadian in the US

One of the highlights of our class trips to Ottawa is always our visit to Parliament. For the last several years, though, our students have been unable to see the amazing Parliamentary Library. This past year, however, it was finally open again after years of being closed to the public while it was being restored.

This fascinating documentary from CBC’s The National follows the unbelievably complex project that has helped to save this building for future generations. It’s well worth seeing and I’ll be making sure that my students watch this before our next visit to Ottawa.

From today’s NY Times:

The World’s Best Candy Bars? English, of Course – New York Times:

Bryn Dyment, a Web developer in the Bay Area who grew up in Canada, said he was shocked when his parents took him to a candy counter in the United States. He found out that not every child in the world was eating the same chocolate bars he was.

“You get in these religious arguments with people,” he said. “I haven’t met a Canadian who likes a Hershey bar, but Americans think you’re crazy when you say that, because they think everyone loves a Hershey bar.”

Needless to say, while we were in Canada last week we brought back a few Coffee Crisps and an Aero bar or two. I completely agree with what this article says too about Dairy Milk bars (my fave is the Fruit and Nut one). There’s no comparison. I should also point out that in Canada (and maybe the UK?) we call candy bars “chocolate bars.” Ask someone for a candy bar and they may not know what you’re talking about.

I should point out to all you chocolate lovers out there that there are a few companies that export Canadian chocolate bars to people in the US. Were we not so close to the border, I expect we’d be using them on a regular basis!

Woohoo!

Burlington Free Press.com | Top Stories :

Cowabunga! Springfield, Vt., chosen to host “The Simpsons Movie” premiere

Springfield, Vt. has been chosen to host “The Simpsons Movie” July 21 premiere — beating out 13 other Springfields from around the country for the honor.

Two weeks ago I was at the EdMedia conference in Vancouver, BC. Prior to one of the keynote addresses, the American man who appeared to be one of the main organizers of the conference made the announcement that two attendees who needed emergency surgery the previous day were doing fine and recovering nicely. “The medical system in Canada is quite good,” he told the crowd of about five hundred people, “even though they have socialized medicine.” Aside from the fact that this person was insulting the host city and country of the conference, I was even more shocked by the ignorance of this man who seemed completely unaware of what things are like in the rest of the world.

I wonder how we would react to Michael Moore’s Sicko? Perhaps in the same way Lou Dobbs does at the end of this clip of Moore’s appearance on CNN last night.

Meanwhile, Michael Moore blasted Wolf Blitzer, CNN, and the mainstream media last night for their treatment of his film and his argument. Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s report that precedes the interview talks about Moore “fudging facts,” something Moore completely disproves today on his website. If anything Gupta’s goal of “keeping [Moore] honest” with his report, backfires completely on CNN.

This live interview with Moore is one of the best things I’ve seen on US TV in ages. I’ve posted the YouTube version here, but if you want to see something better quality make sure to watch this clip at AlterNet so that you can see the comments from Lou Dobbs and the other news anchor who clearly show their own biases and just how much they don’t get it. The last part is missing from all the other clips I’ve seen of this floating around the internet.

(I first found out about the CNN appearance earlier today on AlterNet, which may well have been the first major blog to cover this story)

Apparently there’s more to come today on CNN, including an appearance with Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Larry King Live. I can hardly wait!

After a great time and successful presentation at the EdMedia 2007 conference in Vancouver and a few days off with family in beautiful Montreal, I’m back at the office today and focusing on making July my most productive month in a long time. So, I’ll be blogging less frequently than usual (I hope) and keeping my eyes on the clock and my growing book manuscript.

That said, it’s always hard to turn down opportunities that tie in with my teaching and research interests. The morning after my return to Montreal last week, I had a chance to stop by Charlie Rathbone‘s great grad course on “Current Directions in Curriculum and Instruction” (you can check out the course wiki here). I was there to talk to the students about my use of blogs and podcasts in my teaching and I was impressed by the students’ comments and questions on these topics.

One of the things I talked about was the importance of modeling the use of these technologies. It helps tremendously when trying to persuade others of what great tools blogs and podcasts can be if they can see you using these media at the same time. Little did I know that Charlie himself was planning to create a podcast about my visit there. What a great example of how we might think about using podcasts in the classroom!

Take a quick listen to the resulting podcast, created simply by passing around an iPod equipped with an iTalk microphone and a bit of post-production by Charlie using Garageband. I think I’m going to have to try this with my upcoming freshman seminar, English 005: From Pucks to Parliament: Exploring Canada’s Cultural Landscape.

In his neverending quest to get more students to take Canadian Studies courses, Paul ponders the ethics of posting this news on his blog…

Interesting to see First Nations activists taking to YouTube to bring attention to their very just cause in conjunction with the June 29 National Day of Action in Canada which will see people across Canada protesting the continued shameful treatment of First Nations people.

This set of three videos on YouTube, which seem aimed more to an American audience than to Canadians, is well worth watching. Please pass it along to others.

Long Train of Abuses (part 1)

Long Train of Abuses (part 2)

Long Train of Abuses (part 3)

Interestingly, I see YouTube links from the Assembly of First Nations website, too.

