"change" for the better

Hello everyone! This morning I had one of those ideas that I want to throw out there and see if you and I can make work. The first thing I want you to do is take a look at your food budget. I am sure almost all of you know roughly what you spend on food per month, this is probably the one place where we all try to go as cheap as possible and will forgo our health and wellness for the sake of saving a few bucks alas I do not wish to go off on a rant about my views on nutrition for the sake of this idea. I am going to create a new facebook page, where we can document our local spending. My goal, a rather lofty one, is to re-invest 1.2 million dollars into our local economy (Comox Valley) in one year. All that is needed for this project is the dedication of 1000 Comox Valley residents to spend $100 of their monthly grocery budget at local suppliers or farms and of course farmers markets. You can also include the purchase of locally crafted soaps, candles, art and music as these are often purchased in the context of a big box store. The page will be called The Comox Valley $100 Challenge, membership is free, the only requirement for joining is that you stick with it and help us raise 1.2 million for local growers and artisans. The page can also be used as a forum for discussion on local accessibilty of produce in season and how shopping local has changed your life for the better. Lets do this!!

mark it zero

Once again CBC Radio 1 has given me a fairly important topic of discussion. This one has a very obvious knee jerk reaction response, and also a more in depth, thought provoking side of the debate. From what I have gathered from the radio broadcast a teacher at an Edmonton high school has been suspended indefinately for breaking the schools' grading policy which states that teachers are not to mark a zero for any incomplete or missing assignments. According to the schools' policy the instructor may only make a written comment of the missing work, and must grade the students for work that has been completed and handed in. Now of course this has created an uproar in the Edmonton area and also across Alberta. The phone calls and emails to the radio station pretty much echo one another. "Zero mark for zero work", "How will students be prepared for college/university if they get a free pass in high school". Noone has really looked at it from the schools point of view. The school says that a zero grade will only deplete the students' self esteem and give them no incentive to try harder. They also believe that the repeated missed assignments may be an indicator of a behavioral issue that cannot be beaten into submission by poor marks. This is the sort of outside the box thinking that many school districts are missing. Let me explain from my personal experience why I think a zero grade is just a way of the teacher saying "if you don't care, then I don't care" and why low high school grades may actually help some students choose a college education. Now I know there's a bit more to it than what I am going to cover here, but some crumbs must be left behind for chewing on later. Here's a few numbers as well. 30% of high school students in Alberta do not graduate, of the remaining 70% only 30% of those will carry on to post secondary education. So does it seem like the system is failing to you? Or am I alone on this one. To me it seems obvious that some of these kids are not getting the attention they deserve, given too many zero's over the years and they just don't give a shit anymore? Maybe a bunch of those kids have not had a single nutritious meal in the last month or two and they just can't think from the lack of brain food. Maybe they have drug or alcohol addiction in their lives and show signs of brilliance at times, but just aren't consistent in their work. When you start to open up the pages of this book and read between the lines a bit you begin to notice how deep the wound is. The system is hemmoraging and we are in the golden hour. I did ok in high school, but I worked evenings and weekends at a local restaurant so I would blow off the odd class here and their to go fishing or hang out with my girlfriend. My grades suffered and I dropped Math 12 for lack of interest. I did well in shop and physics, leadership and social studies. After graduation I felt as though I was missing some valuable courses so I enrolled in the local college and took biology and math, both of which I enjoyed and my marks were much better than what they would have been in high school, so for me those low marks I got in high school gave me the incentive to improve myself, I don't remember ever getting a zero though, low marks were enough to keep me interested without the feeling like I had been given up on. If there is a single correct answer to this debate we would have found it already. Teaching methods vary as much as learning ability and readiness. I agree that hard work deserves reward and nobody should get a free pass. I also believe we need to invest a little bit more thought into the system before we start telling kids that we don't care about the real reasons why they are having troubles getting their homework done. I know I have probably left out a few key points in this issue so feel free to give a little input into this story as it affects all of us. Thanks for reading and sharing!!!