Frontier Centre

Anyone in Canada who wants to be a teacher must obtain a teaching certificate.

Nowadays most teachers must complete a Bachelor of Education degree from an accredited university or teachers college.

Increasingly, those schools that train teachers are getting poor marks from their own students and are held in low regard by other faculties on the same campus.

Instead of spending their time learning effective ways of teaching and learning, schools tend to focus on so-called progressive processes of learning.

The emphasis is on facilitating experiences, rather than providing basic knowledge.

A research associate from the Frontier Centre recently took part in a graduate level course on education foundations.

The professor allowed students to write poems and draw pictures to complete their assignments.

She also said they were free to suggest their own grade in the course.

Provincial departments of Education should explore alternative options to certify teachers.

Competition would encourage education faculties to improve their instruction.

Also, instead of tying salary increases to the completion of meaningless graduate courses, salaries should be linked to performance in the classroom.

Children need well-equipped and grounded teachers, rather than those who are allowed to set their own marks.

I’m Roger Currie. Join us again next week for more thoughts on the Frontier.

For more on education, visit our website www.fcpp.org.

Anyone in Canada who wants to be a teacher must obtain a teaching certificate.

Nowadays most teachers must complete a Bachelor of Education degree from an accredited university or teachers college.

Increasingly, those schools that train teachers are getting poor marks from their own students and are held in low regard by other faculties on the same campus.

Instead of spending their time learning effective ways of teaching and learning, schools tend to focus on so-called progressive processes of learning.

The emphasis is on facilitating experiences, rather than providing basic knowledge.

A research associate from the Frontier Centre recently took part in a graduate level course on education foundations.

The professor allowed students to write poems and draw pictures to complete their assignments.

She also said they were free to suggest their own grade in the course.

Provincial departments of Education should explore alternative options to certify teachers.

Competition would encourage education faculties to improve their instruction.

Also, instead of tying salary increases to the completion of meaningless graduate courses, salaries should be linked to performance in the classroom.

Children need well-equipped and grounded teachers, rather than those who are allowed to set their own marks.

I’m Roger Currie. Join us again next week for more thoughts on the Frontier.

For more on education, visit our website www.fcpp.org.

The majority of the world’s population now live in cities.

People leave poor rural areas hoping for a better life with more economic possibilities in urban areas.

The most successful cities are able to handle population growth and naturally expand their physical size.

Now, city planners are concerned about problems related to urban sprawl.

Some argue that cities should grow ‘upward’ rather than ‘outward’ – a policy known as Densification.

It tries to establish urban boundaries and replace private vehicles with mass transit, as well walking and cycling.

However, Densification has difficulties of its own, such as greater traffic congestion and poor air quality.

Transit can play a crucial role in moving people downtown, but it cannot effectively compete with the automobile in a city that is already spread out.

Densification is also a major factor in higher house prices.

Families with better incomes end up buying cheaper or smaller houses that could have otherwise gone to a low-income family, who may now be pushed out of housing completely.

In short, Densification reduces mobility and increases the cost of living.

I’m Roger Currie. Join us again next week for more thoughts on the Frontier.

For more on urban planning, visit our website www.fcpp.org.

The majority of the world’s population now live in cities.

People leave poor rural areas hoping for a better life with more economic possibilities in urban areas.

The most successful cities are able to handle population growth and naturally expand their physical size.

Now, city planners are concerned about problems related to urban sprawl.

Some argue that cities should grow ‘upward’ rather than ‘outward’ – a policy known as Densification.

It tries to establish urban boundaries and replace private vehicles with mass transit, as well walking and cycling.

However, Densification has difficulties of its own, such as greater traffic congestion and poor air quality.

Transit can play a crucial role in moving people downtown, but it cannot effectively compete with the automobile in a city that is already spread out.

Densification is also a major factor in higher house prices.

Families with better incomes end up buying cheaper or smaller houses that could have otherwise gone to a low-income family, who may now be pushed out of housing completely.

In short, Densification reduces mobility and increases the cost of living.

I’m Roger Currie. Join us again next week for more thoughts on the Frontier.

For more on urban planning, visit our website www.fcpp.org.

Newfoundland's Finance Minister has suddenly resigned.

He disagreed with the Premier's risky and increasingly expensive quest to have a Crown Corporation, Nalcor, build and transmit power from Muskrat Falls, Labrador, to export to the eastern seaboard states.

Ontario wasted 1.2-billion dollars by supporting, then cancelling, two generating stations.

Before that, the province offered contracts to solar power operators at a price six times the average Ontario rate, right before the cost of solar panels collapsed.

This in a province where consumers are paying off 20-billion dollars of losses on nuclear plants and power contracts.

Now Manitoba's government is flirting with financial disaster with its 34-billion dollar hydro dam building plan.

Construction cost estimates have more than doubled, while cheap shale gas in the U.S. has collapsed the power prices Manitoba Hydro can expect to receive.

Knowledgeable critics have warned consumers that their rates could end up tripling if the plan is fully implemented.

And, in B.C., consumers face a 26 percent rate hike, due to past creative accounting.

If consumers were served by private companies with shareholders' money at risk, not consumers’ or taxpayers’, fewer financially-ruinous electricity schemes by politicians would be possible.

I’m Roger Currie. Join us again next week for more thoughts on the Frontier.