Here’s the AFN’s public service announcement about The National Day of Action. It’s a powerful thirty-second ad.

I really like what Phil Fontaine has done and admire his use of the media, including the AFN website, to get the message across that it’s long past time for Canada to work together with the First Nations to change things. I hope this use of YouTube helps to mobilize the younger generation of Canadians to demand that their government take action. Check out the What Can I Do page from the AFN site to see what you can do to help and, while you’re at it, sign the Make Poverty History petition.

Here’s a clip on YouTube of Phil Fontaine talking about the National Day of Action. This should be mandatory viewing for all Canadians.

A nice post on rob mclennan’s fab blog reprinting a piece by Richard Harrison about the late Canadian poet Riley Tench, who Richard mentioned to me in a Northwest Passages interview with him a few years back. Rob’s blog is fascinating reading, and I’m always amazed at how much he’s able to write on a regular basis. Happy to see, too, that he’ll be Writer-in-Residence later this year at the University of Alberta, in my own home and native land. He’s even started a blog on Alberta writing and has published a pretty impressive piece on the topic that I think might well become required reading for a grad seminar on prairie writing that I’ve got in the works .

[I’ve had this blog post waiting in unfinished draft mode for some time, as I’m hesitant to appear like I’m saying something like “Oh, if only they did things here like they do back in Canada.” It’s hard not to be aware constantly of the differences between the place you are and the place you are from, and I have many days where I’m thankful for all the great things that Vermont has to offer that I never would have experienced back in Edmonton. So, this argument goes both ways most of the time. In the case of the public school system in Edmonton, and Canada’s health care system, though, I hope that people here take a serious look at these examples of how we might be able to do things differently here in Vermont.]

It’s funny sometimes how you don’t value something fully until you don’t have it anymore. With all the debates about school funding here in South Burlington and the school system’s inability to fund any second language learning at the primary school level, I seem to wind up talking about the Edmonton School system on a fairly regular basis. I didn’t quite realize until I left Alberta (and as a parent of kids just entering the school system I sometimes lament what might have been had we not left) just how remarkable is the Edmonton Public School Board.

All you need to do is do a Google search on “Edmonton model” +schools and you will find articles from all over North America about school districts looking to Edmonton as model of how they might reform their school systems.

This 2006 article from MacLean’s magazine explains a few of the key differences with the Edmonton system:

Principals in the Alberta capital receive unheard-of autonomy and budgetary control, as well as the right to draw students from anywhere in the district. Once system-wide expenses for things like transportation and debt service are removed, Edmonton’s central board controls just eight per cent of revenue. The rest – 92 per cent – is spent by principals, based on priorities set by staff at each school. “You don’t have to be getting anybody’s permission down here to do stuff, you know what your level of authority is, and that’s quite a load off your back,” said McBeath, during one of his final days at the Centre for Education, the board’s electric-blue headquarters building. “In the old days – and in Canada, in most districts – the principals have to be on their knees begging somebody for something.” In exchange, principals have the responsibility to deliver the goods, as both managers and instructional leaders. That means doing what it takes to attract students, to keep them, and to graduate them at higher levels of academic achievement.



[. . . ] In Edmonton, for all its reputation as Alberta’s bastion of anti-corporate liberalism, there isn’t much taxpayer debate. The experiment in site-based budgeting and decision-making has evolved to the point where parents expect nothing less than the right to comparison shop. Even with Edmonton’s brutal winters, almost half of all students attend schools outside their neighbourhood catchment. That compares with about 20 per cent in a national survey published this November by the Kelowna, B.C.-based Society for the Advancement of Excellence in Education. That survey found that 89 per cent of parents and 77 per cent of teachers want the right to select schools – a demand, it seems, most Canadian boards aren’t meeting.

In Edmonton, families pick from a stunning array of products: schools specializing in arts, sports, sciences, advanced academics, Aboriginal culture. There are traditional schools, an all-girls school, bilingual schools from Arabic to Hebrew to Ukrainian. There are Christian schools, including three that gave up private status to join the public system. Edmonton Public has more than 81,000 students and sees itself in competition with private institutions, as well as the smaller but highly innovative Catholic board. It wants every last student, and their blessed provincial grants. Such rapaciousness has critics accusing the board of a hidden privatization agenda. “Not in Edmonton,” McBeath insists. “We absorb private schools here.”

Here are few more links to stories about the innovative “Edmonton Model,” including coverage from US states ranging from Delaware and Massachusetts to California and Hawaii.

In today’s Burlington Free Press, there is a story about ongoing discussions of creating several “magnet schools” within the Burlington School System. Those both in favour and against this possibility, might want to take a closer look at the effectiveness Edmonton model in creating a system in which “public schools can provide a choice to every parent.”

It’s not often that you hear the New York Public Library, The University of Alberta Bookstore, and The Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont mentioned in the same breath. What they all have in common, though, is that they’re all purchasers of the first few Espresso Book Machines to roll off the assembly line. Personally, I can’t wait to try this thing out, and I think I’ll be making a pilgrimage to the Northshire Bookstore as soon as they have it in place (the U of A bookstore would normally be the top of my list but I won’t be getting back home to Edmonton anytime soon).