Robert Paterson's Weblog

Ban Homework!

Chris unschools (Nice links here) - I hope if I ever have grandkids that they will be unschooled as well.

Today he joins the call as I do to ban homework - check out Time magazine on the topic

Here are Chris' 4 points:

There are four other reason why homework would be banned at my house.

1. They learn nothing from doing it. It is not homework that reinforces an idea or a skill, it is developing a passion for something and then having the time to follow it through that does the trick. Homework is a waste of time.

2. Schools already steal six hours or more a day from a child’s life. If they can’t do what they need to do in six hours, it is not my child’s responsibility to gives them more time. It seems to me that homework is not for kids to learn, it’s for schools to shift the responsibility. Teachers don’t get marked on how useful classroom time is, but kids get marked on whether they did their homework or not. That means a lot of classroom stuff that isn’t working is allowed to continue as long as kids do their homework.

3. Homework is an infringemnent on family time. Many of the big media that would otherwise say that homework is important also decry the fact that kids aren’t spending enough time talking with their families. It is not possible to create an atmosphere of deep family connection when parents and the kids are all working three or four hours a night at home. You need many hours together, playing games, reading books, fixing the house together, going to movies, conversing and cooking for friends to have a healthy and balanced family life. Being together only on weekends is like getting a two day pass from prison.

4. Homework robs children of the time they need to develop real skills and passions. When I was in school for example, I taught myself music theory and theology during my grade 11 year. I wasn’t taking either of these subjects at school, and I set aside a lot of homework to learn them. I failed several exams at Christmas 1985 because instead of studying, I was writing four part harmony arrangments of Queen songs and reading Martin Buber. Both of those experiences have stayed with me long after I can even remember what classes I took at school that year, and both continue to be useful in my life.

So, as we enter another “school year” my radical proposal is that those of you who want that time back with your kids, claim it back.  And once you’ve gone a year without homework, it might give you the steel to rise up next year and opt out of standardized testing (which in British Columbia you can do, you know…with the support of teachers too, who really know the costs of this stuff).

And don’t forget parents, you need to set the example.  Leave work at work!  It’s no good having kids come home expecting some family time and have you under house arrest by your boss too!

The real cost of Homeland Security - An Opportunity for Canada

3 months ago my son returning from a business trip to Europe and connecting via the US missed his connecting flight even though he had a 3 hour window. The reason? The interminable security. He personally had not problem. It was just endless. This week my god daughter who has an American mother was denied boarding on her flight to see her Granny to the US as she only had an English passport. I suspect that one of the reasons why our Tourism is so bad this year is that crossing the border has become a nightmare.

So for white middle class folks crossing the border is becoming very difficult. But what if you were Indian, Chinese or from Pakistan. What would it be like to be not white? What does it mean for the USA and for others if gaining entry into the US is a humiliating & uncertain endeavor?

Until recently the best and the brightest of the young of the world saw the US as the destination. "An astounding 60 percent of the top science students in the US and 65 percent of the top math students are children of immigrants mainly from India and China", says a new study of graduate schools.

Much of the lead that the US has in technology is driven by its past attraction for immigrants. But now the corner has been turned - "Anderson said due to denials of high-skilled employment visa applications which doubled in recent years, fewer international students are seeking admission into US universities. For the fall 2004 semester there is a 76 percent decline in applications from Chinese students and 58 percent from Indian students, according to a survey of 113 graduate schools by the Council of Graduate Schools."

There is a history of the value of such immigrants and refugees. The Huguenots, French Protestants, were driven out of France. many, speaking French came to England where they played a significant role in adding to the talent pool that took England from being a small Island off the Coast of Europe to becoming a world power.

The real cost of Homeland Security is that the best and the brightest will go elsewhere. Who wants to be treated so badly? Canada may well pick up the difference provided we are not held top ransom by the stop the immigrants lobby.

Here is what Richard Florida thinks:

"Besides their public health-care system, Canadians define their national identity in two principal ways. They support their writers, musicians,artists and performers through deliberate, longstanding cultural policies -- and they encourage and welcome immigration to a degree not seen in most other nations. Could these quintessentially Canadian traits now serve as the foundations for economic growth and national prosperity?

