Today marks the first day of school. Millions of children in Ontario and Canada are going back to class, back to their teachers and subjects, back to their school routine. This is the first fall, ever, that I haven’t gone back to skool. Reflecting on the whole experience I feel a big nostalgic, even a […] More »

The drought in Northern Kenya this year is severe. Farah Olad, the Deputy Chief of Party of Education for Marginalized Children of Kenya (EMACK), an organization which works with Somali pastoral communities, tells me grey is the “color of death” in this rural region. And the whole landscape is grey: from the ground to the […] More »

Generally if I find myself awake at four in the morning, the best thing on TV is Vince Shlomi pitching the SlapChop or Billy Mays yelling at me from beyond the grave.  But this morning, I caught an unapologetic and often uncomfortably unflinching documentary on what day-to-day life in a wheelchair is like. More »

International development and foreign aid is a complicated and contentious field. A thousand different components—such as water, sanitation, food security, child care, education, infrastructure—need to be addressed simultaneously. The targeted community must be the leader of all changes. Financing must come from a sustainable source, such as partial subsidization by the community itself, to ensure […] More »

While a degree in creative writing may not top your career counsellor’s advice for a quick professional turnaround, the formal study of writing was a North American growth industry even before the recession sent more people back to school (or kept them there longer). In an anguished and incredulous Harper’s article, American writer and professor […] More »

Last week, I talked about preparing two pitches for the 2010 editorial calendar of New Mobility Magazine and I addressed one of them here. It was the one about Kyle Maynard, the limbless mixed martial arts fighter, and whether it was appropriate for him to fight at all. I argued he could do more for […] More »

Africentric education could be the key to success for a generation at risk. Some say it’s just segregation by another name. The city had been embroiled in a racially charged public debate for months leading up to that landmark night last winter. At 6 p.m. more than 200 people crowded into the Toronto District School […] More »

For at-risk youths, Pathways to Education may be a one-way ticket out of poverty. The program can be described as an “early intervention” initiative: it identifies demographically disadvantaged students and, from grade 9 onwards, guides them towards high school completion and post-secondary education through a combination of tutoring, mentoring, and scholarships. Unlike tuition freezes or […] More »

This June, York University student Fred Metallic hopes to make a bit of Canadian university history. That’s when he plans to complete the first draft of his PhD dissertation, tentatively titled “Mi’gmawei Mawio’mi: Goqwei Wejguaqamultigw?” (The English working title is “Reclaiming Mi’kmaq History and Politics: Living our Responsibilities.”) Written entirely in Mi’kmaq, it will be […] More »

Two recently announced educational institutions to be based in the Vancouver area provide an interesting view of the direction of higher education in 2006. Today, the Dalai Lama is in Vancouver to announce the establishment of the Dalai Lama Centre for Peace and Education. From the Times of India: “This is purely educational, not political,” […] More »