Rocket Talk: Can Sunday Subway Service Start Sooner?
Newsstand: November 19, 2009
Gender Studies Coming to a High School Near You
Please Insert Station and Try Again
The Art of Not Knowing
Many of you have likely heard about this through one of your friends' outraged Facebook status updates (or yesterday's Newsstand), but here it is for the social-network challenged: the Toronto District School Board is toying with the idea of an all-boys' school. What makes it news again? Dalton McGuinty likes the idea! No kidding! He's like Mikey…you think he'll hate it, but he's just scarfing down the ideas lately. Really, though—are you surprised? First gays, then blacks…now boys are next in line for a school that caters to their unique needs. Because obviously, people just can't learn in settings where they are forced to interact with other people. What's next, a school for girls? Well, math is pretty hard…
Technophiles, rejoice! Bandwidth throttling is OVAH! Actually, technophiles should already know that the practice isn't technically dead—it's just pining for the fjords. The CRTC handed down a ruling yesterday that limits the amount and methods of "traffic shaping" Internet providers can impose on their customers. Really, all this means is that big Red can still screw you when you seed torrents—they just have to do it to your face. And with thirty days' notice. Um, yay?
Apparently, Toronto doesn't want people running around for charity. And if they do, they need to find another date to do it, lest they have it decided for them. That's what City Hall is telling the Goodlife Fitness Toronto and the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathons, which were held three weeks apart. On Sundays. Because (heaven forfend) people shouldn't be kept from driving around in two separate areas on two weekends in one month.
Students are all up in arms about police being all up in their business at school, and they're organizing a protest today. Not to get out of class, mind you. That's totally not the reason. Hey, kid, wanna know how to get the man off your back and gain control over your life? Turn eighteen. And graduate. And get the hell off my lawn.
And finally, a bunch of sports mascots descended upon the Hospital for Sick Children yesterday to cheer up the kids (or give high fives or motion wildly at things or whatever the hell they do). Because there's nothing better than waking up from surgery and seeing a man in a smelly dinosaur costume leering at you. Just sayin'.
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Good column--entertaining, yet still able to provide an insightful perspective.
Call me crazy, but when I was in elementary school I learned most from the school's teachers and the curriculum they were held to than from talking to other six year olds.
You, my friend, totally missed out on what parts of the hamster food were tastiest and which author had the most swear-y book titles (answer: sunflower seeds and A. A. Milne).
I don't mind the marathons, even though I got very caught up in the first one and badly delayed. What I don't like is that clear, useful, and easily accessible information about the route is never available. The Scotiabank website has a nice map, but it isn't drawn for driver's to use in planning time-of-day or alternate routes.
It would be interesting that the Torontoist is taking such a harsh stance on same-sex schools, when the debate on racial-based schools was given more debate (http://torontoist.com/2007/11/torontoist_vs_t_14.php).
While I do not suggest that it's the same issue, I can see obvious similarities.
My own opinion, however, sides with the columnist -- I think students do better by interacting with a wide variety of other people, whether they be of a different gender, race or religion. But I think this issue is up to more debate than the columnist leans on.
I am somewhat confused at the throw-away comment "first gays, then blacks" that completely trivializes the realities that LGB & black students may be facing.
I came out while in high school and had the privilege to participate in forming the Triangle Program. I attended Board sponsored focus groups and spoke out in favour of creating the school for LGB students to Trustees (and in high schools around town). In all of those discussions, I always brought up the fact that I didn't need to attend a special program for LGB students - I had the support of my family and was doing just fine in a regular school. However, I was the lucky one; most of the kids around me didn't have it that easy.
I came out in 1993 when things were completely different for kids in high school who were LGB. The Toronto school board ran a support group for gay students; in the two years I went to it, half of the kids were kicked out of their homes and three committed suicide. Putting it into that context might help you understand why the Triangle Program exists.
I'm glad that you brought up this point.
Being gay in a homophobic environment (just like being black in a racist environment) is a valid educational impediment. Being male is not.
The idea of a publicly-funded boy's school, in my opinion (and it is only my opinion), trivializes programs like Triangle that, while they shouldn't have to exist, are necessary because they provide a haven from prejudice.
Thanks for the clarification. I had a feeling you didn't mean to marginalize the afro-cenric or Triangle programs.
I'm not sure how I feel about the male-centric school (or female). I really should read up on the arguments for and against it to form an opinion.
re throttling:
Does anyone know what this means:
It could be read two ways:
1. they aren't allowed to throttle the resellers.
2. they aren't allowed to throttle the resellers unless they do it to themselves too (which they do, in a way).
#2
farg.
As you might be aware, TDSB already has an all-girls school.
Anyone else frustrated about the marathon issue? A friend of mine put it best:
Source
Minor correction - should be "get the hell off my lawn," not "get the hell of my lawn." Though the latter presents a more interesting threat to children.
Good eye; everyone must've missed that earlier. Fixed.
For what it's worth, I think there's a substantial difference between making schools for LGBT, ethnicity/race, or girls and making a separate school for boys. I don't think anyone is basing the argument that there should be an all boys school on them being discriminated against. It's a different argument - basically, that boys will be better educated if they are separated. This may or may not be true but it's not about discrimination or 'protecting' a segment of society.
There's some studies that claim that single-sex schools provide a better education because boys and girls learn differently. I'm a bit skeptical of this (I'm a guy, and almost all of my friends in school were girls), but as long as parents have a choice, I don't see any real harm in this.