Scrap’n and Protest'n

I mentioned the urge to blog was at an all time high so I will post just about anything that is going on these days.  This heap of shit, over 1800 lbs, has just been slowly piling up out at the farm.  Some of it has heaved up out of the ground, and I can't recall how the rest of it came to be.  All I knew was that I had to borrow a car hauler to move it away because tucked down in that load are some steel beams off a windmill or something that were well over 14 feet long.  My little trailer wasn't up to that task.  It was all organized and ready to go - too bad the price of it was terrible.  At $0.05 a pound one does not get rich in my position, but you do get rid of it.

I convinced Steve to help me.  Being retired has its many advantages such as having the bulk of most days freed up.  Plus I did him a solid by delivering a huge load of slab wood, a tonne worth anyway, and various other cuts of wood that he needs for a project.  So instead of going only one direction with a load and returning empty, any trucker worth his/her salt would go both ways full - such as myself.  We loaded it by hand, and Tyler unloaded it with the claw!

  

Up next was a civics lesson for the entire family in protesting.  Shelly and her friends got into the spirit of it all a few days ago when people got together for a good-ole-fashioned sign making party.  Then just the other night about 300 people from the education sector mostly gathered in Blyth and demonstrated in front of the Education Minister's office.  It was a pretty tame outing all in all, but we had signs and flags and a unified message that the cuts in the budget to education are too much.  It is sad that this government is sinking below the Snobelem/Harris government policies of the mid 90s.  

School enrollments' are steady, but class sizes are increasing at an unprecedented level.  As it is there will be significant job loses in September for teachers and support staff in schools, there will be decreased options for students in high school and their course selections, and class sizes will dramatically increase in high schools.  There will be less support for the most vulnerable students with exceptional needs, schools are concerned that healthy eating and nutritional programs will not be able to continue to certain locations, and the arts and humanities and tech courses will be in jeopardy.  There is also a key idea that students have to complete 4 online course credits to graduate high school.  It is terrible.  

I would suggest that the government not do these things, 

but at the very least govern from the center.

Find Efficiencies By:

1.  Scrapping EQAO testing all together

2.  Create incentives for early retirement so that younger teachers get into the profession sooner

3.  Have 1 province wide education system

4.  Institute a fee for students who do "victory laps" in high school

5.  Move most teachers into the classrooms by reducing jobs like "learning for all coaches" and such

6.  Put some pressure on Federal Gov't to offset some education costs

Education should not and can not be run like a business.  There is no commodity to trade, package and especially sell at the end of the day in schools.  Business makes widgets as cheaply as possible to sell at a maximized price.  This does not happen in schools.

Maybe not next year Shelly.  Although Shelly didn't get notification of a layoff, she did get a notification that as of now she does not have a job at the school she's worked at since 2008.  So it is back to the drawing board for her of updating a resume and applying to jobs if and when they get posted.  She is just one of many, probably 15 or 20 teachers who may be uprooted from a school that they call home.  A school that is like a tight community.  Plus these teachers may most likely not be able to apply to a job within their skill sets, because those jobs will be cut.  They won't be offered anymore.  Teachers like her coach sports and build extra curricular programs that kids otherwise would not be involved with outside of the education system.  Teachers who volunteer their time to chaperone dances, run assemblies in schools, and provide outreach to other community groups.  Teachers who are like therapists, job counselors, or social workers who troubleshoot problems outside the normal course of the school day.

I have to give credit where credit is due.  I saw a person holding a sign with the exact same or very similar message as what Molly is holding at a protest back last August....  At the time it was really relevant, but since there is a revised Health and Active Living Curriculum, the "No Sex. Ed." isn't really the case.  But it is politics; you can just say anything you want whether it is true or not.   And also the photo credits go to Laurie Hayden as I poached them from her Facebook page.