The Ontario government’s so-called Student Choice Initiative was recently declared unlawful following a court challenge launched by the Canadian Federation of Students and the York Federation of Students. The Ontario Divisional Court’s decision voids the government’s requirement that post-secondary institutions must distinguish between fees that are considered compulsory and those deemed non-essential. The directive also allowed more students to opt out of paying fees to […] … learn more→

It took me quite a while to realise that I was being bullied. Bullying in academia doesn’t look like bullying at school: I wasn’t pushed up against a wall or excluded from playtime games. But I have been shouted at in meetings. I have been sent breathtakingly critical emails, filled with ill-informed assumptions and irrational, […] … learn more→

I always had conflicting thoughts about how I deal with my students. On the one hand, they’re adults…I don’t like forcing adults to do things like handing in homework. On the other, I know the best way to learn a skill is to practice the skill, and homework forces them to do the requisite practice…but […] … learn more→

When results come out for big education tests like the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which primarily measures 15-year-old students’ knowledge and skills in reading, mathematics and science, the focus is often on which countries scored the highest. The education systems of countries that do well on this test are often portrayed as models for the […] … learn more→

Like writing a dissertation, baseball is about failure. My favourite player growing up, Ken Griffey Jr., seemed never to fail. When he stepped to the plate, you knewsomething special was about to happen. His stroke, a combination of elegance and power, sent 630 balls soaring over homerun fences: sixth most in MLB history. Gazelle-like, he turned […] … learn more→

Social media may compel consumers to experience a disconnect from reality. In recent years, people have started using social media for more than entertainment. A growing number of individuals now use it as an amateur, impromptu reporting tool. However, this raises the question: How does an innovation tech firms have introduced as entertainment shape how […] … learn more→

Disney’s Frozen has been a staple in my house since before it won an Academy Award for best animated feature in 2014. Before my girls could even talk, they were humming along to the famous “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” song. Frozen is about a fearless princess named Anna who journeys to find her sister, Elsa, whose […] … learn more→

The female-only colleges have a long history in the US education system. Dating back to the teaching seminaries of the 19th century, institutions such as Wellesley and Vassar have played their part. Attending those encouraged women to make their dreams come true in an era when it was considered almost impossible.  The US currently hosts […] … learn more→

I’ve been hearing people seriously talk about cancelling student loan debt for at least a decade, probably more. Granted, almost everyone who’s for it has student debt, and most everyone against it doesn’t have student debt, so I appreciate conflict of interest here…but this is ad hominem, there are valid reasons both for and against […] … learn more→

Like so many other parents around the world, JRR Tolkien, the famous author of The Lord of the Rings , has spent a lot of time and effort making Christmas a joy for his children. Except that it is about a man whose imagination has given life to a vast world , concealing thousands of years of legends. He has brought […] … learn more→