Year Round Schooling

A debate that keeps coming back: Year round schooling. Experts regularly ask for year round schooling in Ontario. This is a practise in other parts of the world. As a teacher of over 30 years, I have to ask who would want to be in a school that is not air conditioned during one of our heat waves and we do have them in July and August. Most countries that have year round schooling do not experience the extremes of temperature that we do or they have air conditioning in their schools. An article in today's Toronto Star mentioned a school in Peel that has been using the year round system for 4 years. Based on the name of the school, Roberta Bondar, this is a school that was built with air conditioning. I have worked and taught in schools with no air conditioning; there is nothing that reduces learning more than extreme heat. The cost of refurbishing our older schools would be cost prohibitive.

The author of the article also mentions that he believes that students stop learning in mid-May and effectively are not learning for 6 months of the year. I would have to say that is true if school activities and teachers appear to present an attitude that it is now play time and students are programmed to participate in many fun activities. Trips, play days and many activities are planned for the end of May and June which suggest to students that learning at this time is not as important. I have had the opportunity to work at the high level after working at the grade 7 and 8 level and learning definitely does not fall off at the high school level because students have exams and summatives to complete and study for. Perhaps, students at the elementary level need similar incentives to keep learning?

I also wonder why this issue is only a concern for students in elementary school. High school students have the same break. Is it because some of them work at summer jobs to finance post secondary education that we do not express the same concern? There does not seem to be a concern about the fact that post secondary students have a 4 month break. Does the brain function differently at a certain age and we no longer forget?

Raccoons

Raccoons are thriving and an important part of the urban ecosystem. Unlike their rural cousins, urban raccoons are plump and furry and expert at garbage-tipping. They are an adaptable squatter in buildings both abandoned and as homeowners know occupied. A friend had her front porch come crashing down when the weight of the resident raccoons caused the ceiling to collapse.

Mart Gross , a senior professor of conservation biology at the University of Toronto states that Raccoons are "an important part of the ecosystem and deserve the same protection as any wild species." Gross has come to realize the conservation groups do not recognize evolution and their view of the ecosystem is static. He points out that the planet is doing wheat it has always done. Changing. That we've played such a significant role in that is secondary to the fact that , as always, the planet will be more hospitable to some species than others. As Darwin would have said, let the strong or best suited-survive. Gross and his supporters ask Conservation biology to look forward not just backward.

I am sure that Gross' theories will cause many to consider the argument that some species are endangered because of human activity but we must allow for change. However, adapting his theories gives humans license to continue the destruction of habitat without thought of the species that thrive and depend on particular natural conditions.

Waterfront

We live on a lake which is gradually disappearing. I don't mean that the lake is evaporating; it is disappearing from view because we have politicians who do not seem to have a problem with more and more condominiums and businesses building right up to the lakefront. Thse are not squat buildings that might allow us to retain some view of the lake. Take a look at the Harbour masters building- the harbour master has no view of the lake.

The latest project that I noticed being protested is a condominium slated for the east end of Toronto. Residents are trying to stop it but without proper zoning on the part of the city this will probably go through just like all the unfortunate projects in the city right now.

A project that is supposed to help the lake is taking down a section of the Gardiner Expressway. This is a disaster waiting to happen. As someone has suggested, block off the section to be taken down and observe what happens to city traffic. It won't help the lake which is not even near the Gardiner at this point. Taking down the Gardiner will only mean that drivers and others will now see the base of all the buildings that have been built by the shore line and traffic congestion in the area will be terrible. The lake is gone.

Where is the will to save the lake for the people? Other cities seem to be able to remember their natural wonders,why can't Toronto?

Toronto City Hall Art Show

For those Toronto residents who don't have a cottage and would like an art fix, take time this weekend to go and visit the 47th Annual Toronto City Hall Art Show. It is well worth the visit. http://www.torontooutdoorart.org/

I spent a couple hours visiting the various booths and helping a friend in her booth. Line Dufour and I met over 30 years ago while we both worked for Chargex, one of the first all -purpose credit cards. Stores used to have their own cards and then in the late 60's Chargex and Bank America issued credit cards. It was a real innovation. Many people did not have cards in those days and bank machines were just being introduced.

Many years later, Line is a tapestry artist and one of the many talented people exhibiting at the show. She taught me how to knit my scarves with the new style that I have adopted. Wonderful, what you can learn from friends and talented people.

I am Rich

I am rich beyond my wildest dreams. All I have to do is answer one of those e-mails from the Ivory coast, Nigeria, Liberia, or a similar African nation. Once I have given my personal information including my bank account, I will receive untold riches. Yesterday, I was told that some money was being held under the auspices of the United Nations as proposed by Kofiee Anan, (apoligize for the possibly incorrect spelling) former Secretary General of the United Natins.

How do these people find the e-mail addresses and why is there such a surge in postings? There must be people who are naive enough to respond otherwise these e-mails would not persist. How can people be so gullible?

One of my e-mail accounts receives on average 5 postings a day. I am tempted to go and set up a bank account with $5 in it and wait and see how long it takes for the money to be removed. I am not likely to do this because I really do not want to reveal more personal information about myself to absolute strangers and then discover that I have become victim to the other rising crime, identity theft.

The other scam which seems to be on the rise right now is false postings by supposed financial institutions. I need to respond to the e-mail and verify my account information. Wonder how long it would take the scam artist to remove the funds in the account and proceed to pretend to be me and absolutely destroy my financial credibility?

Amazing that these schemes work!

Summerlicious

Last winter, I had my first experience with Winterlicious and since then I also enjoyed Summerlicious. For those of you have not had a chance to participate in this experience for about 2 weeks in the summer and winter, a number of restaurants in Toronto which are not part of chain restaurants offer special meals to attract people who might have wanted to visit the restaurant. These are usually restaurants that have received very good reviews on at least two of the rating organizations like Zagat. At lunch, the meals are $15 or $20 for 3 courses- usually there are 3 choices of appetizers, 3 main courses and 3 desserts. For dinner, the price is $25 or $35, a bargain for places that usually cost $100 to $150 for two people with a glass of wine.

This afternoon, I had a chance to enjoy the food and ambiance at Canoe one of the most sought after locations for the liciouses. You need an American Express card so that you can get to the front of the line and make a reservation for Canoe before others. After trying for an hour and half on and off- did not have redial on the phone that I was using so it too some effort, I managed to connect and get a reservation for today at 2:30. Since I had managed to get a time, I decided that I should go for broke and ask for a reservation for a party of 6. It worked and I found 5 people to come with me. What a lovely afternoon!

We had exquisite appetizers- I had a shrimp and marscapon pate, sea bass with couscous with chili and ginger for the main and for dessert a chocolate truffle cake with toasted almond ice cream and white chocolate to top it!. Yes, this was all heavenly and the staff was very attentive. A wonderful time was had by all. We all agreed that we should do this again.

I can hardly wait for Winterlicious but in the meantime, I am going out for dinner tomorrow evening and then lunch next week. Life is good!

Teach the World to Sing

I was just wandering around the world wide web checking out some things like authors who I am reading to see if they have some other books that I might enjoy during the summer heat. Just finished a book by Nancy Martin, part of the Blackbird Sisters Mysteries, definitely summer reading. Nothing that is going to tax my mind during the heat. It is hot today; I was happy to get off the tennis court this morning.

On the Book Tarts' blog, I found a reference to a commercial that we all found touching many years ago. Definitely worth a listen and maybe someday, we can all join in song.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GAgh86j5alI