More options for children and parents:

Two of my son's cousins are engaged in competitive hockey and downhill skiing. They are not even in their teens yet. They have to have specialized school course schedules to allow all the practices, some of which occur during normal school days.
My, how thing have changed. As far as I'm concerned, for the better.

Cheers - Mike

A new bill soon to be passed in the Albert Legislature will require schools to notify parents in advance about subject matter that deals explicitly with religion, sexuality or sexual orientation. Parents have an option to remove their child from such discussions. Some people are a little upset by it, indicating that a public school should be allowed to teach whatever they like and not have to consider the beliefs and teachings of parents. I believe they do have to take parental beliefs into consideration.

Here is a one-sided view from the CBC:
Evolution classes optional under proposed Alberta law

Devin Johnson in Manitoba said in a long blog regarding this topic that, "While it is true that parents can and should play a role in curriculum development, it is equally true that academics, scientists, and educators are uniquely positioned to know what content is most helpful to the intellectual development of students".
I disagree. That is the old model, which is gone, washed up and laid to rest. The problem is that not all "educators" know it yet.
It is the students who are driving content now. What a concept, eh!
Oh, the basic 3 R's are still there of course but there is a lot of forward thinking taking place now. Intellectual development is just one aspect of the whole, which seems to leave out physical development for instance. There are many other influences (mentors, advisors, leaders, situations, trips, etc) which help a student's Intellectual development other than academics, scientists, and educators.
I'll get into the "new" content in another blog, but here is a teaser:
paradigm shift

I laud the government for having the fortitude to go ahead with this bill.

Update:
This statement was made on May 11/09:
"The provincial government has no plans to alter or abandon controversial changes to the Human Rights Act now being considered by MLAs, Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett said Monday."
Story here.

Update 09/05/15
Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett says he's more sure now than he was two weeks ago that he's doing the right thing by enshrining parental rights in Alberta's Human Rights Act. See the Edmonton Journal story here.

Cheers - Mike

By mentality, I mean thinking instead of reacting.
Computer role playing games, racing games, Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Wii Fit really help those who play develop amazing dexterity and hand-eye coordination. They are faster noticing things, but in my experience seem to be slower focusing on a subject in real life. Multitasking in a game is great, but in real life it is not so easy.
Take a student who is learning to drive. They must know and experience how to steer, break, accelerate, signal, turn and if the vehicle is a standard shift, then they need to know how to use the clutch and shifter. This is not so easy for many students. They also have to check up to two blocks ahead, rear view mirror check, shoulder check and mirror check if turning, watch for kids, stop signs and stop lights, learn how to navigate a traffic circle and much more. A couple of "much more" items are learning how to deal with distractions and learning how to park. They must learn stopping distance based on road conditions, speed, tires, vehicle weight, balance, center of gravity, wide or narrow track, and whether a hard stop is in a straight line or in a turn.

Well now I'm on a driver education topic, so I'll end this topic and start a driver ed topic, which will be to do with driver distraction variables.

Cheers - Mike

There seems to be a whole new emphasis on "critical thinking". What is critical thinking? Well, to quote Wikipedia - ok, the explanation is so long it cannot be quoted. You can read it here though. An organization called, The Foundation and Center for Critical Thinking is an interesting resource. Unfortunately there is no clear cut definition of "critical thinking" there. There is talk of concepts though. Then they go on to ask, "Why Critical Thinking?".

"Critical Thinking" appears to be another hobby horse or band-wagon that people are jumping on, without a clear understanding of what it is.
Teachers are saying, oh yes, we must teach critical thinking. Really. Just how are they doing that? Is each teacher interpreting guidelines and going from there? Is there any uniformity across schools? Are teachers using their own experiences or are they actually using government provided instructional materials? Do they interpret the materials and teach from the interpretation? Do they not critically think about the materials and teach using the materials as gospel?

An interesting exercise provided at the Foundation website involves the topic of Grammar. Learning grammar at a young age hasn't changed, but learning grammar from literature is mentioned. You can go here for the actual model being illustrated.

The basics of thinking of any subject really hasn't changed much over the years. It seems that investigation, analysis, critique, problem-solving, summation and reporting have a new wrapper called critical thinking.

Oh I know, critical thinking proponents believe that critical thinking implies a host of attributes, and I quote from the Foundation website:
"Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness..."

Also from the Foundation website, dimensions of critical thinking:

1. The analysis of thought
2. The assessment of thought
3. The dispositions of thought
4. The skills and abilities of thought
5. The obstacles or barriers to critical thought

I would like to be shown just one teacher who can teach these points.

Instead, let's start small with role-specific critical thinking. But before we do, please have a look at this website from Saskatchewan Education which defines critical thinking better than anything else I've found.
The article is called Critical and Creative Thinking. Click on the title to go there.
They include Creative Thinking as part of the whole. Brilliant!
Their definition is: "Critical and Creative Thinking can be described as qualities of good thinking processes and as types of thinking. Creative thinking is generally considered to be involved with the creation or generation of ideas, processes, experiences or objects; critical thinking is concerned with their evaluation."

Going back to role-specific critical thinking, it is explained very well in the same article, "While critical and creative thinking may contain some common elements, they also take unique forms in unique areas of study. For example, critical thinking in mathematics does not necessarily involve the same mixture of knowledge, skills and processes as critical thinking in social studies or the arts. The criteria for good critical or creative thought in an area of knowledge depends upon the methods developed in that area for establishing the truth of its claims. This implies, then, that being able to think critically about literature is no guarantee that one will also be capable of critical and creative reflection using the concepts and principles of algebra as subject matter..."
There is much more there of course and I believe the article is a very important forward-thinking concept.

Here is more from Canadian sources:

Waterloo University Library - Critical Thinking and the Internet
University of Victoria - Critical Thinking Skills
How the Teacher's Role is Changing very good short brief
Many links here: Educational Theory and cooperative learning
And, because not all kids learn the same way, Learning Styles, Modalities and Strategies
You will probably notice that some of the links above are all on one website, that of Priscilla Theroux, a Teacher in Alberta. Here is a link to her home page. There is much more to see there for teachers.

There used to be an old saw about newspapers, "you can only believe half of what you read". The internet is worse.
There are millions of websites to browse in your search for "critical thinking", however there is a lot of junk there too. Be careful, think while browsing.

Cheers - Mike

PS: the story about Religion, Sexuality and Sexual orientation has an update. Sounds like a little critical thinking is needed by some the the folks who left comments.