Young People Have No Faith in Notley

April 25, 2018 Leave a comment

We always hear about how young people tend to lean “left” and approve of more “socialistic” policies.

Unfortunately for Notley and her gang, this might not be true in Alberta.

Take a look at this table from a CBC survey. Let me know if you see anything interesting:

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That might be a bit hard to read, so let me just point out what I find interesting here.

The 18-24 year old crowd gives the Alberta NDP a pathetic 18% support on the question of which party will best be able to defend Alberta’s economic interests. That is encouraging even if our other Alberta political parties are quite bad.

Also interesting is that the only group shown here that appears to have more faith in the NDP than the UCP is the “post grad” crowd. Even then, they only beat out the UCP 42% to 38%.

For the NDP, that’s pretty sad because if they can’t count on overwhelming support from the over-educated, underpaid post-grads (who are often losers who work at universities and spend most of their lives whining for more government funding), who can they count on?

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Filed under Alberta, CMR, Education, Politics

Canadian Universities Are Like Puppy Mills

October 6, 2016 Leave a comment

The business model of Canadian universities has evolved to take in any doofus with cash, acquiesce to their ridiculous sense of entitlement to keep the tuition cheques coming, and churn out a glut of low quality (useless?) graduates. Oh yes, and devour tax money while they’re at it.

Professor Peter Bowal writes:

In more than 30 years of experience as a university professor, I have observed that threats and unsettling behaviour by students have not only increased in the last decade, they also seem to be more tolerated by the administration. The fact that universities are now opening their doors to anyone who wants a degree means that more and more students who may not be well-suited to a traditional academic environment are being welcomed.

Professors are commanded to quietly grant students the accommodations they ask for. As competition for Canadian post-secondary students has ramped up, institutions now view students as steady revenue-producing customers. Teachers are supposed to give them what they want and keep them happy.  Annual enrolment and retention targets are to be met. Discernment, rigour and discipline belong to another era.

Post-modernism and humanism have washed over our educational institutions, so that today, we cannot even agree on what inappropriate student behaviour is, much less who, if anyone, is responsible for it, and what we might do to curtail it. I offer just a few examples from my own recent experience of behaviour on by students that would not likely be considered acceptable off campus.

— Read more at National Post —

Filed under CMR, Education Tagged with , ,

Canadian Author “Impressed” by More Subsidies for Canadian Authors

July 21, 2016 Leave a comment

Without public schools forcing students to read excruciatingly awful novels like The Stone Angel on a massive scale, Canadian authors like Margaret Atwood would probably sell far fewer books.

We should remember this when we read stories about Margaret Atwood’s approval of a new Ontario government policy that will force public school students to read even more boring books by Canadian authors.

Assuming no more than self-interest, artists, like most people, will tend to welcome subsidies that benefit themselves. It’s the model of corporate welfare applied to the artistic world. When they say it will “strengthen arts and culture,” remember there is no reason to believe that “good” arts and culture will prevail as the new learning material for children. Likewise in the corporate welfare scenario, subsidies to, say, the auto industry will be claimed to “strengthen the economy and domestic industry” even though economics tells us the opposite is true.

To the extent it survives on government money, art is a welfare program. The entire process of deciding what novels should be studied in public schools is completely political and thus likely to produce bad outcomes. Sometimes you get lucky and a real treasure comes out of the system, but the results tend to be bad. By relying on the government to “strengthen arts and culture”, you can be assured the arts and culture will be get worse while kids consider drinking bleach to avoid being forced to read books like The Stone Angel.

 

 

Filed under Arts, CMR, Education, Ontario, Welfare Tagged with , , ,

Disney’s 1943 Anti-Nazi Propaganda Cartoon: Public Education in a Nutshell

June 29, 2013 Leave a comment

During World War II, there were a lot of cute propaganda cartoons made for kids.

Here is one from Disney about public education in Nazi Germany. What applies to public education under the National Socialists applies in principle to public education everywhere.

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Public education is one of the most dangerous of all government programs.

Filed under CMR, Education Tagged with , , , , ,

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