Wild Spring weather

Walking along the Fraser a few days ago, I was left wondering about the beauty and power of nature. I was half finished my walk when I felt a few drops of rain and I looked up. When I had started the walk the sky had been clear, the wind warm and the sun shining, so I wondered where the rain was coming from. 


When I looked up I saw a large black cloud moving up the river, hurtling over the construction of the Port Mann bridge. Suddenly the sky was black, the sun gone, the wind increased and the temperature dropped and the rain came at me straight. Within two minutes I was soaked, the wind and rain continued for at least 10 minutes and then just as suddenly, the cloud was gone, the wind stopped and the sun came out. I love the variable weather on the west coast.


The storm had come and gone within minutes but the aftermath lasted a while. As I walked home I walked around fallen branches and broken trees that a few minutes before had been whole. Life is sometimes like the storm,in a very short time we can be challenged as storms rage around and though us but we hope we come through the challenge whole. However, sometimes we are whole, but our surroundings have changed.


Although we are OK, the folks around us may need mending. I encourage you after you have been in one of the many storms that life gives us to take the time to help those in your surroundings who may need your help to get themselves whole. Unlike the trees, we can mend and with help make ourselves whole in spirit if not in body.

Reading for parents raising boys

Some interesting ideas for young parents raising boys. Happy reading (when you can find the time :-)

• http://raisingboysworld.com/

• http://www.sde.com/Downloads/TeacherResources/JimGrant/Tips_for_Teaching_boys.pdf

• http://openschoolnetwork.ca/2010/01/09/effective-teaching-practices-for-reaching-boys/

• http://www.parentingideas.com.au/Parents/Boy s

• http://www.pbs.org/parents/raisingboys /

• http://www.kidspot.com.au/Preschool-Tools-Best-books-for-raising-boys+2096+92+article.htm

• http://www.amazon.ca/Raising-Confident-Boys-Parents-Teachers/dp/1555613209

Education in Canada one of the best in the world

Canada is the second in the world with respect to its education system I know we all want to be number one in the world, but Finland is still ahead of Canada. However, according to the Conference Board of Canada, we are closing the gap between us and Finland.


Lets keep moving ahead, however the Liberals in BC do not like this kind of news, as it goes against their agenda of the destruction of the public school system. Good news from the conference board of Canada does not make its way into the press in BC very often.


The government of the day in Victoria, along with its allies want to destroy public education and have started by attacking teachers.  Unfortunately for them, teachers just continue to do the job  they are paid to do and they do it well.


The government  of BC just recently cut the funding for Adult Education going back to a user pay system.  This is counter productive and will hurt the economy of BC in the long and short run. They are also ignoring what the Conference Board said when they did this.  This is another example of  how our government is going out of its way to hurt the ones that can least fight back.

The Conference Board said in its report on Education

Canada should be concerned about its adult literacy rate. Canadians who have not been fortunate enough to acquire adequate education in school, therefore, are at risk of slipping through the cracks as adults. About 3 million adult Canadians have only Level 1 literacy and a further 4.5 million only achieve Level 2. A person with Level 1 literacy may have difficulty performing simple tasks like reading and understanding medicinal instructions. Many Level 2 adults hide their lack of broader functional literacy by tailoring their lives within narrow and simple work and life parameters.

Therefore, Canada has over 7 million adults who may lack the functional literacy to adjust to changes in the economy. Canada’s economic boom in the last 10 years has so far protected many of these people. Conference Board research shows, however, that people with low literacy skills have weaker attachments to the labour market and generally do not do well in economic downturns.

The students in Quebec are fighting the raise in tuition fees as they should—other students across Canada should be joining in this fight to keep their fees low. I think of tuition fees as taxes on students as the Universities are subsidized by the government. One of the reasons the governments fund post secondary education is that  because a post secondary education is an investment in our county’s future. An increase in tuition fees not only hurts students today by increasing the tax they pay it hurts future generations by endangering our future economic well-being. 

he following is a list of ten points that everyone should know about the student movement in Quebec to help place their struggle in its proper global context.

1)                  The issue is debt, not tuition

2)                  Striking students in Quebec are setting an example for youth across the continent

3)                  The student strike was organized through democratic means and with democratic aims

4)                  This is not an exclusively Quebecois phenomenon

5)                  Government officials and the media have been openly calling for violence and “fascist” tactics to be used against the students

6)                  Excessive state violence has been used against the students

7)                  The government supports organized crime and opposes organized students

8)                  Canada’s elites punish the people and oppose the students

9)                  The student strike is being subjected to a massive and highly successful propaganda campaign to discredit, dismiss, and demonize the students

10)               The student movement is part of a much larger emerging global movement of resistance against austerity, neoliberalism, and corrupt power

The Conference Board goes on to say that:

Canada also underperforms in the highest levels of skills attainment. Canada produces relatively few “high-end” graduates with Ph.D.s (Canada receives a "D" grade), as well as graduates in science, math, computer science, and engineering (Canada receives a "C" grade).

We need more graduates with advanced qualifications and graduates in these fields to enhance innovation and productivity growth—and ultimately to ensure a high and sustainable quality of life for all Canadians.

Some long-term structural issues are not being adequately addressed through Canada’s current approach to education and skills. To maintain its high ranking, Canadians need to have access to education and skills outside the traditional school system. Currently, Canadian employers are notably low investors in workplace training programs. And of what they do invest, only a very small percentage—less than 2 per cent—goes to basic literacy skills. As a result, the Canadian training system does not fill the skills gap for people who, for various reasons, have not acquired skills at school. Much more needs to be done in the workplace in order to improve Canada’s adult literacy rate.

Demographic change in Canada offers an opportunity to shift resources from the formal education system into the skills system. Instead, as the population of school-aged Canadians declined in the 1990s, education spending on youth kept increasing. Canada will need to shift resources into other parts of the education and skills system as demand for traditional schooling continues to decline.

Something to think about

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. -- Neils Bohr


It may be handy to know that simply dwelling upon joy, abundance, or anything else involving people, in a positive manner,  will literally draw complete strangers into your life, as if they were puppets on marionette strings.

Creating new and totally unpredictable circumstances will bring you more, more, more of whatever you were thinking about.