For more on electricity and crown corporation policy, visit our website www.fcpp.org.

Newfoundland's Finance Minister has suddenly resigned.

He disagreed with the Premier's risky and increasingly expensive quest to have a Crown Corporation, Nalcor, build and transmit power from Muskrat Falls, Labrador, to export to the eastern seaboard states.

Ontario wasted 1.2-billion dollars by supporting, then cancelling, two generating stations.

Before that, the province offered contracts to solar power operators at a price six times the average Ontario rate, right before the cost of solar panels collapsed.

This in a province where consumers are paying off 20-billion dollars of losses on nuclear plants and power contracts.

Now Manitoba's government is flirting with financial disaster with its 34-billion dollar hydro dam building plan.

Construction cost estimates have more than doubled, while cheap shale gas in the U.S. has collapsed the power prices Manitoba Hydro can expect to receive.

Knowledgeable critics have warned consumers that their rates could end up tripling if the plan is fully implemented.

And, in B.C., consumers face a 26 percent rate hike, due to past creative accounting.

If consumers were served by private companies with shareholders' money at risk, not consumers’ or taxpayers’, fewer financially-ruinous electricity schemes by politicians would be possible.

I’m Roger Currie. Join us again next week for more thoughts on the Frontier.

For more on electricity and crown corporation policy, visit our website www.fcpp.org.

New school trustees were elected in Alberta recently, and several of them have identified class size as a major public concern.

But they and their colleagues in Manitoba and Saskatchewan should be looking at the larger picture.

If school boards would focus on how to direct funds appropriately, the issue of class size would take care of itself.

All across the region, resources are flowing into schools that are now half-empty.

If funding followed each student directly, higher enrolments would automatically mean larger budgets, and lower enrolments would mean lower budgets.

Classrooms with 40 kids or more would not exist if schools had a budget directly tied to the number of students.

Such a funding model would also mean that parents could send their children to any type of school they wish without having to pay extra for the best possible education.

Right now, some parents are paying private school fees as well as property taxes to support public schools that their kids don’t attend.

Rethinking the way we pay for education on the prairies is long overdue. It is the key to providing students with quality education.

I’m Roger Currie. Join us again next week for more thoughts on the Frontier.

For more on education, visit our website www.fcpp.org.

New school trustees were elected in Alberta recently, and several of them have identified class size as a major public concern.

But they and their colleagues in Manitoba and Saskatchewan should be looking at the larger picture.

If school boards would focus on how to direct funds appropriately, the issue of class size would take care of itself.

All across the region, resources are flowing into schools that are now half-empty.

If funding followed each student directly, higher enrolments would automatically mean larger budgets, and lower enrolments would mean lower budgets.

Classrooms with 40 kids or more would not exist if schools had a budget directly tied to the number of students.

Such a funding model would also mean that parents could send their children to any type of school they wish without having to pay extra for the best possible education.

Right now, some parents are paying private school fees as well as property taxes to support public schools that their kids don’t attend.

Rethinking the way we pay for education on the prairies is long overdue. It is the key to providing students with quality education.

I’m Roger Currie. Join us again next week for more thoughts on the Frontier.

For more on education, visit our website www.fcpp.org.

Environmental extremists like the public to believe that the debate over the oil sands is a choice between economic rewards or a healthy environment.

But Canada and Alberta can have both. The oil sands are being developed in a responsible way.

Only three percent of the surface area is minable, and only a fraction of that is being dug up. The land is restored after mining operations are finished.

Steam-assisted gravity drainage is used whenever possible, with a relatively small environmental impact because it involves no mining at all.

Activists say the oil sands are a major contributor to climate change.

The truth is, Canada only generates about 2 percent of global emissions of greenhouse gases, and less than 8 percent of that comes from the oil sands.

The public is told that oil-sands operations require huge amounts of fresh water.

The truth is, the city of Toronto consumes more than twice as much water, and up to 95 percent of the water used by the oil sands is recycled.

The oil sands employ thousands of people and provide much needed energy.

Canadians cannot afford to allow the propaganda being put out by extremists to go unchallenged.

I’m Roger Currie. Join us again next week for more thoughts on the Frontier.

For more on energy and the environment, visit our website www.fcpp.org.

Environmental extremists like the public to believe that the debate over the oil sands is a choice between economic rewards or a healthy environment.

But Canada and Alberta can have both. The oil sands are being developed in a responsible way.

Only three percent of the surface area is minable, and only a fraction of that is being dug up. The land is restored after mining operations are finished.

Steam-assisted gravity drainage is used whenever possible, with a relatively small environmental impact because it involves no mining at all.

Activists say the oil sands are a major contributor to climate change.

The truth is, Canada only generates about 2 percent of global emissions of greenhouse gases, and less than 8 percent of that comes from the oil sands.

The public is told that oil-sands operations require huge amounts of fresh water.

The truth is, the city of Toronto consumes more than twice as much water, and up to 95 percent of the water used by the oil sands is recycled.

The oil sands employ thousands of people and provide much needed energy.

Canadians cannot afford to allow the propaganda being put out by extremists to go unchallenged.

I’m Roger Currie. Join us again next week for more thoughts on the Frontier.

For more on energy and the environment, visit our website www.fcpp.org.