Surprising but true, according to our research. City-regions in Canada that are leading centres of arts and immigration are also blossoming as centres of technology-based industry -- thus following very closely the growth pattern that has been found in previous socio-economic research in the United States. That research examined why U.S. growth in industries such as computing and biotechnology was clustered in, and being driven by, certain metropolitan areas: the San Francisco-Silicon Valley area, Austin, Boston, Seattle and others.

These regions did not enjoy traditional economic advantages such as proximity to raw materials or cheap energy. Nor were they cheap places to do business. It turned out that the two most striking features they shared were a thriving arts scene (reflected statistically by high numbers of artists, writers and other "bohemians") and a highly diverse, tolerant social character -- reflected by, among other things, high numbers of immigrants. San Francisco, Austin and the rest were well known as artists' havens and open cities before they became high-tech industry hotbeds.

Why are these two features important? We found that they appear to attract, and galvanize, the people who are crucial to economic success: creative workers, the engineers and scientists who develop new products and industrial processes, and the creative businesspeople, financiers and other workers who play lead roles in the game of starting new businesses and improving the old.

Such people tend to be mobile. Having the skills and the means to live wherever they choose, they will be attracted to (or remain in) city-regions that offer the amenities and the broad "quality of place" they desire.

Field interviews in the U.S. told us that these workers seek out just the qualities we've been discussing. Being a creative and highly diverse lot themselves, they gravitate to places where all sorts of people and ideas are welcome. Thus growth comes to be driven by the city-regions that are "creative habitats" in which all forms of creativity -- arts and culture, technology and business -- flourish together.

Our recent Canadian research indicates that Canada's major city-regions are now exhibiting these dynamics. Many -- such as Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Halifax -- stack up well against U.S. regions. If policies can continue to bolster existing strengths, and add some missing pieces, the future looks bright."

Charlottetown - What it looks like

Here is an album by Wll Mattheson that gives you a good view of Charlottetown in the summer. Takes bit of time to load but is worth it

Revitalizing Downtown Charlottetown - St Henri in Montreal offers us a model

Talking about whether you would like to live in downtown Charlottetown – here is a thoughtful article about where my son lives in St Henri in Montreal.

James, along with now maybe thousand of young self employed people, lives in a converted factory along the Lachine Canal While the article is uncertain about the effect of displacement of the poor, there is no doubt that St Henri is now a vibrant place as downtown Charlottetown could become.

Have a lookat what the place looks like. Could not we do the same on lower Queen Street?

An important anchor is the Atwater market. We need a food outlet down town too – maybe when the Founder’s Hall folds we move the market in there?

The whole drive was bottom up – lofts for artist at artist rents. With a critical mass of young living there in high density, the supporting cafe’s etc came in too.

Parking - Can Whistler help us find a better way in Charlottetown?

How do we revitalize the downtown? Even at the height of summer Charlottetown has seemed dead this year.

Whistler has closed its downtown to traffic and has set up free car parks on the perimeter. Its downtown is exceptionally vibrant. People walking attract other people. So here is the challenge - can we give up the parking revenue to make downtown Charlottetown a walker's paradise?

Instead we get this - Thanks to the Guardian

New era coming for parking in capital city 

By Wayne Thibodeau, The Guardian

Paying to park in Charlottetown’s downtown core is about to undergo a radical change.

The capital city is about to remove over 400 parking meters and replace them with new pay-and-display parking kiosks.

The changes will go into effect starting next month and if successful, it will be the first step in replacing the city’s entire contingent of 800 parking meters.

Charlottetown Mayor Clifford Lee said the pay-and-display system will save the city money at the end the day and will also improve the look of the downtown as well as make it easier for snow removal.

“It’s becoming more and more difficult to get replacement parts for the meters we have now,” Lee said in an interview with The Guardian.

“This is the way most communities are going.”

Toronto and Surrey, B.C., have already launched the new pay-and-display parking system in parts of their cities.

Beginning early next month, the city of Charlottetown will be constructing parking kiosks on each block in the core of the city.

The kiosk will include a pay station much like what is current in use at the W.A. Murphy Student Centre at UPEI.

Motorists will use coins or credit cards to purchase parking time at the machine.

In return, motorists will receive a slip of paper that will have to be displayed along the front window of their vehicles.

But the new system comes with a cost.

Each pay-and-display machine costs $10,000.

The city has already purchased 34 units from a subsidiary of U.S.-based Coin-O-Matic at a total cost of $340,000. The old silver and grey meters each cost $375.